May is Mental Health Month: Are you okay?

May 16, 2025/Business, Regulations/

Back in the years between 2015 and 2021 I served a six-year term on the University of Minnesota Board of Regents. I learned much from that experience over the years that I served.

For my entire life I had grown up, lived, and worked in a small community where self-reliance had been taught to me and I adhered to that philosophy. While it was probably all around me, and maybe from time to time I exhibited some negative parts of it, mental health was not something I really thought about. I had learned that when I have problems — push through them to get to the other side. That was the advice back then and that seemed to work for me.

When I began serving on the Board of Regents part of our duties were to, not only academically, but physically be aware of the status and needs of our students — and we had 55,000 of them spread out over five Minnesota campuses. That’s when I really became aware of stress and mental health and the challenges many people had daily with it — with seemingly no way to “push through” it.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

I learned that if one was not feeling good about themselves or was without rest or had issues that they could not get their mind off of then they certainly didn’t have the ability to handle the academic rigors of becoming a lawyer, or a doctor, or a funeral director. I came to learn that positive mental health was a necessary pre-requisite to almost any accomplishment in the real world.

My awareness of this issue changed from being somewhat in the dark on the belief that it even existed to becoming an advocate for making sure that the university had accessible locations for mental health awareness and counseling in all campus academic and financial aid counseling offices for our students and staff. These locations were called “One Stop” on our campuses and over time our board was able to provide funding for getting mental health counseling into all One Stop locations. I went even further by advocating that One Stop offices should be as close to the students as possible by suggesting that every dormitory location contain a One Stop office as well.

May is Mental Health Awareness month. Statistics now tell us that 40% of Americans report stress is at an all-time high in their lives. Are you serving some of them? . . . or are some of your fellow team members at that point? Today’s article is simply to get you to “Stop and Think”. . . . . Maybe stress, anxiety, or mental health is under control in your life, but please be aware of those around you who might need some help.

There are lots of reasons one might be having a stressful time at the present — it could be financial, it could be family issues, it could be health, . . . . . . and, it could be their work environment.

I went to church on Sunday, Mother’s Day, and heard a wonderful and insightful sermon about mental health awareness woven into the message titled “Am I Okay“. In that sermon the pastor definded “Stress” as such:

Stress: “When the “demands” placed on us exceed the “resources” available to handle those demands.”

From my perch at Funeral Director Daily I’m using today’s article to ask all of us in the Death Care profession to look around at those we work with and those whom we help and try to envision any way we can make the “demands” less or the “resources” more plentiful. It will make for a better world if we do that.

Related — I’ve added last Sunday’s church message from my church with Pastor Angie Larson giving a very timely message during Mental Health Awareness Month in her message titled, “Am I Okay?”