May is Mental Health Awareness Month, highlighting the importance of seeking help for mental health issues that have long carried stigma. Psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner Kylene Schroer advised that people should seek help when mental health issues impact them and those around them. “If it’s having a negative impact on you or your family, your loved ones, let us help you make it better so that it’s not impacting someone, whether you or your loved ones negatively,” Schroer said.
Recent advances in mental health treatment show promise. Psychiatrist Sherry Kropatsch noted that the field of mental health research has surged in recent years, including the rollout of Spravato, approved by the FDA in 2019. Kropatsch described significant impact for some patients: “About five months after the approval is when my first patient started treatment. That person is still receiving treatment. Every three weeks, I think, is what that patient is coming in for. It has maintained and kept that patient from being suicidal and going inpatient.”
Becky Francis has been taking Spravato for about three years and credited it with improving her mental health. “I have treatment-resistant depression, and so I was on medications up and down and up and down. I don’t have to do that anymore. There’s no more being high, being low, anything like that. It’s just a nice, calm day,” Francis said.
Stigma remains a barrier, particularly for men. Kropatsch emphasized that seeking help is not weakness: “Men find it as a weakness, and we really need to. It’s actually very courageous to get the help, and it’s not a weakness or a flaw in you. There is help out there, and it is okay to reach out for help.” While awareness and advocacy efforts are improving, more work remains to destigmatize mental health treatment.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.ksnblocal4.com/2026/05/15/mental-health-awareness-month-highlights-importance-seeking-help/