For more than 60 years, our country has celebrated May as Mental Health Month to raise awareness about mental illnesses and the importance of mental wellness for all. St. Luke’s Hospital invites you to join in this important observance which began in 1949.

This year, St. Luke’s Hospital is addressing this important issue with this year’s theme, Pathways to Wellness to call attention to strategies and approaches that help everyone achieve wellness and good mental and overall health.

“Good mental health is fundamental to overall health and is essential to personal well-being and the ability to lead a healthy, balanced, and productive life,” says Becky Brodar, RN, community outreach coordinator for St. Luke’s Hospital Center of Behavioral Medicine. “Mental health problems can impair a person’s thinking, feelings and behavior, and they can be serious and disabling.”

“Wellness is essential to living a full and productive life,” said Dr. Belynda Veser, psychiatrist for St. Luke’s Hospital Center of Behavioral Medicine. “We may have different ideas about what wellness means, but it involves a set of skills and strategies prevent the onset or shorten the duration of illness and promote recovery and well-being. It’s about keeping healthy as well as getting healthy.” Dr. Veser said wellness is more than absence of disease, “It involves complete general, mental and social well-being. And mental health is an essential component of overall health and well-being. The fact is our overall well-being is tied to the balance that exists between our emotional, physical, spiritual and mental health”

To help bring awareness to mental health, caring professionals through St. Luke’s Hospital’s Center of Behavioral Medicine will provide free, confidential screenings to detect dementia on Wednesday, May 8, from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m., at 56 Hospital Drive, Suite 4A, Columbus, located in the St. Luke’s Hospital Medical Park. An appointment is necessary, please call 894-2408.