How many of us have at one time or another sighed a very long sigh and said, "What if?" As the parent of a son with three psychiatric diagnoses, schizophrenia, OCD, and panic disorder, my "what ifs" center around him. What if we had been more knowledgeable about mental illness and recognized Doug's symptoms early on? What if he had been diagnosed correctly and treated immediately? What if his friends hadn't deserted him? The list of "could-haves" and "might-have-beens" goes on and on accompanied by the requisite recriminations and self-doubt.
I still remember believing that Doug had an undiagnosed attention deficit disorder. Why he barely focused on anything I said. It got so bad that if I had to tell him something really important, I would have to hold his head to get him to look at me and then over enunciate every word. It was like speaking to someone who was deaf. Even then I wasn't sure that what I had to say was really penetrating that clearly preoccupied brain of his.
And I remember, too, that once he had his first psychotic break and there was no denying there was something very, very wrong, his friends didn't know what to do either. They were frightened and distraught, but no one would give them any information. What's wrong with Doug? A deafening silence because after all, nothing could be revealed. Confidentiality, you know, was the way guidance counselors and school psychologists explained it.
But, of course, there is no going backward. We all have to accept where we are at the moment and look ahead to what we hope will be a better life for ourselves, our family members, and everyone else with a major mental illness. And that brings me to what for me has become a consuming passion: the mission to change attitudes about mental illness by educating all children and teens about these devastating disorders through the schools.
Beginning in 1993 with matching grants from NAMI and NAMI-NYS, I worked with other teachers with mental illness in their families to develop lesson plans on mental illness for three grade levels: upper elementary, middle school, and high school. These lessons humanized serious mental illness. Through sharing our family stories, students learned not just the facts about mental illness, but also the emotional toll these crippling illnesses take on everyone involved.
Elementary school students learned about Lisa whose brother had recently been hospitalized with a serious psychiatric disorder. What, she wondered, had happened to her brother who had always been so close and now spent much of his day locked in his room? And what should she do about classmates who were overheard making fun of her brother and calling him "a mental?"
Middle school students learned about a high achieving high school student who began to unravel during a summer at camp. The aftermath of a fight with another camper took over his life, and what should have been a meaningless scrape over nothing very important became something that preoccupied his every waking hour. He would sue his attacker, he would sue the camp, and he wouldn't rest until justice had been done. His paranoia and obsessive behavior finally came to a head with him cowering in the corner of his room in a psychiatric hospital.
High school students were asked to examine their attitudes and those of their community about mental illness. What words do they associate with mental illness? What impact might this kind of stigmatizing language have on someone with a mental illness? How would it affect their family? How would you and others feel if a group home moved into your community? How would the people in the group home feel? And through discussion and anecdotes students learn the symptoms of schizophrenia and the impact of stigma. They are clearly moved as they hear about a formerly popular young man whose friends thoughtlessly desert him when he develops the symptoms of schizophrenia.
The popularity of these lessons was such that in 1998 they were expanded as part of NAMI's campaign to end discrimination. They now contain posters, games, follow-up activities tied to the general curriculum as well as additional lessons. The posters and games proved to be a particular hit. A cartoon brain with a bandage and an ice pack on its head is at the top of the elementary school poster. A caption beside it reads: "Brains can get sick, but they can also get well again." And "The Brain Game," a competitive board game which rewards stigma busting and penalizes stigmatizing behavior, has been especially popular with middle school students.
Happily the popularity of "Breaking the Silence" (BTS) extends beyond. For example, this past year all health education administrators in the New York Public Schools began the school year with a workshop which featured our lessons. They were also featured on an Emmy Award nominated TV program, The God Squad, which is sponsored by the Catholic Diocese. Emails have come from as far away as Japan requesting information about BTS.
Mental health professionals have taken a special interest in our lessons. Last year the New York State Office of Mental Health made "Breaking the Silence" available to all health teachers and ancillary personnel in the state free of charge. We are also happy to report that we have just received an order from the Alabama Department of Mental Health and Retardation for 4,000 of our lesson plans as part of a statewide anti-stigma campaign, one of many out of state orders.
I like to dream of the time when young people will recoil when they hear stigmatizing remarks about mental illness in the same way they respond with disgust to racist or anti-Semitic slurs. And I like to hope that the time will come, too, when people will recognize the early onset of symptoms in themselves and get treatment because they have learned about mental illness in a class at school.
Impossible dream? I don't think so. Clearly from the response we have received we know that educating students about mental illness is an idea whose time has come.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Destigmatizing Mental Illness Through The Schools
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Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Destigmatizing Mental Illness Through The Schools
How many of us have at one time or another sighed a very long sigh and said, "What if?" As the parent of a son with three psychiatric diagnoses, schizophrenia, OCD, and panic disorder, my "what ifs" center around him. What if we had been more knowledgeable about mental illness and recognized Doug's symptoms early on? What if he had been diagnosed correctly and treated immediately? What if his friends hadn't deserted him? The list of "could-haves" and "might-have-beens" goes on and on accompanied by the requisite recriminations and self-doubt.
I still remember believing that Doug had an undiagnosed attention deficit disorder. Why he barely focused on anything I said. It got so bad that if I had to tell him something really important, I would have to hold his head to get him to look at me and then over enunciate every word. It was like speaking to someone who was deaf. Even then I wasn't sure that what I had to say was really penetrating that clearly preoccupied brain of his.
And I remember, too, that once he had his first psychotic break and there was no denying there was something very, very wrong, his friends didn't know what to do either. They were frightened and distraught, but no one would give them any information. What's wrong with Doug? A deafening silence because after all, nothing could be revealed. Confidentiality, you know, was the way guidance counselors and school psychologists explained it.
But, of course, there is no going backward. We all have to accept where we are at the moment and look ahead to what we hope will be a better life for ourselves, our family members, and everyone else with a major mental illness. And that brings me to what for me has become a consuming passion: the mission to change attitudes about mental illness by educating all children and teens about these devastating disorders through the schools.
Beginning in 1993 with matching grants from NAMI and NAMI-NYS, I worked with other teachers with mental illness in their families to develop lesson plans on mental illness for three grade levels: upper elementary, middle school, and high school. These lessons humanized serious mental illness. Through sharing our family stories, students learned not just the facts about mental illness, but also the emotional toll these crippling illnesses take on everyone involved.
Elementary school students learned about Lisa whose brother had recently been hospitalized with a serious psychiatric disorder. What, she wondered, had happened to her brother who had always been so close and now spent much of his day locked in his room? And what should she do about classmates who were overheard making fun of her brother and calling him "a mental?"
Middle school students learned about a high achieving high school student who began to unravel during a summer at camp. The aftermath of a fight with another camper took over his life, and what should have been a meaningless scrape over nothing very important became something that preoccupied his every waking hour. He would sue his attacker, he would sue the camp, and he wouldn't rest until justice had been done. His paranoia and obsessive behavior finally came to a head with him cowering in the corner of his room in a psychiatric hospital.
High school students were asked to examine their attitudes and those of their community about mental illness. What words do they associate with mental illness? What impact might this kind of stigmatizing language have on someone with a mental illness? How would it affect their family? How would you and others feel if a group home moved into your community? How would the people in the group home feel? And through discussion and anecdotes students learn the symptoms of schizophrenia and the impact of stigma. They are clearly moved as they hear about a formerly popular young man whose friends thoughtlessly desert him when he develops the symptoms of schizophrenia.
The popularity of these lessons was such that in 1998 they were expanded as part of NAMI's campaign to end discrimination. They now contain posters, games, follow-up activities tied to the general curriculum as well as additional lessons. The posters and games proved to be a particular hit. A cartoon brain with a bandage and an ice pack on its head is at the top of the elementary school poster. A caption beside it reads: "Brains can get sick, but they can also get well again." And "The Brain Game," a competitive board game which rewards stigma busting and penalizes stigmatizing behavior, has been especially popular with middle school students.
Happily the popularity of "Breaking the Silence" (BTS) extends beyond. For example, this past year all health education administrators in the New York Public Schools began the school year with a workshop which featured our lessons. They were also featured on an Emmy Award nominated TV program, The God Squad, which is sponsored by the Catholic Diocese. Emails have come from as far away as Japan requesting information about BTS.
Mental health professionals have taken a special interest in our lessons. Last year the New York State Office of Mental Health made "Breaking the Silence" available to all health teachers and ancillary personnel in the state free of charge. We are also happy to report that we have just received an order from the Alabama Department of Mental Health and Retardation for 4,000 of our lesson plans as part of a statewide anti-stigma campaign, one of many out of state orders.
I like to dream of the time when young people will recoil when they hear stigmatizing remarks about mental illness in the same way they respond with disgust to racist or anti-Semitic slurs. And I like to hope that the time will come, too, when people will recognize the early onset of symptoms in themselves and get treatment because they have learned about mental illness in a class at school.
Impossible dream? I don't think so. Clearly from the response we have received we know that educating students about mental illness is an idea whose time has come.
I still remember believing that Doug had an undiagnosed attention deficit disorder. Why he barely focused on anything I said. It got so bad that if I had to tell him something really important, I would have to hold his head to get him to look at me and then over enunciate every word. It was like speaking to someone who was deaf. Even then I wasn't sure that what I had to say was really penetrating that clearly preoccupied brain of his.
And I remember, too, that once he had his first psychotic break and there was no denying there was something very, very wrong, his friends didn't know what to do either. They were frightened and distraught, but no one would give them any information. What's wrong with Doug? A deafening silence because after all, nothing could be revealed. Confidentiality, you know, was the way guidance counselors and school psychologists explained it.
But, of course, there is no going backward. We all have to accept where we are at the moment and look ahead to what we hope will be a better life for ourselves, our family members, and everyone else with a major mental illness. And that brings me to what for me has become a consuming passion: the mission to change attitudes about mental illness by educating all children and teens about these devastating disorders through the schools.
Beginning in 1993 with matching grants from NAMI and NAMI-NYS, I worked with other teachers with mental illness in their families to develop lesson plans on mental illness for three grade levels: upper elementary, middle school, and high school. These lessons humanized serious mental illness. Through sharing our family stories, students learned not just the facts about mental illness, but also the emotional toll these crippling illnesses take on everyone involved.
Elementary school students learned about Lisa whose brother had recently been hospitalized with a serious psychiatric disorder. What, she wondered, had happened to her brother who had always been so close and now spent much of his day locked in his room? And what should she do about classmates who were overheard making fun of her brother and calling him "a mental?"
Middle school students learned about a high achieving high school student who began to unravel during a summer at camp. The aftermath of a fight with another camper took over his life, and what should have been a meaningless scrape over nothing very important became something that preoccupied his every waking hour. He would sue his attacker, he would sue the camp, and he wouldn't rest until justice had been done. His paranoia and obsessive behavior finally came to a head with him cowering in the corner of his room in a psychiatric hospital.
High school students were asked to examine their attitudes and those of their community about mental illness. What words do they associate with mental illness? What impact might this kind of stigmatizing language have on someone with a mental illness? How would it affect their family? How would you and others feel if a group home moved into your community? How would the people in the group home feel? And through discussion and anecdotes students learn the symptoms of schizophrenia and the impact of stigma. They are clearly moved as they hear about a formerly popular young man whose friends thoughtlessly desert him when he develops the symptoms of schizophrenia.
The popularity of these lessons was such that in 1998 they were expanded as part of NAMI's campaign to end discrimination. They now contain posters, games, follow-up activities tied to the general curriculum as well as additional lessons. The posters and games proved to be a particular hit. A cartoon brain with a bandage and an ice pack on its head is at the top of the elementary school poster. A caption beside it reads: "Brains can get sick, but they can also get well again." And "The Brain Game," a competitive board game which rewards stigma busting and penalizes stigmatizing behavior, has been especially popular with middle school students.
Happily the popularity of "Breaking the Silence" (BTS) extends beyond. For example, this past year all health education administrators in the New York Public Schools began the school year with a workshop which featured our lessons. They were also featured on an Emmy Award nominated TV program, The God Squad, which is sponsored by the Catholic Diocese. Emails have come from as far away as Japan requesting information about BTS.
Mental health professionals have taken a special interest in our lessons. Last year the New York State Office of Mental Health made "Breaking the Silence" available to all health teachers and ancillary personnel in the state free of charge. We are also happy to report that we have just received an order from the Alabama Department of Mental Health and Retardation for 4,000 of our lesson plans as part of a statewide anti-stigma campaign, one of many out of state orders.
I like to dream of the time when young people will recoil when they hear stigmatizing remarks about mental illness in the same way they respond with disgust to racist or anti-Semitic slurs. And I like to hope that the time will come, too, when people will recognize the early onset of symptoms in themselves and get treatment because they have learned about mental illness in a class at school.
Impossible dream? I don't think so. Clearly from the response we have received we know that educating students about mental illness is an idea whose time has come.
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