On Tuesday, November 3rd, the CMHA's Participant Advosory Committee (PAC) hosted an educational forum, "Rising Up to End Stigma." We had two speakers for the event - Wayne Cho and Andrew Kellett. Wayne Cho, on his own initiative, and initially his own funds, ran across Canada to raise awareness about mental illness. He lives with anxiety and depression himself. His next major initiative is to run around the world. Anybody interested in becoming involved or learning more about that project can contact Wayne at wayne.cho@crosscanadarun.ca. The second speaker, Andrew Kellett, is a Mental Health Peer Advocate for Fraser Health. Andrew has worked as a Mental Health advocate for 14 years, and lives with, and has family with, mental health issues.
The two speakers complemented each other while, to a certain degree, coming at the issue of ending stigma from two different directions. Wayne came at it primarily from an individualistic perspective, while Andrew took a systemic discrimination approach. Wayne emphasized how important it is for individuals with mental illness to deal with their own internalized stigma that so often prevents us from 'outing' ourselves and admitting to our families, our employers, or to the broader community that we have mental illness. Those of us with mental illness often internalize the myths and stereotypes surrounding stigma. Wayne's message was that we need to feel good about ourselves first and deal with our own stigma, then move outward to educate the community and raise awareness.
During his run across Canada, Wayne had the opportunity to speak at various community centres and schools. In order to educate these audiences about mental illness he drew parallels with physical illnesses and took the approach that mental illnesses are just that - another form of illness, only they affect the brain.
Andrew approached ending stigma from a systemic perspective. He argued that rather than focusing on stigma, we need to view people with mental illness as a group that is discriminated against. From this perspective, people with mental illness are more likely to be viewed as a group whose human rights are being harmed by other social groups and society. He stated that it is difficult for people to take advantage of these human rights because of stigma and discrimination, and that the recognition of discrimination as a human rights violation must be expanded. It is also necessary to understand that mental illness can impact many parts of an individual's life, for example, meeting workplace attendance standards.
Andrew highlighted the role of the media in associating shame with mental illness, and that this needs to be targeted in any community education program. He stated that we need action plans from family, friends, and people with mental illness to correct the media image and push communities and society to correct this view of mental illness. In addition, education programs should target discrimination against people with mental illness. Andrew suggested that with increasing awareness, as with AIDS in the 1980s, the elimination of stigma and reduction of discrimination can come about.
Both Wayne and Andrew emphasized the need to implement educational programs in schools, starting at an early age, and the value of community, the medical profession, families and the media as significant tools to end stigma.
Following the speaker presentations a lively discussion ensued. In fact, discussion had to be cut off, and could have gone on much longer, clearly indicating that there is a broader need to have similar forums that continue the discussion around diminishing stigma and discrimination in relation to mental illness.
