May is designated as “Maternal Mental Health Month”

and PSI-CT is busily working to increase awareness that as many as 1 in 5 mothers suffer from a mental health challenge. We have partnered with The BlueDot Project to increase awareness this month; please join us by sharing our posts and those from The BlueDot Project’s posts on your social media sites.  As part of that project, we participated last week in the #RealMotherhoodChallenge, which asked Moms to post images and posts which reflected the real challenges of motherhood, rather than “rainbows and unicorns”. As a result of this national effort, the campaign reported that “the conversation around maternal mental health and the need to support every mother was immense. Because of you, we were able to have 8.5 Million timeline deliveries on social media and tripled our partner numbers from last year”. YAY!!! Let’s keep the momentum going!

June 23rd of 2018 will be the date of this year’s “Climb Out of Darkness”.

Our new PSI-President, Cory Bernard, LCSW, will be leading this year’s Chapter Climb in Simsbury, and we are excited to report that we have two other climbs in the state as well-one in Mystic/Groton and one in Fairfield County, (all three climbs will benefit PSI-CT and therefore Connecticut Families)! The “Climb Out of Darkness” is the largest, worldwide campaign to increase awareness of perinatal anxiety and mood disorders (PMADs). Cory notes that “The Climb brings together survivors, providers, advocates and families all over the globe on or around the summer solstice (longest day of the year).  We share stories of hope and celebrate recovery as we gather together to raise money, raise awareness, support one another and give a voice to those who no longer have one. We climb for those who have fought their way out of their darkness, those who are still fighting and those who have lost their fight.”  

Please join one of the climb teams already created or create your own team!  If you start a new climb, please make your climb a chapter climb and request that the funds raised come back to PSI-CT. Just click on “Join the Campaign” to create your own fundraising page at https://climb-out-2018.causevox.com. Don’t forget to let us know where you’ll be climbing: psictfundraising@gmail.com Thank you for support the families of Connecticut by supporting PSI-CT!

Sharon Thomason, Ph.D.