The experience and advocacy of one

It is still Mental Health Awareness month, although I am catching it at the tail end. I have learned over the years, through my own personal challenges with a serious mental health condition, the importance of individual advocacy for one’s physical and mental health. With my volunteer work and training with the national mental health grassroots organization, National Alliance on Mental Illness, I became to undestand the importance of individual and community advocacy and what impact this has on larger (macro) levels of systemic change. Moreover, through my graduate education and professional work, I am even more aware of disparities that exist with underserved populations, stigma, barriers to access to services, and the need for change. Advocacy, the power of individual, and the recognition that advocacy requires grit, perservearance, consistency and never giving up hope.

In my professional experience of working with mental health non-profits, child welfare and veterans, I had aspirations of continuing to serve veterans after completing graduate school. Tomorrow I begin a full-time job working at a psychiatric hospital in Jacksonville, Florida. To get to this point, to be able to tolerate even working let alone physically standing in a mental health inpatient facility, is a feat in itself. This moment of coming full circle on the other side serving others in this role performing intakes and evaluations would never have come to fruition without my own agency and advocacy. Now I will be able to evalute with empathy and compassion of any trained social worker but with the unique perspective to know what that client may be experiencing.

Advocacy starts with any individual experiencing mental health symptoms. What began with education and empowerment, led to more calculated and challenging steps toward wellness. I learned over time that it was hard work, not just acceptance, but a non-linear process that began my journey of recovery and opened my eyes to the importance of my own voice and experiences. Advocacy looks different to every person. Some refuse any sort of help or interventions. Some cannot easily advocate for themselves and rely on external supports. Others do not have the ability to understand what challenges they are facing. Whatever version of advocacy you land on, have hope in the possibility of recovery and growth.

Advocacy now, twenty years after my diagnosis of Bipolar disorder I, is a transformative experience. Now, I have evolved in my ability to manage my illness. When I started my journey, I circled hospitals. Now, I am stable, in treatment with medication and therapy and enter a new chapter of my professional trajectory, serving others in mental health crisis at a psychiatric hospital. Advocacy can start with you, the individual. It starts with asking for help or treatment and moves forward from there. Advocacy then takes dedication and devotion. It requires that person to ask questions, to do the research and education. Then comes the additional facet, what are you capable of? What difference will you make? What can YOU do to bring about change? My own answer to that, at the 20 year mark for Mental Health Awareness Month this year, I have made my own impact. Slowly and steadily, I have arrived at a point where I can practice clinically as a social worker, with a unique perspective of someone that understands where their shoes have been.