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Mental Health Awareness Month

An awareness observance throughout May promoting mental health education, support for people living with mental illness, and the reduction of stigma in the United States.

Saturday
1–31
May 2027
Last updated February 11, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar Team
Have an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEAll of May
OBSERVED INUnited States
CATEGORYAwareness
SUBCATEGORYMental Health
ORIGIN

Institutional Initiative

FOUNDING ENTITY
Mental Health America
FIRST OBSERVED
1949
“Mental Health America began the observance in 1949 as a single week, then grew it into the full month of May.
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A nonprofit started it, decades before Washington noticed.

Mental Health America, then known as the National Association for Mental Health, established the observance in 1949. It began as a single Mental Health Week and later expanded to the full month of May.

View Official Announcementvia Mental Health America
INTRO

The observance that ran for 64 years before a president signed on

Most people assume the government created Mental Health Awareness Month. It did not. A nonprofit did, in 1949, and ran it for decades before any president put a signature to it.

That nonprofit was Mental Health America. It started small, with a single Mental Health Week, and watched the idea outgrow its own calendar until it filled all of May.

The federal recognition that many treat as the origin came much later. President Obama proclaimed the first National Mental Health Awareness Month in 2013, 64 years after the observance already existed. The month was never Washington's idea. It was an advocacy campaign that the country, and eventually the White House, caught up to.

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ORIGINS

Mental Health Awareness Month history

INTRODUCTION

The month did not begin with a law or a celebrity. It began with a man who had been a patient.

CHAPTER 01

The patient who would not stay quiet

Clifford Beers spent three years inside mental institutions in the early 1900s. He came out and wrote about it. His 1908 memoir, A Mind That Found Itself, described the neglect and cruelty he had seen from the inside. The book found powerful readers, including philosopher William James and psychiatrist Adolf Meyer. In 1909, Beers turned that attention into an organization, the National Committee for Mental Hygiene. It is the body that, after later mergers, became Mental Health America.

CHAPTER 02

From a week to a month

For forty years that organization pushed for better care and less shame. In 1949 it tried something new: a dedicated stretch of the calendar to talk about mental health in public. The first version was only a week. Interest kept growing, and so did the campaign, until the week became all of May. The choice was deliberate and plain. People were more likely to act on something they were asked to think about for a month than for a single afternoon.

CHAPTER 03

The long wait for a proclamation

Federal recognition trailed far behind the advocacy. The organization had already helped push Congress toward a national review of mental health care with the Mental Health Study Act of 1955. The presidential proclamation, the moment many people now mistake for the beginning, did not arrive until 2013. By then the observance was 64 years old. The signature confirmed the campaign. It did not create it.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why Mental Health Awareness Month Matters

STIGMA

It targets the shame that stops people from asking for help.

The observance was built to reduce the shame that keeps people from reaching out for support. That stigma, not a lack of treatments, is often the first barrier to care.

ACCESS

It creates one fixed moment to push people toward care

Mental Health America uses the month to put a fresh annual toolkit and shareable resources in front of a national audience. A standing date on the calendar gives schools and employers a prompt they can plan around.

SCALE

It treats a common condition as a public matter

Mental illness affects a large share of U.S. adults in any given year, not a rare few. The month frames that reality as a shared public health issue rather than a private failing.

BY THE NUMBERS

Mental Health Awareness Month by the Numbers

23.1%
Share of US adults affected
59.3M
US adults with mental illness
50.6%
Of those, received care
20.1%
Teens with depression

TIMELINE

Timeline

A patient writes the book

Clifford Beers, recently released from a mental institution, publishes A Mind That Found Itself, exposing the abuse he endured inside.

The movement gets an office

Beers launches the National Committee for Mental Hygiene, the parent body that would later become Mental Health America.

The first Mental Health Week

The National Association for Mental Health, now Mental Health America, holds the first observance, a single week in May.

Congress studies the system

The organization backs the Mental Health Study Act, a national review of how the country cares for mental illness.

Green becomes the color

A green ribbon emerges as the symbol of mental health awareness, modeled on the red ribbon of HIV and AIDS advocacy.

The White House makes it official

President Obama signs Proclamation 8969, declaring May 2013 National Mental Health Awareness Month.

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe Mental Health Awareness Month

EDITOR'S PICK

Learn the warning signs

Read the guidance from a recognized body such as Mental Health America so you can recognize when someone is struggling. Knowing what to look for is the first practical step toward helping.

CHECK

Check on someone directly

Reach out to a friend or family member you have not heard from in a while and ask how they are really doing. A plain, direct question can open a conversation a person was waiting to have.

WEAR

Wear or display green

Join the Be Seen in Green campaign by wearing green or lighting a space green during May. The visible signal helps normalize talking about mental health in public.

SHARE

Share verified resources

Post the contact details for a real helpline rather than general advice of your own. Pointing people to trained support is more useful than any single tip.

SUPPORT

Support an advocacy organization

Donate to or volunteer with a group such as Mental Health America or NAMI that works on access and stigma year round. The month is a prompt, but the need does not end on June 1.

GET INVOLVED

Resources and Support

SAMHSA

SAMHSA FindTreatment.gov

SAMHSA FindTreatment.gov. Official US government search tool for mental health and substance use treatment.

NAMI

NAMI HelpLine

NAMI HelpLine. Information, support, and referrals from the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

MENTAL

Mental Health America

Mental Health America. Free screening tools, the annual campaign, and shareable mental health resources.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know Mental Health Awareness Month?

1 / 7

Which organization established Mental Health Awareness Month?

Answer

It is observed throughout the month of May in the United States, every year.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

8sources
5primary records
6independently dated
Primary records
Mental Health America2026
Mental Health Month
The organization's own page stating it founded the observance in 1949 and runs it each May.
View source
The American Presidency Project2013
Proclamation 8969 - National Mental Health Awareness Month, 2013
President Obama's 2013 proclamation declaring May National Mental Health Awareness Month.
View source
National Institute of Mental Health2022
Mental Illness statistics
Federal figures showing 23.1% of US adults had a mental illness in 2022, and how many got care.
View source
National Institute of Mental Health2021
Major Depression statistics
Federal data on major depression among US adults and adolescents aged 12 to 17.
View source
U.S. Government Publishing Office2024
Mental Health Awareness Month 2024
Government overview of the 1949 founding, proclamation history, and the 1955 Mental Health Study Act.
View source
Additional coverage
National Library of Medicine2010
From a Patient's Perspective: Clifford Whittingham Beers' Work to Reform Mental Health Services
Account of Beers' 1908 memoir and his 1909 founding of the body that became Mental Health America.
View source
Wikipedia
Mental Health Awareness Month
Overview of the 1949 founding, the growth from a week to a month, and federal recognition.
View source
Wikipedia
World Mental Health Day
The separate global day on October 10, first observed in 1992 by the World Federation for Mental Health.
View source
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