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.
Why the Bills are prioritizing Mental Health and Wellness Awareness Month
The month holds weight inside One Bills Drive because players and coaches understand that mindset and the mental space is a critical aspect of the game. Bills team clinician and sport psychologist Dr. Desaree Festa, who's known around the facility as Dr. Dez, believes May is the perfect time to encourage open dialogue about our mental wellness.
"Just like it is important to exercise, get a good night's sleep, eat well, and take care of our physical bodies, it is just as important to cultivate strategies to care for our minds, our emotions, and our relationships," Festa said. "Mental wellness is foundational to how we experience life. May is a great time to take a proactive approach to optimize our mental space."
Throughout the month of May, Dr. Dez will provide a series of 'Mental Moments' to help equip everyone with tools to enhance our mental and emotional resilience. She hopes these tools can help begin anyone's mental health journey or help in finding ways to deepen mental wellness practices.
"Mental wellness is about optimizing your thoughts, emotions and connections with others," Dr. Dez shared. "Mental wellness is a journey and each step counts."
Mental Moments: Journaling
Our first step in the journey is journaling. Dr. Dez believes journaling can do many things, including managing stress.
"Journaling can be done in many different ways and is a great tool that can help manage stress, regulate emotions, and increase mental clarity," Dr. Dez said.
Journaling can be done to help process your thoughts and emotions, set daily or weekly goals or recap the events of your day.
Here's Dr. Dez's recommendations for journaling:
- For the month of May, set a goal to journal at least once a day.
- Buy a journal, get a notebook, or use the notes app in your phone.
- Sit down in a quiet place and write out your thoughts, feelings, appreciations, hopes and worries. Try not to judge what you are thinking and feeling.
- You can journal any time of day. Some people journal before bed to help with sleep, others journal in the morning to help with setting daily intentions. There is no set time requirement, just write.
- If you need ideas of journal prompts, check out this website: https://dayoneapp.com/blog/journal-prompts/
Dr. Dez says journaling helps you be still and process amidst the busy lives that so many of us keep.
"Journaling helps increase your awareness and aids in processing your thoughts and feelings," Dr. Dez said. "As a result, overtime you may feel a boost in your psychological well-being and notice the benefits of journaling."
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/
