rethinking mental health

the robert wood johnson foundation has joined forces with ashoka’s changemakers to launch “rethinking mental health: improving community wellbeing”, a competition for new ideas and practices that challenge the status quo in terms of how we think about and address mental health care needs.

the foundation invites you to join this important conversation and put forward your ideas on how individuals, families, and communities can move past narrow perceptions of mental health and expand their involvement in finding solutions. 10 ideas will be selected by a panel of expert judges and put forward for a community vote. the three ideas with the most votes will each receive a cash prize of $5,000.

you can join the effort by:

1.      visiting the website and commenting on entries from others like you who are deeply concerned about this very important issue and want to get involved;
2.      entering the competition and sharing your ideas for improving mental health with the world;
3.      helping spread the word about the competition through blogging or social media;
4.      nominate an inspired idea or project.

entries and comments can be submitted until october 14th.  a panel of judges will then select 10 ideas that the changemakers community will vote on to select the top three. the changemakers collaborative competition winners – the three finalists that receive the most votes – will be announced on december 16, 2009 and will each receive a cash prize of usd $5,000. as important as the three winners, however, is the dialogue that occurs about mental health and that as many great minds as possible come to the table with fresh thinking and new solutions.

(the information on this was passed on to me by my blogging friend alison bergblum-johnson, who helps people write about mental health)

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