Service in Action

By Sharayn Davis, district governor of Rotary District 6260, USA

RI President Gordon McInally encourages us to expand our culture of care and tend to each other’s mental well-being while also caring for our communities.

We can make progress towards these aims by creating welcoming environments where everyone is treated with care, respect, and dignity, and where we can talk about mental health and encourage others to seek professional help if necessary.

My Rotary district has answered the call and chosen to make mental health a focus for our members. I am the district governor for Rotary District 6360, which serves the southwest and some of the central regions of Michigan in the United States. Together with Jacquie Blackwell, the chair of District 6360’s Mental Health Steering Committee, we decided to organize a mental health literacy program for members.

We partnered with a local behavioral health clinic, Pines Behavioral Health in Coldwater, Michigan, to provide an online course in “mental health first aid.” Its purpose was to prepare participants to better identify and assist those going through a mental health crisis.

As with many forms of first aid, the course was not meant to replace qualified care – our intention was for the course to demonstrate how to give immediate assistance to those in need.

Mental Health Steering Committee Chair Jacquie expressed her hope that the course would help break the stigma around discussing mental health. “Everybody has something going on at some time,” Jacquie said. “It’s okay to talk about it. And it’s okay if this is happening to you.”

When we designed the program, we thought it would be of most help to members who live in small communities. Our district has roughly 10 clubs in a large enough metropolitan area with some mental health workers. And then we have another 40 clubs that may not necessarily have adequate access to care.

Facilitating this program for Rotary members with Pines Behavioral Health is a great example of how our Rotary clubs are focusing on mental health. Any work we can do to create an environment where we can talk about the subject with each other, increase our knowledge of the signs and symptoms of mental health issues, and get familiar with professional resources will be a positive outcome. And as a bonus, sharing our stories with others can help provide ideas of where to start, and link us together towards our common goals as Rotary members.

We invite you to share club experiences with the mental health initiative — from discussions and personal interactions to Rotary Foundation-funded projects – by writing to mindhealth@rotary.org and posting them to the Mental Health campaign in Rotary Showcase.