Mental Health and Wellness
Keeping children safe at school, home, and in their community means supporting their emotional and mental well-being, in addition to gun safety policies.
Keeping children safe at school, home, and in their community means supporting their emotional and mental well-being, in addition to gun safety policies.
Sandy Hook Promise Action Fund works to expand access to lifesaving mental health services and supports for students, including suicide prevention training and school-based care. Taking care of the whole child, both in physical safety and mental wellness, allows students to have supportive school environments and can reduce the risk of violence towards self or others.
Mental illness does not cause gun violence. In fact, we know that people living with mental illness are more likely to be victims of gun violence than perpetrators. Enhancing overall mental health support and services in schools and in communities can help students to lead healthy lives free from violence or self-harm.
2/3 of all gun deaths are suicide, and suicide is the second leading cause of death for young people. Suicide is preventable when we train people to know the warning signs of suicide and how to get help for themselves or others.
Sandy Hook Promise’s suite of Know the Signs programs includes training students and teachers how to recognize signs of suicide, and signs of social isolation. Help support our latest federal initiative, the STANDUP Act, that will incentivize all states to train students in grades 6-12 in evidence-based suicide prevention programming each year. Learn more
Sandy Hook Promise was instrumental in the passage of the 21st Century Cures Act. It strengthens federal coordination of mental health resources, increases reporting on mental health parity, advances integrated service delivery, supports the mental health workforce, increases early access to mental health services, promotes suicide prevention and enacts meaningful reforms to criminal justice systems.
The passing of the 21st Century Cures Act in 2016 was a monumental success for Sandy Hook Promise and our partnering mental health organizations including American Psychiatric Association, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the American Psychological Association, the Eating Disorders Coalition, Mental Health America, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness, who worked tirelessly for nearly four years to pass the mental health reform.
