Event Details

Details:

Myrtue Behavioral Health and NAMI Southwest Iowa are partnering up to honor the nationwide Mental Health Action Day on Thursday, May 16, 2024. This special day during Mental Health Awareness Month will help our community build understanding of mental health conditions and connect with ways to take action to support mental health! All events are free and open to the public.

Mental Illness Simulations and Resource Fair

Petersen Family Wellness Center | 1 PM - 4 PM | Open house style

Join us for a one of a kind immersive invitation to step inside the experience of a mental health condition. This event will feature four rooms designed to simulate depression, anxiety, ADHD, and addiction. After your roughly 5 minute simulation experience in the room, you will have the opportunity to debrief and explore with members of our Behavioral Health team.

You will also have the chance to learn about barriers to mental health support and how area resources help people overcome these barriers. Throughout the afternoon, we will host a resource fair featuring local organizations supporting mental health. These partners will be on hand to help you find practical ways you can connect yourself or a loved one with support. 

Mental Health Action Community Walk

Pioneer Park, Pine Street Shelter, Harlan | 5:30 PM - 7 PM

We will gather at Pioneer Park to celebrate our mental health heroes. At 6 pm, there will be short program featuring Chris Adcock with NAMI of Southwest Iowa who will be sharing her personal story of living with a mental health condition. Community members will also have the opportunity to decorate a sign in honor of someone living with a mental health condition or in memory of someone who lost their life to a mental illness.

Walkers will move through stations along the path where they can make self-care kits, take action to support loved ones, and learn more about caring for their own mental health. The teams at Myrtue Behavioral Health and NAMI Southwest Iowa designed the walk to be a celebration of the courage and resilience of all those navigating mental health conditions. Game Time Eats Food Truck and Tropical Sno will also be on site.

At both the afternoon and evening events, community members can create signs in honor or in memory of mental health warriors who are living with a mental health condition or who have lost their lives to mental illness. The team will place these signs along the path for the community walk.

Meet our speaker, Chris Adcock!

Chris Adcock is a leading advocate for mental health in Southwest Iowa. Diagnosed with ADHD later in life, Chris offers a profound personal perspective. As an experienced advocate and trailblazer, she has navigated the complexities of mental health—with and without diagnosis—demonstrating unwavering resilience and courage. Chris's journey, marked by a life of profound loneliness and self-blame for her anxiety and depression, underscores the challenges many face in understanding and managing their mental health. Her ADHD diagnosis, previously hidden and unrecognized, contributed to significant personal and professional struggles, including chronic underemployment, failed relationships, financial loss, and increased personal risks.

Through her candid storytelling and steadfast commitment to destigmatizing mental illness through her work at NAMI Southwest Iowa, Chris emphasizes the non-linear nature of healing. She advocates for the transformative power of sharing one's story, which continues to help her to dispel her own internal shame and unproductive pride that kept her in isolation. Instead, she encourages embracing the journey with self-compassion and huge and frequent doses of grace, recognizing that progress, frankly, isn't straightforward. Chris's message resonates deeply, empowering others to confront their challenges with strength and resilience.