May is Mental Health and Wellness Awareness Month. The Bills are doing many things throughout the month to recognize and celebrate the importance of mental health.
Throughout the month, Bills team clinician and sport psychologist Dr. Desaree Festa, known as Dr. Dez at One Bills Drive, will provide a series of 'Mental Moments' to help equip everyone with tools to enhance our mental and emotional resilience.
This week's mental moment is all about gratitude. Dr. Dez believes gratitude is important because it can help improve mood, perspective, and relationships. Gratitude is acknowledging the big or small wins in your life. You can be grateful for a person, situation, or thing.
"The science of gratitude shows that it is more than a feeling, it is a habit!" Dr. Dez shared. "Focusing on what's going well instead of what's wrong can help rewire your brain for greater resilience. For example, 'I have to workout today' vs. 'I get to workout today'. A simple change in wording can reframe your experience from a demand to an opportunity you are grateful for."
Here are Dr. Dez's three strategies for gratitude:
- Each day, write down 3 things you're grateful for in your journal. The key is to be as specific as possible and avoid repeating the same things.
- To level-up your gratitude practice, express to someone why you're grateful for them. A handwritten thank-you note is a meaningful gesture. Not only does the recipient feel good while reading your note, but you also feel good while writing it.
- Mentorship and volunteering are great ways to show gratitude for your community. Paying it forward and helping others shows appreciation for the help you have received in the past and gratitude for your mentors.
Stay tuned for more 'Mental Moments' as we move through the month of May!
Resources to help
Here are links to organizations where people can find assistance to take care of their mental wellness!
BestSelf Behavioral Health
No matter how old you are, where you live in Western New York or what challenges you're facing—BestSelf Behavioral Health can provide you and your family with the innovative and evidence-based services you need, along with a personal and caring approach that will help you feel respected, valued, confident and hopeful. We are proud to offer numerous locations that provide all of the mental health and substance use disorders treatment and rehabilitation services you need.
Learn more: https://www.bestselfwny.org/
ECMC – Health Services
The Regional Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health is proud to offer mental health, psychiatric, and substance use treatment services. Our team of compassionate specialists provides care on both an inpatient and outpatient basis to best serve the needs of our community and patients.
Crisis Services
You are not alone. Crisis Services is ready to support you through moments of urgency. In addition to our main 24-Hour Crisis Hotline, you can safely and confidentially call one of our specialized Crisis Counseling Program Hotlines to best respond to your individual crisis. Free of charge, no matter what you're going through. Every Crisis Services number is ready to help.
- 24-Hour Crisis Hotline: 716-834-3131
- Buffalo & Erie County Addiction Hotline: 716-831-7007
- Kids Helpline: 716-834-1144 or 1-877-KIDS-400
- 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988
- 988 Lifeline – If you need to talk, the 988 Lifeline is here: https://988lifeline.org/
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: https://www.samhsa.gov/
Learn more: https://crisisservices.org/
Mental Health Advocates
For 60 years, Mental Health Advocates of WNY (formerly Mental Health Association of Erie County) has been deeply committed to providing essential non-clinical services that address the needs of individuals, families and communities living with mental illness.
Through awareness, education, prevention, early intervention programs and supportive services, we advocate for and actively promote mental health and wellness for adults, families and children in homes, schools and workplaces across Western New York.
Learn more: https://mhawny.org/
Let's Talk Stigma
If you're dealing with a mental health challenge, you are not alone. Approximately 1 in 5 Western New Yorkers are living with a mental health diagnosis, yet many of these people suffer in silence because of the discrimination that goes along with it. So, we're starting a conversation to end the stigma surrounding mental illness. Join us as we share our stories, our struggles and our successes. When we talk about mental health, we help everyone find their voice.
Learn more: https://letstalkstigma.org/
