COVID-19 has done a number on our mental health. Rates of symptoms of anxiety and depression in US adults has increased from 10% to 40%, substance use has increased, and quality of sleep and diet has decreased in response to the stress.

Luckily, World Mental Health Day was an opportunity for me, members of the Seattle Seawolves rugby team, and members of the Tukwila Fire Department to join together at Westfield Southcenter mall and spread awareness of the importance of mental healthcare to the shoppers in attendance that day. The best part? We were joined by Seattle Fire Department peer support therapy dog Zoe and her handler, Mike.

As mental illness can be a sensitive and vulnerable topic for many people, we wanted to keep the awareness event casual and authentic, so we opted to take a “street team” style approach. Everyone in attendance – the firefighters, the rugby players, Westfield Southcenter staff, and myself – took a handful of notecards that featured mental health quotes from How To Heal and handed them out to people we passed in the mall.

Additionally, the backs of the notecards shared information about six, Seattle-based mental health resources:

• Cascade Behavioral Health, which provides mental illness and substance abuse support through a holistic treatment approach

• Sound, which offers a variety of psychological services to children and adults at multiple Sound sites and over 200 King County schools

• Navos, which offers mental illness, addiction, and crisis support for children, families, and adults, often with same-day appointments available
• NAMI Seattle, which offers classes, support groups, events, a helpline, and more to support unmet mental health needs in the community
• Circle of Friends for Mental Health, which empowers others through the arts and runs a PTSD recovery program for veterans

• Crisis Connections, which provides a 24-hour crisis line to residents of nine Washington counties at 866-4CRISIS

At the end of the day, our goal was to let Seattle residents know that they weren’t alone in their mental health struggles and that there were individuals and organizations to support them and their loved ones on the path to healing. Over the course of two hours, almost 500 notecards were distributed, so I’d say we certainly achieved that goal.

Thank you to Westfield Southcenter, the Seattle Seawolves, the Tukwila Fire Department, and Mike and Zoe for partnering with me on this initiative!