Support Speak Up for Kids

This year, we are partnering with the Child Mind Institute’s Speak Up for Kids to provide another way that you can celebrate National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week.

More than 15 million children have a psychiatric or learning disorder in the United States alone. Less than half of them will ever get help. 

Speak Up for Kids can help.

This year during Awareness Week, we encourage you to participate in Speak Up for Kids, a free nationwide campaign to spread the word about the signs and symptoms of psychiatric and learning disorders in children and teens.  During Awareness Week (May 6-12, 2012), Speak Up for Kids connects parents and educators with local child and adolescent psychiatrists and other mental health professionals in communities across the nation, who will share their knowledge and the message that early diagnosis and treatment are key to success in school, with friends, and at home.

Speak Up for Kids Toolkit [9] with all of the materials necessary to help plan and promote a successful Speak Up for Kids talk, and can help pair your organization with local mental health professionals who can give the talk. We are also working with the Child Mind Institute to develop some advocacy tools that you can distribute to parents and educators who attend your talk to encourage them to get involved.

Visit childmind.org/speakupforkids for information about Speak Up for Kids and to preview the resources available to help plan your Speak Up for Kids talk. Contact Malorie Schecter, Public Education Manager, with any questions at all (malorie.schecter@childmind.org [10]).

Join us online to stay up to date with the campaign:

www.childmind.org/SpeakUpforKids [11]

On Facebook: www.facebook.com/SpeakUp4Kids [12]

On Twitter: @ChildMindDotOrg #speakupforkids

Partners in the Child Mind Institute’s Speak Up for Kids include the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), Parents magazine, Hunter Boot, The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA), and many others.