Welcome to the Omaha Mental Health User Group!
If you feel you need immediate and urgent mental help please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255) or the Nebraska DHHS 24-Hour Crisis Line at 1-402-717-HOPE (1-402-717-4673)!
If you’re looking for our list of mental health resources in the Omaha area, they’re here.
Who Are We?
OMHUG is exactly what it sounds like - a user group. It just happens to be one for your brain instead of for a programming language. We’re combining the technology world’s concept of a meetup with the psychology world’s concept of a peer support group to provide a safe, confidential, and semi-anonymous place to share your experiences and to ask for help. Our focus is on the technical community in Omaha - so developers, designers, bizdev… whatever. We have a mission statement that’s pretty cool!
Wait… You Have a Mission Statement?
Sure do! It’s important because it helps us know what we give a crap about. Here it is:
We believe that people in the technical community face unique pressures in their jobs, which can promote harmful habits or have other negative consequences for those who also have lived experience of mental health or substance use challenges. Together, we intend to discover and develop new ways to assist ourselves in overcoming these pressures in ways that reduce their impact on us, our families, and our leisure time.
What’s Our Goal?
Our goal is to provide mental health support to people in the technical community in the Omaha area. We meet this goal with two complementary methods:
- We host a recurring meetup where we can listen to and support each other in a safe environment. This meetup will foster a culture of acceptance and respect.
- We develop and provide persistent digital resources, including general mental health knowledge, suggestions and lifehacks, and contact info for local organizations and programs.
We have a set of core values that are at the center of what we do. As part of those values, we ask that our attendees respect the other attendees and follow our confidentiality guidelines.
Please be aware we do not diagnose or treat psychiatric conditions, but if you suspect or believe you have a mental health issue we will offer you as much support and assistance as we are able.
Who Are You?
OMHUG is open to everyone who feels they might benefit from attending. There are no requirements to attend; you don’t need a diagnosis to show up, or pay a fee to get in. We don’t check your crazy card at the door. If you’re having any kind of mental issue, there’s a spot at the table for you.
If you are simply interested in mental health (either for yourself or for a family member) you are welcome to attend, but we ask that you be respectful of the other attendees.
When and Where Do We Meet?
We meet at the Omaha Maker Group (8410 K Street, Suite #5, Omaha, NE) on the first Friday of every month. We have a meetup group so you can join that and keep up to date.
Why Do We Meet in a Makerspace?
- It’s free.
- It’s regularly available (unlike most of the public libraries in the area).
- It has no requirement for the meeting to be public (like the DoSpace does).
- It isn’t someone’s workplace (unlike a lot of technical meetups in the area), allowing us to keep confidentiality for attendees.
- It isn’t public (like a restaurant, bar, or coffee shop) so there’s less chance of running into someone.
We might change where we meet if our circumstances change. If our meeting place makes you feel uncomfortable about attending, please contact us and we’ll try to figure something out.
How Do We Run Meetings?
OMHUG operates in a fairly fluid (you might say agile!) manner and our meetings can vary in content depending on what attendees want and if there’s anything special scheduled that week. We do follow a rough meeting structure which uses Lean Coffee as the default model for driving discussion.
We have very few rules for the meetings. The only one you actually need to know is that attendees must follow the OMHUG values.
How Do You Get in Contact?
You can email us here or you can hit us up on twitter at @oma_mhug.
The other way to get in contact is to show up to a meeting. We have a Google Calendar with our meetings here (ical version). Once you get in touch with us, we can send you an invite to our Slack group, which is how we communicate announcements but also a place where we can chat and support each other in realtime.