What are Mental Health Challenges?

Mental health refers to the state of the mind from an emotional, psychological, and social well-being standpoint. This state influences thought (thinking), perception (feeling), and behavior (acting) for every human on the planet.

Mental health challenges affect one in five humans, so you know someone experiencing a mental health challenge. These challenges make maintaining a positive outlook, interacting with the community, coping with stress, and other everyday tasks difficult.

Since some mental health challenges are a result of brain differences, they overlap with neurodivergence. People can choose to be medicated, maintain a specific lifestyle, learn coping skills, or any number of other paths.

Some examples of mental health challenges include but are not limited to:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• PTSD
• Bipolar Disorder
• Schizophrenia

Mental health challenges can be developed at any point in life, and people cope with these challenges for the rest of their lives. No one chooses mental health challenges, so remember to be kind.

Referring to People with Mental Health Challenges

Generally, people with mental health challenges prefer person-first language, like “person with PTSD.” However, if you are unsure, it is always best to ask someone who has disclosed their condition to you what their preferences are.

Mental health challenges can be stigmatized within communities, which leads to reluctance to disclose these diagnoses. It is vital to protect the privacy of anyone who has disclosed their diagnosis to you by not talking about it with others.

Creating an Accessible Environment for People with Mental Health Challenges

Low Barrier to Participation

Low barriers to participation simply means that someone can come to events and/or participate as they are. Common barriers include attendance requirements, uniform codes, and travel distances.

As an example, a chapter meeting might be held in a location outside of town. In this case, adopting a hybrid model where at least the business portion is also streamed means people with mental health challenges can still easily participate.

Alternate Routes to Participate

Another choice is including alternative routes to participation for everyone in the chapter, regardless of mental health. Options like Facebook groups, Discord servers, and newsletters that contain similar information to the meeting allows someone to still interact, but without any pressure to do it at a certain time.

Having these alternate routes benefits everyone in the chapter, even if the chapter primarily interacts in person. STARFLEET has a lot of things going on, and sometimes communication needs to be faster than a once per month meeting.

Replay Availability

Having replays, copies of agendas, and other media available for people is generally beneficial. After all, there may be many reasons someone misses a meeting! For people with mental health challenges, it lets them catch up when they’re in a better frame of mind and avoid feeling like they’ve missed something or let someone down due to their challenge.

Community Development

Community is a critical component of mental health, and STARFLEET has some awesome communities within it. Collectively, a chapter can become part of someone’s support network. However, it may require some changes.

The first step in community development to support people with mental health challenges is addressing the norms of the group. Mental health should never be used as the punchline of a joke or referred to as in a negative light. Members who do so should be pulled aside so their behavior can be pointed out privately along with the potential consequences of their actions.

The next step is cultivating a community that addresses mental health. At this stage, there’s no reason to avoid discussing it, letting people share their experience, and being a positive spot in people’s lives.

Community change can be challenging, and it may seem impossible. However, little changes add up to big ones that change people’s lives.

Trigger Warnings

Providing trigger or content warnings on sensitive subjects can be incredibly helpful for people with mental health challenges. Trigger warning should address serious topics, be applied consistently, and never mocked.

As an example, the 6th season finale of DS9 warrants a trigger warning for character death, while parts of the 7th season might have one for grief.

Feel like this guide is missing something? Let us know at sfcoa@sfi.org.

Want to know more about accessible communication? Check out Accessible Communication 101.