On October 6, 2008, the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (<- you gotta love those Canadians!), with the support of Manulife Financial, launched Let’s Face This – Confront the Stigma of Mental Illness. As the name suggests, Let’s Face This is a grassroots, web-based campaign to bust stigma and promote public awareness and education about mental health. And – as the name suggests – the campaign really does want you to face this.

When you visit Let’s Face This, you can add your picture to a growing tree of people who – like you – want to help promote public awareness and education of mental health issues. You can also add your name and a message.

Of course, Let’s Face This isn’t just about showing off your pretty mug in the name of kicking stigma’s ass. The website also provides:

• Information about mental illness, including a glossary, resources, and tips on how to get help.
• The opportunity to donate funds to Sunnybrook’s cause.
• Tips on how to raise funds for Sunnybrook (you know, for those of us who can’t afford to plunk down a nice chunk of change).
• A free downloadable poster you can hang to help promote awareness and updates on community events, in case your in the Sunnybrook vicinity.

At the time of this post, 822 people have added their pictures to the Let’s Face This tree. Head on over and add your own!

Image: SXC

Post from: Blisstree

Let’s Face This: Canada’s Confronting The Stigma Of Mental Illness

Here at Mental Health Notes, I try to write about happy things as often as possible.

Sure, I gripe. I’ve been known to tell off Representatives and mental health care workers I don’t know from states I’ve never been. And yes, I even poo-poo on progress for the sake of progress sometimes and roll my eyes at strangers and remind folks that – statistically speaking – stigma is stupid.

I mean, come on. I hand out A.S.S. Awards.

I admit that, when it comes to the world of mental health, there are still so many hurdles to jump. It’s enough to make a girl cranky from time to time. But, I’m not moody all the time. I have been known to spread some applause around where it’s warranted. Remember LiveJournal? Remember Boston Legal?

Remember Wentworth?!

Yeah, who could forget him.

So, now I’m asking you, lovely readers: What kind of good mental health news do you have to share? It could be anything from learning how to better manage your anger to finally finding the perfect therapist. Whatever it is, I want to hear about it, so feel free to share your happy mental health news in the comments!

Image: SXC

Post from: Blisstree

Do You Have GOOD Mental Health News To Share?

See that cheesing rocker to the right?

Well, he’s the reason I missed Wednesday night’s DEPRESSION: Out of the Shadows on PBS.

I couldn’t help it. I had to watch the American Idol finale. I got really wrapped up in this season, so I had to find out which of the Davids won at the exact moment he won.

Anyway, the good news (aside from David Cook winning American Idol) is that PBS has made it possible for us to watch DEPRESSION: Out of the Shadows online. I hope to do this sometime this weekend, but if anyone beats me to it, feel more than free to share your thoughts here!

Image: Newscom

Remember! You have until May 31, 2008 to enter the Mental Health Notes Birthday Giveaway, and forever to join the This Is Why I ROCK! series!

Post from: Blisstree

Update: Watch DEPRESSION: Out of the Shadows Online

If you aren’t already counting down the hours until you find out which of the Davids is going to be the next American Idol (which, I am), turn your channel to your local PBS station tonight at 9 p.m. and watch DEPRESSION: Out of the Shadows, the first 90-minute component of “a multi-dimensional PBS project that explores the disease’s complex terrain, offering a comprehensive and timely examination of this devastating disorder.”

About the Program:

“By weaving together the science and treatment of depression with intimate portrayals of families and individuals coping with its wide-ranging effects, the film raises awareness and eliminates the stigma surrounding this prevalent disease, underscoring the fact that whether we are battling it in our families, our workplaces, or in our own minds, depression touches everyone.”

During DEPRESSION: Out of the Shadows, you’ll hear from mental health consumers who are living with depression, and scientists involved with neurological research and new treatments for depression.

Make sure you stick around afterward, as Jane Pauley hosts TAKE ONE STEP: Caring for Depression, with Jane Pauley and experts offer advice about recognizing and treating depression.

And, if anyone who watches either DEPRESSION: Out of the Shadows or both DEPRESSION: Out of the Shadows and TAKE ONE STEP: Caring for Depression, with Jane Pauley and wants to share their thoughts in a guest post here at Mental Health Notes, I’d be more than happy to oblige!

Image: Newscom

Remember! You have until May 31, 2008 to enter the Mental Health Notes Birthday Giveaway, and forever to join the This Is Why I ROCK! series!

Post from: Blisstree

DEPRESSION: Out of the Shadows Tonight On PBS

So, while I’m sitting in the waiting room at my dentist’s office today, a man walked in. There’s nothing really distinct about this man – just your regular ol’ Random Joe. Looked to be about 65 years old and in good health.

Apparently he’s well known by the various secretaries, dental assistants, etc. who were milling about at the time he walked in, as they all greeted him when he came through the door.

Anyway…

Random Joe: Walks through the door.
Staff: “Hi [Random Joe]!”
Random Joe: “Hi, [dentist office staff people]!”
Staff: “How are you?”
Random Joe: “Ah, if I was any crazier, they’d put me in a rubber room at the funny farm!”

A rubber room. At the funny farm.

*sigh*

I don’t think it’s even worth an A.S.S. Award.

Image: Newscom

Ken Jensen is currently rockin’ out in the This Is Why I ROCK! series here at Mental Health Notes. If you have a mental illness and are still living the life you love, head on over the the official announcement post and enter!

Post from: Blisstree

Accepting Reservations For The Funny Farm

As I mentioned yesterday, my NAMI affiliation had a cookout at one of our local city parks in honor of Mental Health Month.

Well, it turned out to be a lovely event! The weather was gorgeous, the food was delicious, and aside from a crowd of skateboarding teenagers (who eventually moved on to skate somewhere else – I guess we were boring, ha!) and restroom facilities that were out of order (a water leak forced the manager to shut everything down – the day before our cookout!), everything went perfectly.

My only gripe is attendance.

We had a fairly decent turn out, but nothing to brag about. I don’t understand what went wrong. I hung fliers, and announced the cookout well in advance on the news (including the news station’s Web site), in the paper, through group emails to our regular meeting attendees, through phone calls, and on our Web site. It’s all very reminiscent of the health fair ordeal.

I know that, throughout the country, there are many folks who prefer other mental health advocacy organizations over NAMI. However, in my neck of the woods, NAMI is “the thing,” so to speak. They are very active, and very well liked with an awesome reputation and great relationships with other health organizations. So, I’m not inclined to say, “It’s because it was NAMI.”

Last summer, when I took on the NAMI Affiliation Leader role, I knew it was going to be a serious effort getting people to not only want to address their mental health issues, but to actually get out of their houses and join others dealing with similar health and life situations; however, I had no idea it was going to be this difficult.

Please don’t misunderstand; I’m not getting discouraged, nor am I overlooking the importance of the people who do participate. I am very grateful for them. Not only are they taking action to learn more about their mental health, but they’re also helping advocate for mental health.

I guess I’d better head back to the drawing board and try to think of new ways to promote and get people interested and involved. Any suggestions are welcome!

Image: morgueFile

Chato B. Stewart is currently rockin’ out in the This Is Why I ROCK! series here at Mental Health Notes. If you have a mental illness and are still living the life you love, head on over the the official announcement post and enter!

Post from: Blisstree

NAMI Cookout For Mental Health Month

“To take away the stigma is to take away the fear.” – Nancy Devine.

Have any of you heard of the old Willard Psychiatric Center in New York? Until it closed in 1995, it went through several names, ultimately sticking with the Willard Psychiatric Center.

Anyway, once Willard was closed in 1995, hundreds of “abandoned” suitcases were found in the attic of one of the center’s buildings. These suitcases belonged to patients at Willard. Of course, the majority – if not all – of the suitcases were taken to and forgotten in the attic because the owners – the patients – died while at Willard.

After going through the suitcases, the workers gained insight about the actual people at Willard. Not the patients. Not the insane. Not the folks who eventually perished in a psychiatric hospital. The people, and their lives before Willard. I would have given my left pinkie toe to have been there! To have been able to wander through and get lost in the lives of those who were long gone, especially given the way in which their last years on earth were spent.

This fascinates the hell out of me. When I was a teenager, my friends and I would occasionally get wild hairs up our tails and sneak into the abandoned home of a man named Alfred Poochie, aka Old Man Poochie, to us. Anyway, this man was fascinating – dead, but fascinating. After we risked our necks (and arms and legs) crossing the rickety walking bridge over the water underneath, we’d get lost in the house. Old pianos, organs, letters, books, pictures, records, clothes – everything! (I don’t know why none of it was ever retrieved). Studying this man’s life using only the material possessions he left behind was awe-inspiring. Definitely one of the more educational illegal things we did those summers.

Anyway, as you can tell, I get hypnotized with this kind of stuff. Fortunately you can view the Willard Suitcase Exhibit online, or catch the physical traveling version of it. (Oh! How lucky that would be!)

The online version is – fortunately – pretty in depth about the goings-on at Willard throughout the years and includes interviews from former employees.

The suitcase exhibit includes the suitcases of nine psychiatric patients at Willard and their stories. You’ll be shocked when you read the reasons some of the folks were admitted to Willard (issues we’d now straighten out on our own with a good therapist and maybe a prescription). And you’ll shiver when you read that the same reasons kept the majority of the patients locked up at Willard until they died.

We’re talking 20, 30, and 40 years here, people.

Some of you may be thinking this is disrespectful; an invasion of privacy. Well, it’s not.

The suitcases – and lives – that were chosen to be put on display help to further advocate the fact that mentally ill people have lives. They’re real people, with real belongings, friends, families, interests, dreams, goals, etc. When patients died at Willard, they were buried in the nearby grounds’ graveyard, with nothing more than an unmarked piece of iron to let the gravedigger know where he could, and could not, bury the next body.

With nothing more than a piece of iron to mark their final resting places, don’t you think these patients – and their families and friends – would appreciate a bit more insight as to who they really were?

I think so.

The exhibit helps show just how far mental health treatment has come in America, and it helps take away the stigma. We can no longer be committed by employers, landlords, restaurant owners, or spouses from whom we’ve filed divorce – as you’ll find was often the case back then.

I strongly urge you to set aside an hour or so to view the Willard Suitcase Exhibit online, along with all the information about people in general who were admitted and why, what kind of “mental health treatment” they received, and how they responded to the state mental institution.

It’s fascinating stuff, I promise.

Image: Newscom

Post from: Blisstree

Long Abandoned Suitcases From A State Mental Institution