Reel Connections

The National Alliance on Mental Illness recently reported that 1 in 6 children between the ages of 6-17 experience a mental health disorder each year in the United States. The American Psychological Association reports that in the 10 years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a 40% increase in depressive symptoms, feelings of hopelessness, and suicidal behaviors among American youth.
The first step in ensuring children have the tools they need to seek assistance for their mental health is setting a standard of open and transparent communication about mental health.

Team Reel Connections is pitching an innovative approach to modeling and facilitating mental health conversations and improving community access to resources with our (e)motion picture family movie event. With this project, we will use a popular family film to engage participants in a dialogue about emotions and provide them the tools needed to replicate these conversations at home. We will treat all our attendees to the red carpet experience to create an atmosphere of fun and excitement.

We will follow the movie screening with brief, facilitated discussion groups led by mental health professionals to model discussion techniques for families to continue sharing and communicating about mental health topics at home. At the conclusion of the event all attendees will get their “VIP swag bag” of local mental health resources and materials designed to help foster healthy communication patterns for families. We believe engaging experiences like (e)motion picture events can serve Acadiana as a vital resource in battling the mental health crisis currently impacting all communities in the US and can improve social determinants of health in our region.

We look forward to collaborating with community partners, qualified mental health professionals and the families in Acadiana to shine a spotlight on mental health.