Learning About Mental Health

The Science Museum of Minnesota has brought a vast array of fascinating, timely exhibits into St. Paul during its lifetime, but it just opened one that is perhaps the most timely--and most necessary--of all: Mental Health: Mind Matters.

This hands-on, family-friendly exhibit encourages visitors to start having much-needed conversations about mental health, the rampant misperceptions that exist today about mental health, and learn from real people who have different kinds of mental illnesses and how they manage them.

There's good reason to educate ourselves about this important topic. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. who are 18 years old or older experience mental health issues, yet on average people wait 10 years between the time they start having symptoms and the time they seek help. Ten years.

"Access to mental health resources is critical," says Alison Rempel Brown, president and CEO of the Science Museum of Minnesota. "At the Science Museum of Minnesota, we're inspired by the Mental Health: Mind Matters exhibit, both because it brings awareness to the realities of mental illness and our history in treating it, and because it provides a safe, reflective place to have honest conversations about it – with our family members, our classmates, and our community."

What better place to learn facts and dispel rumors and myths than the Science Museum?

What else is happening in our state? Be sure to check out the 10 p.m. Sunday night WCCO newscasts, where you can learn more in the weekly segment, Finding Minnesota.