“Whether an illness affects your heart, your leg or your brain, it’s still an illness, and there should be no distinction.”
Michelle Obama, in 2015. Her call to prioritise physical and mental health care equally is more relevant than ever.
Why?
Harvard’s research shows that 50% of the people will experience a mental health disorder in their lives, and the WHO calls “the need for action on mental health indisputable and urgent.”
Yet, there is a huge difference with how mental health is treated compared to other health care.
An example
When you break your leg, you can go to the emergency room where you will be helped by nurses, doctors and probably even receive bed-care.
Cost free.
But what if…?
If you go to the hospital in Spain because you had a mental breakdown, or even suicidal thoughts, you will probably be send away to come back later.
In 1 or 2 months time. For 30 minutes.
Who is affected by this?
We all are affected by this, yet, as often happens, this issue affects those in already marginalised positions the most.
They can’t afford private health care, and face more stressors that can affect mental wellbeing such as financial, housing or other practical challenges.
What is the consequence?
This can lead to a snowball effect where those more prone to mental health issues also have limited access to mental health care, which worsens their well-being and perpetuates the cycle of inequality and negative mental health outcomes.
What is the role of Iguality?
At Iguality, we aim to fill this gap, for those who need it the most.
We offer free mental health care (weekly therapy) to marginalised communities such as refugees, migrants, LGBTIQ+ individuals, homeless people or others at risk of social exclusion.
Yet…
Our high quality and personal support cannot, anymore, only rely on volunteers.
We are now run 100% by amazing volunteers, yet, to continue, improve and grow our impact, we need professional and dedicated coordination.
What do we need?
We are building a small team of employees that can coordinate our support and offer coaching, supervision and more.
This will allow us to onboard more volunteers and reach more people, while improving and safeguarding our work and impact in a sustainable way.
So.. How to support?
To do this, we need your help. As individual, or as a company.
Together we can make real change happen.
As a company, you can become our Social Impact Partner and support us to make huge steps forward to make mental health care really accessible to all, while benefiting from our Shared Value approach.
As an individual, you can donate once to make a contribution, become a member on a steady basis, or become our Official Ambassador to promote our work and advocacy activities.
We can make mental health care more accessible. Together.
Thank you.
