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HEADS UP by Melanie Siebert Kirkus Star

HEADS UP

Changing Minds on Mental Health

From the Orca Issues series

by Melanie Siebert ; illustrated by Belle Wuthrich

Pub Date: April 21st, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4598-1911-5
Publisher: Orca

A comprehensive guide highlighting diverse approaches to mental health and illness and featuring stories of teens and adults.

From biological factors to Indigenous healing practices, Siebert’s guide to navigating mental health is incredibly thorough. After opening with personal anecdotes, Siebert covers the history of attitudes toward and treatment of mental illness, contemporary options for treatment, summaries of common diagnoses, paths to maintaining wellness, and confronting shame and stigma. Throughout Siebert highlights real teens and adults from a variety of backgrounds to help readers understand the material being presented. By addressing the impacts of structural and social inequality as well as biological aspects, Siebert has written a well-rounded guide to understanding mental health and healing in a holistic way. Although aimed at young adults and with a focus on the Canadian context, references to international stories and coverage of issues that transcend national lines, such as the impact on mental health of homophobia, substance abuse, and pressures that leads to challenges with body image, make this broadly relevant for all readers seeking to understand mental illness and the importance of mental health. Filled with captivating full-color graphics that provide information in a visually appealing, bite-sized manner, this book serves as a one-stop guide for the busy teen and busier adult.

Informative, diverse, and highly engaging; a much-needed addition to the realm of mental health.

(author’s note, resources, glossary, photo credits, index) (Nonfiction. 12-adult)