Shirley, would you explain "Aroostook Mental Illness Awareness Week" and how it originated?

Shirley Rush: Aroostook Mental Illness Awareness Week is a week of recognition of persons who are living with mental illness in an effort to provide accurate information to the general public about what mental illness is, and what it is not, and at the same time to reduce stigma against persons with mental illness. I don't know the year it started, but it has been a national campaign, sponsored by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, and has been in existence for a great number of years.

Mental illness: what is it, and what isn't it?

Shirley: The difference between mental health and mental illness is that mental health would include such things as: if I was going through a divorce, I might temporarily feel upset or blue or distracted, or have difficulty concentrating or doing what I need to do at work, but I might not have a mental illness. I might temporarily be responding to what those issues are in my environment and in my personal life. As opposed to mental illness, which is a biological, organic, neurological disease; that's the easiest way that I can distinguish between mental health and mental illness.

And "Aroostook Mental Illness Awareness Week" - is this the first year that this program has been held in The County?

Shirley: Last year was the first year that we had a week-long schedule of events in Aroostook County, so this is year number two.

Who's organizing the week's events?

Shirley: I am the project director for "Mental Illness Awareness Week". It is a collaborative, cooperative effort between agencies, organizations, people in the community who are interested in these issues, persons themselves who have mental illness. It's a community effort.

Is there representation from throughout The County, or is it mostly a Presque Isle effort?

Shirley: We tried last year to do regional events, both in the north and in the southern end of The County, and we had difficulty doing that, just logistically. So this year we're primarly focusing in central Aroostook.

But do you have people from throughout The County, helping with the program?

Shirley: Yes, we do. We have people all over The County who are interested in, or who are helping to organize. We anticipate that attendance at the events will be representative of people [from] all over The County.

Heather, you're a senior here at Presque Isle and your major is social work. What is your involvement in "Aroostook Mental Illness Awareness Week"?

Heather Lister: I created what's called the HEARTS Project, which stands for Health Enlightenment And Research Transcending the Stigma. There's basically two purposes that I have with this project; one of them is going to be to raise money for NARSAD, the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression. They do more than just schizophrenia and depression, they provide grants for research in all aspects of mental illness, or affective disorders. So, we made pins. There's three hearts on the pins, and three different colors: one is black, one is blue, one is white. Each color is going to represent something different. The black is symbolic of those who have died or lost somebody due to mental illness. The blue is symbolic of those who are currently living with mental illness. And the white is symbolic of hope for better treatment through research. [That's] where NARSAD comes in. The sale of the pins is going to go directly to NARSAD. I [also] wanted to provide some kind of education about mental illness to the public. So on the back of the cards where the hearts are attached, besides telling what the colors symbolize, it's followed by facts, like suicide-related facts related to the black [pin], just statistics and stuff to make the public more aware. The point is to try to reduce some of the stigma. Even though mental illness is biologically based, usually it's morally judged by people because of the personality and the behavior of that person, and I think that's one of the things we need to get past.

Shirley: Well said!

Shirley, is there a goal for this week of activities?

Shirley: Absolutely, absolutely there is a goal. Mental illness is one of those illnesses that is invisible, and there is a lot of fear about what mental illness is and what it is not. There's a lot of misunderstanding about mental illness. The goal of Mental Illness Awareness Week is to really give people permission to talk about mental illness, and to encourage the dialogue around the hope that exists through treatment. Part of that is about research, scientific research, to find answers to these brain disorders. And to encourage people to share their hope and to share the different ways that people live successfully with mental illness. In other words, it doesn't need to be a closet illness anymore than heart disease needs to be a closet illness. It's something that happens to people. It's a biological disorder, and we need to approach it from a public health approach, rather than secrecy and shame and stigma. That's archaic.

Were you able to identify tangible results from the program last year?

Shirley: In terms of data, I can tell you how many people attended each one of the events and the events were very well attended. I would count that as evidence of success, that what we are doing met some needs of people in the community. Anecdotally, I would also like to illustrate that in addition to numbers of people attending the events, the feedback was positive, both in terms of written evaluations, as well as people coming up to myself or to presenters and then saying, thank you so much for doing this. I'll give you an example. Yesterday I was at the faculty tea, and I was explaining to someone what Mental Illness Awareness Week is, and I explained the HEARTS project, and why we were selling the pins. The person that I was speaking to said, "I know what you're talking about. I live my life through lithium." Lithium is a treatment for bipolar disorder. Now, I had no way to tell that this person had a mental illness, and she wouldn't necessarily give me that information, you know, "Hello, my name is so-and-so, and I have a mental illness," but she bought a pin, and she said, "Thank you so much, keep up the good work." If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that comment since our first Mental Illness Awareness Week last year, as well as the six months that we've been working on it this year, I would have a pocketful of money. So I think people do benefit, it's back to that stigma piece. We have to say the words, mental illness, there's no shame in that; it is a brain disorder.

Who else is involved in this week of events, besides the UMPI?

This is a partnership in terms of putting this project together. We have financial sponsorship from the State of Maine Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation, and Substance Abuse Services. Of course, UM-Presque Isle, the cultural arts program is an underwriter of these events. The Quality Improvement Council, which is a local representation of persons who both provide and utilize mental health services, are financial sponsors. The Central Aroostook National Alliance for the Mentally Ill is a financial sponsor. Aroostook Mental Health Center, the student organization of social workers, Aroostook Steel Company, and many other sponsors. The Defense Finance and Accounting Service put our brochure together, so in-kind support from a number of folks as well, and also Governor King's children's cabinet, the Maine Youth Suicide Prevention Project, is part of our activities. They have helped with mailings and will be doing training during the week. So clearly it is a collective effort.

Something I wanted to ask about was the role of the Social Work Department. Shirley, you teach social work, and Heather, you're a student majoring in that. That's a field of study that leads directly into working with the mentally ill?

Heather: For some, if you choose that path, you can.

Is that the path you're going to take, Heather?

Heather: Actually, it's not. But it is very important to me personally, even though I choose not to work in that field. I have bipolar disorder myself, and I have dealt with it, and I know it's a stigma. I've had people tell me I should be ashamed of the fact that I had to be in the hospital, so I know, and it is important to me to do this.

Shirley: You ask about the importance of the role of social work in this project, and part of the perspective of social work is to act in a role as an advocate for those whose voices may not be heard. Using this public venue to do education, using the arts, using the variety of different ways of reaching people, including didactic as well as the arts, is a way that we can speak for persons who are affected by mental illness and to publicly get this information out. Again, to reduce the stigma, and that's part of the mission of those of us who choose to be social workers, that that is part of our professional code of ethics.

Who are the people that you're trying to draw to this week's events?

Shirley:  Everyone who has an interest in mental illness. If the statistics are correct, one out of five people are touched by mental illness. So, if there are five people in the room, it's likely that one of them is either living with mental illness or has a family member affected by mental illness. So, again, being an "invisible" disability, we don't know who has mental illness. They don't look any different than anybody else. We don't know. But everyone is welcome and anyone who has an interest in this, particularly from the perspective of suicide prevention, from the perspective of working with persons who have mental illness, providing services to persons that may be effected by mental illness. It is open to the public. It's not designed to be professional training as much as it is geared to the lay person, so that they can learn and sort of demystify what is mental illness.

I was glancing through the week's schedule, and what strikes me is that there are two major programs that deal with suicide. One is "Maine Youth Suicide Prevention Program", and the other is "Suicide Awareness". Is suicide such a growing issue?

Heather: It has tripled since the 1950s.

Really? I wasn't aware.

Heather:  It has, and I think it's getting to be more and more of a problem. I don't know if it has to do with society changing and less family structure, but a strong part behind suicide has to do with depression, clinical depression, even bipolar disorder in teenagers and adults. You know, we need to really get behind the research so that they get better treatment, and I guess prevention is what I'm thinking of. Better prevention so that it doesn't get to that point, whether that be through the schools, through educating the parents. We need better strategies. I think the biological part of that is just a piece of that, but it's a big piece, because when they can [better] understand the workings of the brain, then they're going to have better treatments and understand what's happening ahead of time. Does that make any sense?

Shirley: Makes sense to me. To clarify as well, youth suicide is a national problem, as well as a problem in Maine. Every year in the United States there are about 5,000 suicides among youth under the age of 25. Maine unfortunately has the dubious distinction of a higher suicide rate than the national average for youth under the age of 25. In our state, suicide is the second leading cause of death for 15- to 24-year olds. Which doesn't necessarily mean that all youths who commit suicide have a mental illness, so I don't want to confuse that. There might be other factors as well, but we know that young people and adults with mental illness are at greater risk for suicide because of the nature of the symptoms of mental illness.

You deal with emotional health and emotional well-being in young people.

Shirley: Yes, as well as mental illness, depression or bipolar disorder. But it's not one or the other; there are many factors that may put a youth at risk. Youths, too, have risk factors and also have mental illness, such as depression, or bipolar disorder, or some mental illness that impairs their decision making. They are impulsive or at greater risk for engaging in higher risk activities. Also in the state of Maine we can't overlook the availability of handguns, of weapons, and the use of alcohol. Those are deadly combinations that can result in tragic loss. So, part of reducing the stigma and getting that information out to the public is not leaving the subject of suicide to mental health providers or professionals, such as psychologists, but providing education to school teachers, to coaches, to guidance counselors, to moms and dads, to peer groups, so that the issues, the risks, can be identified. The literature tells us that most people who suicide give information out before it happens, that it is not usually a surprise. Being able to identify those cues, and being able to respond in a way that would get help for that person at risk, is what our hope is in terms of prevention.

For people who want more information, who should they contact?

Shirley:  In terms of suicide prevention, there are local and national numbers. A local mental health crisis hotline is 1-888-568-1112.