What if Smokey Bear only taught us how to put out fires?
Prevention, when possible, reduces stress on emergency response systems and helps save lives. We believe this is the same for mental health, and education is the key.
So... What is Mental Health Literacy?
We're glad you asked! Mental Health Literacy (MHL) is a part of health literacy that has historically been "left out" of education. This critical piece of education is a proactive solution to the current mental health crisis.
MHL includes four core components:
Understanding how to foster & maintain positive mental health
Understanding common mental health disorders, signs & symptoms, and treatments
Understanding how to seek help effectively
Understanding stigma and strategies for stigma reduction
"With good mental health literacy, we learn how to take better care of ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities. We are empowered and provided with the skills that we need to help us build better lives, better systems of care, and a better society."
~ Wei & Kutcher 2018 (leading MHL researchers)
“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they are falling in.”
~ Desmond Tutu
About the MHLC
Our Mission
Our mission is to make the education framework of mental health literacy foundational in schools and communities.
The Problem & How We're Solving It
The mental health education landscape is complex. This is a system issue. We help state-level implementation professionals (people and organizations) navigate the system and empower the schools they work with through our three core initiatives listed below.
Our Core Initiatives
MHL Advocacy and Education
Content Identification and Research
Policy Guidance
Combined, these core initiatives can reduce the gaps in the current mental health ecosystem, ensuring that more people receive the education they need.
Your donation helps us raise awareness for Mental Health Literacy and provide critical support for implementation in PK-12 education.
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The Mental Health Literacy Collaborative is a project of Players Philanthropy Fund a Maryland charitable trust recognized by IRS as a tax-exempt public charity under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (Federal Tax ID: 27-6601178, ppf.org/pp). Contributions to The Mental Health Literacy Collaborative qualify as tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.
Support Our Work
Contact us today, we’d love to hear from you!
Email us at
info@themhlc.org