United Way of Northeast Florida is committed to making a positive and lasting impact in the areas of education, income and health, so that everyone in our community can experience a better quality of life.

In honor of Mental Illness Awareness Week (Oct. 5 – Oct. 11), we’d like to take a moment to focus specifically on United Way of Northeast Florida’s work in health, which strives to ensure everyone can lead a productive and engaged life.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) notes that Mental Illness Awareness Week was established by the US Congress in 1990 to increase the advocacy and education efforts surrounding a complex and often misunderstood topic.

While it’s getting easier to talk about diseases that affect large percentages of our population, mental illness is often conspicuously absent in the conversations surrounding health.

United Way is dedicated to creating a space for these conversations about mental health to occur and for people to access resources that can offer critical guidance and support. Together, with corporate, civic and community partners, we offer initiatives that are helping to improve mental and physical health for all in Northeast Florida, including:

Full Service Schools

A neighborhood-based collaborative that provides free therapeutic, health and social services. Full Service Schools provides qualified therapists to help students and their families cope with difficult situations and address mental illness in healthy ways.

2-1-1

United Way’s nationally accredited information and referral service that connects individuals with agencies in their area that may be able to provide assistance in a time of need. These agencies include those focused on providing mental health resources and services. 2-1-1 is also Northeast Florida’s suicide prevention and crisis intervention helpline, available 24/7/365 so that nobody in our community ever has to face the weight of mental illness, depression or suicidal thoughts alone.