MHE & YOU

About Us

The Mental Health Experienced & Years Of Understanding (MHE &YOU) Advisory Council was a mental health consumer advisory council for the Implementation Science and Practice Advances Research Center (iSPARC) at the Umass Chan Medical School. The council disbanded in 2022.

MHE & YOU offered the expertise of persons with lived mental health experience to inform and improve the quality of iSPARC research, technical assistance, and dissemination activities. They participated in mental health conferences and related events to assist with the dissemination of iSPARC research findings, products, and more.

One of their most visible efforts was the annual “May is Mental Health Awareness Month” video campaign, which was used to bring awareness to a chosen theme specific to mental health issues. In the past few years they had run an art contest for “May is Mental Health Awareness Month”. Each year they chose a theme and then received artwork, poetry, and pictures from community members that demonstrated what the theme meant to them.