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Wellness Ambassadors

Volunteers Who Lead Through Action

Help us build strong, healthy, resilient

individuals and communities.

Wellness Ambassadors are individuals who inspire their communities by modeling behavior that prioritizes mental health and emotional well-being.  They are equipped with tools and resources from Give an Hour to help themselves individually as well as encourage others to care for themselves and ask for help when needed. They are not mental health experts. They are advocates for themselves, the community, and champion the work of Give an Hour.  

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Wellness Ambassadors and counting!

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Your Wellness Path with Give an Hour

In 2015 Give an Hour launched a mental health campaign called the Campaign to Change Direction.  The Campaign encouraged everyone to pay attention to emotional wellbeing and reminds us that mental health is just as important as physical health.  As part of the campaign over 72 Million people learned the Five Signs of Emotional Suffering.

Now we are asking everyone to take their mental health goals to the next level and become Wellness Ambassadors.

We are at a crossroads when it comes to how our society addresses mental health. We know that one in five of our citizens has a diagnosable mental health condition, and that more Americans are expected to die this year by suicide than in car accidents. While many of us are comfortable acknowledging publicly our physical suffering, for which we almost always seek help, many more of us privately experience mental suffering, for which we almost never reach out.

The Campaign to Change Direction started as a mental health campaign in the United States and grew on a global level.  Everyone who joined was asked to learn and share the Five Signs of Emotional Suffering and the Healthy Habits of Emotional Wellbeing. These two copyrighted mental health tools developed at Give an Hour have become a resource for millions.  Corporations, educators, parents, employers, churches, synagogues, communities, and even government entities use these two tools to highlight the importance of mental health.

Change Direction was inspired by the discussion at the White House National Conference on Mental Health in 2013, which came on the heels of the Newtown, Conn. tragedy.

How the Campaign to Change Direction Started…

  • In 2013, Give an Hour President, Barbara Van Dahlen, Ph.D., put together a team after a conversation with staff from the Vice President’s office about the state of mental health in America following the tragic shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
  • After studying the situation and meeting for several months, the steering committee recognized that significant knowledge and numerous resources exist to address the mental health issues and concerns that affect our citizens and burden our communities, nevertheless many in need are not receiving care.
  • Despite the resources available, there is a need to improve the coordination and collaboration among stakeholders across sectors. In addition, the cultural obstacles that prevent those in need from seeking the care they deserve are significant.
  • The conclusion: to improve our nation’s overall mental health we must change our culture so that mental health is seen as an important element of the human condition — something that we all have — something that we all should pay attention to.
  • This conclusion fit well with Dr. Van Dahlen’s experiences working with the military/veteran community for nearly a decade. Our nation’s service members, veterans, and their families — like civilians — are often unable to acknowledge their mental health struggles and are often unwilling to seek care because of embarrassment, shame, or guilt.

 

GIVE AN HOUR THANKS REPRESENTATIVES FROM THE MANY ORGANIZATIONS THAT PROVIDED  ECHNICAL ASSISTANCE DURING DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAMPAIGN:

  • Google
  • Joining Forces
  • National Endowment for the Arts
  • Office of the Army Surgeon General
  • Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
  • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

320 Changes Direction

Music Changes Direction

Books Change Direction

Film Changes Direction

Corporations Change Direction

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) produced three public service announcements (PSAs) as part of a co-sponsorship agreement with Give an Hour for the Campaign to Change Direction. The PSAs are designed to:

  1. Promote public education and awareness about mental health
  2. Educate our communities about the Five Signs of Emotional Suffering
  3. Identify resources so those in need can access help
  4. Encourage compassion and support for individuals with mental health challenges

Hispanic/Latino communities (in English)

Hispanic/Latino communities (in Spanish)

Military communities, service members, veterans, and their families