Two strong and rel­e­vant themes have emerged in the glob­al lit­er­a­ture for the 2025 World Men­tal Health Day ob­ser­vances.

The theme “Stronger To­geth­er: Nur­tur­ing Men­tal Health through Com­mu­ni­ty” res­onates deep­er for me since sup­port­ive com­mu­ni­ty has most­ly been prob­lem­at­ic for so many I know and coun­sel in the strug­gle with men­tal health dis­or­ders.

This year’s chal­lenges have forced me to re­flect on my own ex­pe­ri­ences over a life­time, and I can at­test to how dif­fi­cult it is to build and hold a com­mu­ni­ty that is abid­ing, non-judge­men­tal, and non-prej­u­di­cial. In my decades-long ad­vo­ca­cy, com­mu­ni­ty has not been the best part of the men­tal ill health ex­pe­ri­ence. But I am grate­ful for the few who stick it out–in good and bad well-be­ing–to pro­vide sup­port.

When we de­scribe T&T and we speak of our na­tion as “rich in com­mu­ni­ty life”, we con­jure a place of close-knit fam­i­lies and a cul­ture of net­works that are sup­port­ive and pro­tec­tive. This may be re­al for us, but to my mind, it does not ex­ist at the depth that can pro­vide the panoply of love, care, com­mit­ment, and ded­i­ca­tion to those af­fect­ed by ill­ness­es of the mind.

Fam­i­lies here are not as tol­er­ant as we pre­tend or imag­ine, church­es are less tol­er­ant than we need them to be, work­places pro­vide a dy­nam­ic of ex­clu­sion not un­sim­i­lar to school com­mu­ni­ties, and so on. Stig­ma, fear, lack of un­der­stand­ing, and si­lence on the is­sues re­main rife.

As I read the lit­er­a­ture pro­mot­ing com­mu­ni­ty and its ben­e­fits to those who are man­ag­ing men­tal health dis­or­ders, trau­ma, stress­es, and the pres­sures of life, I am aware of my cyn­i­cism as I re­count the hurt I car­ry for al­most nev­er hav­ing the sup­port I need. My faith in com­mu­ni­ty is low.

Men­tal health should be a col­lec­tive re­spon­si­bil­i­ty; we know that from the lit­er­a­ture that shows what hap­pens when strong com­mu­ni­ties ex­ist and pro­vide es­sen­tial care and sol­i­dar­i­ty for those liv­ing with men­tal ill­ness­es.

Here, where stig­ma re­mains un­abat­ed, re­sources are lim­it­ed and the fo­cus on com­mu­ni­ty mod­els is still a fledg­ling con­cept, iso­la­tion is more the norm.

Care is of­ten lim­it­ed to a few who make and keep per­son­al com­mit­ments to the well-be­ing of those strug­gling.

Com­mu­ni­ty net­works that (should) ex­ist are vi­tal av­enues for the re­quired so­cial sup­port of those who present with men­tal ill­ness­es. These can help with al­le­vi­at­ing the so­cial anx­i­eties, is­sues of iso­la­tion and feel­ings of alien­ation that peo­ple ex­pe­ri­ence. And this is not on­ly nec­es­sary for those di­ag­nosed with or sus­pect­ed of bad men­tal well-be­ing, but is nec­es­sary for every per­son fac­ing the stress­es of life–emo­tion­al, fi­nan­cial, so­cial, re­la­tion­al, and so on. Peo­ple need peo­ple to re­main well, and where ill­ness­es are present, re­search has shown that strong so­cial con­nec­tions re­duce re­laps­es and im­prove re­cov­ery.

In T&T, there is still too much wide­spread stig­ma, shame and si­lence sur­round­ing men­tal ill­ness­es. More work is need­ed in na­tion­al and com­mu­ni­ty cam­paigns tar­get­ing stig­ma and nor­mal­is­ing the is­sues and con­ver­sa­tions. More peo­ple would be open to in­ter­ven­tions and would be able to re­ceive the need­ed ear­ly in­ter­ven­tions and treat­ment if we were able to re­duce dis­crim­i­na­tion, pub­lic, and self-stig­ma.

This speaks to a cul­tur­al change that glob­al lit­er­a­ture shows as hav­ing been achieved in so­ci­eties that in­vest heav­i­ly and con­sis­tent­ly in men­tal health, not as a sec­tion of a min­istry’s out­reach but as na­tion­al con­ver­sa­tions, cam­paigns, and in­ter­ven­tions. Stig­ma pre­vents peo­ple from re­spond­ing even when there is a vis­i­ble need.

How com­mu­ni­ty helps

• Re­duced iso­la­tion and lone­li­ness: Con­nect­ing with oth­ers helps com­bat feel­ings of iso­la­tion, which can neg­a­tive­ly im­pact men­tal health. But con­nec­tion is dif­fi­cult for those strug­gling or in cri­sis, so this al­so re­quires peo­ple who are well to in­vest in those who need help.

• Sense of be­long­ing: It is im­por­tant to be in­clud­ed and to be part of a shared iden­ti­ty. Cru­cial to the men­tal­ly ill are peo­ple who re­mem­ber to em­brace them and not treat them as an anom­aly.

• In­creased sup­port: A strong com­mu­ni­ty net­work of­fers sup­port dur­ing crises and every­day chal­lenges, help­ing in­di­vid­u­als feel more unit­ed and re­silient. The fam­i­ly is a great place to start. Fam­i­lies with the depth of car­ing and sup­port are ex­treme­ly es­sen­tial to those un­well.

• En­hanced self-es­teem and pur­pose: For the men­tal­ly dis­or­dered, par­tic­i­pat­ing in com­mu­ni­ty ac­tiv­i­ties, such as vol­un­teer­ing, can boost con­fi­dence and pro­vide a sense of pur­pose. So­ci­ety must pro­vide more op­por­tu­ni­ties for those strug­gling to serve, nor­mal­is­ing the ex­pe­ri­ence and em­brac­ing the ser­vice.

From my life ex­pe­ri­ence, my best pe­ri­ods of im­proved mood, self-reg­u­la­tion, and re­silience al­ways come with the op­por­tu­ni­ty to be a part of com­mu­ni­ty en­gage­ment, help­ing oth­ers, lec­tur­ing to schools, talk­ing to church­es, coun­selling fam­i­lies, and so on.

My own well-be­ing de­pends on the lev­el of in­volve­ment I have with­in the com­mu­ni­ties around me.

The ev­i­dence sup­ports the idea that when com­mu­ni­ties stand to­geth­er, men­tal­ly ill peo­ple gain hope, dig­ni­ty, and op­por­tu­ni­ties for re­cov­ery. A stronger na­tion be­gins with stronger, more com­pas­sion­ate com­mu­ni­ties.

Hap­py Re­pub­lic Day, T&T!

World Men­tal Health Day is ob­served on Oc­to­ber 10 each year.