Hope Starts With You

Our agency has been focusing on The Five Protective Factors and how they create strong families. Strong families have help with they need it. Strong families have friends and spend time with others. Strong families have knowledge about how children develop. Strong families nurture their children's social-emotional health. And strong families are resilient. Resiliency is the protective factor that is often the hardest to explain. It is the ability to overcome a challenge and come out stronger. It involves developing coping skills and maintaining hope during the challenge.

According to Elements Behavioral Health, "Individuals who have good mental health are able to bounce back from the adversity of a lost job, relationship, illness, sadness, or other setback. They see the circumstance or situation for what it is, and set about righting their emotional balance. In fact, resiliency is all about emotional balance. And you can teach yourself to become more resilient and, thus, have better mental health." Good mental health is essential for maintaining the resilience needed for strong families.

NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) has created a social campaign they call "The NAMI Effect".

Make a New Year's Resolution to spread hope this year by offering help to others, sharing your strengths with others and offering support and understanding to those caring for a loved one. In doing so, you will be helping create strong families and a healthier community for all.