Mission/Vision

The Minding Your Mind Foundation leads initiatives to reduce the stigma associated with mental health issues among adolescents in middle and high schools as well as college students. Our outreach programs enlighten families and educators about the warning signs so often masked by adolescent behaviors, and promote open dialogue in schools and at home to encourage families to seek appropriate help.

Minding Your Mind’s primary objective is to improve the lives of adolescents and young adults with mental health issues by eliminating stigma and the destructive attitudes and behaviors perpetuated by stigma. To this end, Minding Your Mind provides direct support and technical assistance to initiatives that advance public perceptions of mental health problems, encourage treatment and promote recovery. Our priorities are in the following three areas:

• Exemplary youth and family-focused public education initiatives
• Promising research on early detection and prevention of mental health disorders
• Collaborative program strategies among mental health organizations

Minding Your Mind’s long-term goals:

• There will be a comprehensive, peer-based national mental health awareness and prevention program implemented in all educational institutions.
• There will be an overall reduction in the stigma associated with mental health issues and more severe mental illness.
• There will be a positive shift in how children, families, educators, and medical professionals apply mental health education to increase intervention and treatment.
• Youth will be better prepared to cope with mental health issues beyond their secondary education, and will seek help as needed during high-risk college years.
• The provision of long-term funding to support research related to the identification and treatment of mental health disorders will increase exponentially.