Yesterday I gave a presentation about the basics of mental health and how we can all keep ourselves mentally healthy in this new year. I didn’t have a lot of expectations about how the talk would go or what the reception would be, as this is a very new group and population to this kind of conversation – seniors in an independent living facility. I wasn’t sure whether this generation was ready to talk about mental health, so I approached it from the foundation of “our mental health is our feelings, thoughts, behavior patterns, and our relationships – all those intangible parts of ourselves that also require care and attention.” We talked about how to know whether what you’re feeling is okay, and how we might recognize symptoms or areas we’d like to work on – and how to do that hard but important work!
I was so pleasantly surprised by the turnout – we filled the cafeteria, probably over 50 residents came to hear what I had to say! Yes, some nodded off during my talk – one woman came up afterward to apologize for falling asleep a little, and said she “hoped she absorbed some of it”! Far and away, though, they were an engaged and open group! They asked great questions about how to support their own and their families’ mental health, including wanting to talk about the Mental Health Pyramid and their own experience with being overprescribed medications rather than being encouraged to work on some of the other important and do-it-yourself areas of mental health. We also talked about depression and grief, experiences that become more common as we age and experience more losses, including sometimes loss of identity, purpose, and motivation.
As we were wrapping up and several people came up to thank me for coming, I saw one man’s handout sheet sitting on his walker. Under the title of the talk, he had scrawled:
“Mental health – it’s okay to talk about.”
I nearly started crying for joy that this was his takeaway! I love the idea that maybe these folks felt a little more equipped to talk with their family members about what either of them might be feeling. I hope that this is the takeaway from any talk I give – that mental health is important, and it’s for all of us, and it is absolutely okay to talk about.
