Our understanding of mental health is an ongoing study. Scientists are always finding new information about how the brain works and how that impacts a person's overall health.
However, mental health is more than complex than our brain chemistry; there are also cultural considerations that intersect with mental health, as well as sexual and gender identity. That's on top of a stigma around mental health treatment, one that advocates are actively working to combat.
That's why May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and one organization actively working to tamp down that stigma in Milwaukee is the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center.
It offers an array of free counseling and support groups to the community, each one with a different focus for LGBTQ+ individuals. One group is specifically geared toward youth mental health and offers professionally facilitated peer support. A trans umbrella group also meets regularly, providing peer support to the gender non-conforming, genderqueer, non-binary and trans community.
The center also offers one-to-one counseling, as well as mental health services for couples and families, both in English and Spanish. All support groups are held virtually right now, and are free to attend.
Sandra Zapata, clinical director at the Milwaukee LGBT community center, joined me to discuss the great need for these services in Milwaukee.
