MENTAL HEALTH QUESTIONNAIRE

1. How familiar are you with mental health conditions, how they impact the well-being of individuals, and available treatments?

1. Unfamiliar

2. Somewhat familiar

3. Moderately familiar

4. Quite familiar

5. Very familiar

2. Compared to other individuals you know fairly well, how do you rate your own personal level of self-awareness? Consider how conscious you are of your own character, feelings, motives, and desires.

1. Bottom 10%

2. Somewhat below average

3. About average

4. Somewhat above average

5. Top 10%

3. Like with physical health, everyone has some level of mental health challenges. Thinking over the last year or so, how would you rate your overall mental health? Think of factors such as your level of happiness and satisfaction, your level of functioning with normal daily activities, your relationships with family members and others, and suicidal thoughts.

1. Seriously unhealthy

2. Moderately unhealthy

3. Moderately healthy

4. Fairly healthy

5. Very healthy

6. I have moderate or serious mental illness, have been treated, and consider myself to be in recovery

7. I do not believe most mental illnesses are real

4. Considering how you rate your current mental health, how likely are you to seek out help from medical and/or mental health professionals?

1. Don’t believe I will ever seek treatment

2. Can see myself at some point seriously considering seeking treatment

3. Have seriously considered seeking treatment

4. Have already received treatment but do not expect to receive more

5. Have already received treatment and expect to receive more

MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES:

Utah Crisis Line (Dial 988)

Mobile Crisis Outreach Teams (MCOT) (Dial 988)

The SafeUT app for teens, veterans, and first responders.

Huntsman Mental Health Institute “Warm line” for nonemergencies (801.587.1055)

Receiving centers for up to 23 hours of free care;

• Huntsman Mental Health Institute Receiving Center for up to 23 hours of free care (801.583.2500)

• Intermountain Healthcare Access Centers also for up to 23 hours of free care:

- LDS Hospital (324 9th Ave, Salt Lake City, UT, 801.408.8330)

- McKay-Dee Hospital (4401 Harrison Blvd, Ogden, UT, 801.387.5543)

- St. George Regional Hospital (1380 E Medical Center Dr, St. George, UT, 435.251.4480)

• Davis Behavioral Health (380 S 200 W Farmington, UT, 801.513.2800)

• Wasatch Behavioral Health (1175 E. 300 N. Provo, UT, 801.852.2131

That was unprofessional, and how could I trust someone who oozed stigma? The office of the other therapist was in her home with the TV blaring and her children running around uncontrolled. I thought, “How could someone apparently so out of control in her own life ever help me?”

Fortunately, I didn’t stop there. I said to myself, “If I had a bad experience with a dentist, would I just let my teeth rot for the rest of my life?” I found therapists who were wonderful! I needed a few because my family and I made work moves around the country. These therapists really understood me. They were empathetic and non-judgmental. They were smart and good at their craft. They asked good questions and caused me to think in new deep ways.They helped me process painful experiences from my youth. They helped me eliminate a constant flow of negative self-talk in my head. I became a new, better, more confident man!

I believe many of you, if you haven’t already, could have this same kind of experience. It’s so exciting!

Now, these days many therapists have a waiting list. It can take months to get in. There is a therapist shortage. The pandemic with all its stressors has made things worse. My suggestion is, be patient. Also, there are other resources available. For example, NAMI Utah offers free classes and support groups led by individuals who have mental health conditions, have received help, and have gotten to better places. I’ve found these to be very helpful in my own recovery. I’ve also taught these classes and facilitated support groups.

Finding professional help is not the only barrier. From my experience, another is stigma. One may think, “I’m not crazy!

I don’t need a shrink!” “What will people think of me if I see a therapist?” or “I’m not one of those people!”

Mental health stigma has been the subject of several major academic studies. One was published in 2016 by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. It’s entitled, Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders: The Evidence for Stigma Change. My comments below draw from this.

Stigma has been broken down by scholars into three types:

• Public stigma: Stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination endorsed by the general population.

• Structural stigma: Perpetrated by government, business, and other institutions through prejudice and discriminatory policies, laws, and practices. Examples include limits on serving on juries, service in the military, or being hired after disclosures of mental health conditions that wouldn’t impact performance.

• Self-stigma: When individuals buy into and internalize negative stereotypes propagated by public and structural stigma. This leads to feelings of shame, low self-esteem and low self-efficacy.

Public stigma is often reinforced by structural stigma and structural stigma is built on self-stigma. They feed each other.

In my opinion, these three types of stigma are all built upon lies. Dirty rotten nasty lies! They come from ignorance and lack of enlightenment. They’ve built up over centuries. They are disgusting!

The first major study on stigma was in 1950. There have been several since. Academics have identified changes in attitudes that have developed over the years. Things have gone from “an extreme lack of public knowledge about the nature and causes and a deep unwillingness to discuss mental illness” to more understanding and support for treatment. However, “There is greater public awareness of the stigma associated with these disorders, but public stigma itself [has] remained high.” They found that “nearly one-third of respondents said they would not want their child to befriend a child with depression. One-half of all adult respondends said that treatment would result in discrimination and long-term negative effects on a child’s future.”

Perceptions about the dangerousness and unpredictability of people with mental disorders have increased over time. Ironically, “numerous studies have found that [people with mental illness] are at higher risk of victimization and of experiencing unfair treatment by authorities when they attempt to report crimes than people without mental illness.” The study additionally says “a review of epidemiological findings related to mental illness, gun violence, and suicide found that there is a greater relative risk of violence in people with mental illness than those without mental illness, but the risk is actually very small.”

Stop The Stigma

This last October, I participated in a conference at Snowbird entitled, “Stop Stigma Together.” It was orchestrated and funded by the Huntsman Mental Health Institute. A few years ago, the name of the University of Utah’s Neuropsychiatric Institute was changed pursuant to a $150MM contribution from the Jon M. Huntsman Sr. family. Further, and very impressively, family members are personally involved in efforts to improve mental health in Utah, the U.S. and throughout the world. Their father focused on curing cancer; their focus is on improving mental health.

Eradicating stigma is seen by them and many experts as key to improving mental health. The conference was a first step in this effort. “Our vision is a world free from stigma and suffering. We believe we can eliminate stigma forever by bringing together organizations and individuals from across the nation to address the grand challenge of mental health stigma.” David Huntsman, president and CEO of the Huntsman Foundation, and his sister, Christena Huntsman Durham, spoke at the conference. They were inspirational!

Going forward, we can all expect to see the products of this effort. For example, the Ad Council has been engaged in bringing a national mental health ad campaign. And who knows — maybe at some future time we’ll see football players wearing not pink but some color representing mental health promotion.

May I ask each of you to engage in this effort? The well-being of many could be positively impacted.

• Get educated about mental health conditions. There are many reliable sources. You may start at NAMI.org.

• Don’t tell stories, make jokes, or make comments at the expense of those of us living with mental health conditions. People are hurt by these things, yet you’ll probably never hear push-back because of the selfstigma they feel. Add this to your list of things you don’t joke about like race and ethnic backgrounds.

• Gently and kindly help educate others when they talk ignorantly.

• Seek to eradicate structural stigma from the organizations with which you have influence.

• If you live with mental health conditions, consider talking about them more with your family and close friends. Studies show this will significantly help reduce public stigma, even if you don’t open up and tell the whole world about it — like I do. Studies show that telling others may help reduce your own self-stigma.

I would be most pleased to chat with you regarding anything relating to mental health. Please start by emailing me at oa@OwenAshton.com. n

Owen Ashton, CPA, is an author, keynote speaker, mental health advocate, and UACPA lifetime member. Previously, he served on the UACPA’s executive board and as board president of NAMI Utah. He was with KPMG and Deloitte and then in the finance management of telecommunications enterprises and nonprofit organizations.

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