May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Did you know that 43.8 million adults experience mental illness in a given year (NIMH .org)? In an effort to amplify the voices of those living with or experiencing mental health or behavioral health issues, here are a few video discussions aiming to bring awareness to stigma and its effect on wellbeing.

GABE HOWARD is an award-winning writer and speaker who lives with bipolar and anxiety disorders. In 2003, he was formally diagnosed with bipolar and anxiety disorders after being committed to a psychiatric hospital.

“Its weird that in this country we separate mental health and physical health because mental health is your brain. what’s more physical than your brain?

Rie Lopez, MPH A ‘Professional Patient’, Rie is a health educator, skilled public speaker and writer, and serves as a patient advocate for mental health, chronic pain conditions, and clinical trials.  Rie is also actively using her voice on social media

“ From a societal level trying to embrace that mental health is as important to our physical health. A lot of it comes down to making sure that people understand that they are as important”.

Gabe and Rie are members of the Society for Participatory Medicine. Recorded at 2018 Connected Health Conference.