Wear Red Day: Promoting Healthy Hearts and Healthy Minds 

Erik R. Vanderlip, MD, MPH 

Researchers today are putting together what it means to truly have a “broken heart.” As we adorn our favorite red apparel for “National Wear Red Day” to raise awareness of the untold stories of millions of women experiencing strokes or heart attacks in our country, we must consider the contribution of poor mental health to this burden. 

Clinical depression has repeatedly been linked with accelerating the onset of heart attacks and strokes and severely complicating recovery. People with depression often lack the concentration and energy to effectively exercise, eat healthfully, and engage in rehabilitation to optimize recovery. Several studies 1,2 have suggested significant reductions in heart attacks and improved rehabilitation after stroke with proper depression treatment, yet these practices are not yet standard care. Proactively managing our moods and emotions should be granted the same time and effort as lowering our cholesterol, losing weight or dieting. From taking a daily aspirin to taking a walk, keeping tabs on our emotions and addressing them head-on should be an essential part of heart and brain health. 


There are a number of reasons this hasn’t caught on. Cardiologists and primary care physicians are happy to roll up their sleeves to manage cholesterol and lower blood pressure, but when it comes to emotions, many lack the training and expertise to feel confident in diagnosing mental illness, much less manage it. Mental illness is often seen as very subjective, making it challenging to measure or assess. 


Furthermore, mental illness is too often stigmatizing, and many people are embarrassed to admit they’re struggling to cope. Or they may feel as if the overwhelming hopelessness they’re feeling is a natural consequence of having a heart attack or stroke. While it may be common, we know it’s not healthy. Solid, effective treatments exist that we know can help improve our quality of life as well as, perhaps, extend longevity. 


We’re not scared to talk to our doctors about high blood pressure or aspirin, and we shouldn’t be scared to talk to them about our mood. It may be one of the only ways we can begin to mend our broken hearts. 

More information from the American Heart Association:

• Mental Health and Heart Health


• How Does Depression Affect the Heart? 

References: 

1. Jorge RE, Acion L, Moser D, Adams HP, Robinson RG. Escitalopram and enhancement of cognitive recovery following stroke. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2010;67(2):187-96. doi:10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2009.185.

2. Stewart JC, Perkins AJ, Callahan CM. Effect of Collaborative Care for Depression on Risk of Cardiovascular Events: Data From the IMPACT Randomized Controlled Trial. Psychosom Med. 2014;76(1):29-37. doi:10.1097/PSY.0000000000000022.

→ → → ☁ ← ← ←

What a line-up!
Short and sweet this week, as your blogger is out of the country. More on that soon. I’m thrilled to announce some of the line-up for our free one-day event here at Manchester School of Art on the 12th February. Alongside Dr Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt, who will be publishing her new report on the long-term health benefits of participating in the arts, we will hear from/about:
  WordPlay with Michelle Green and Harriet Morgan-Shami 
  42nd Street with Julie McCarthy 
  Red Balloon Pop with Sandra Bouguerch
  I Care with Kate Bevan 
  The Art Room at The Christie Hospital with Patricia Mountford
  Medical Waste with Coral Mallow 
  Gemma Climbs Her Mountain Gemma Christie and Chris Salt
  Look200 with Lucy Burscough
  Well into Words with Julie Walker 
  Outside In with Jennifer Gilbert 
  Pool Arts and St Lukes with Alison Kershaw
  I AM - Art as an Agent for Change and a Recoverist Manifesto
  Mark Prest and Clive Parkinson
The event is fully booked, but you can join our waiting list by clicking on the winter scene above.

BBC Children in Need Main Grant Programme
BBC Children in Need has announced that the next applications deadline for its Main Grants Programme is the 15th May 2015. Funding is available to organisations that work with young people who are suffering from:
 Illness 
 Distress
 Abuse or neglect
 Are disabled
 Have behavioural or psychological difficulties
 Or are living in poverty or situations of deprivation.
The Main grants programme is open to applications for grants of over £10,000. find out more by clicking on the image of the bizarre Ms Beatrix Potter taking her poor rabbit for a walk.

Healthy Hearts Grants for Community Projects
Heart Research UK has announced that its Health Hearts Grants Programme is now open for applications. Heart Research UK Healthy Heart Grants support innovative projects designed to promote heart health and to prevent or reduce the risks of heart disease in specific groups or communities. Grants of up to £5,000 and £10,000 are available to community groups, voluntary organisations and researchers who are spreading the healthy heart message. The closing date for applications is the 28th February 2015. Read more by clicking on the tickety-boom-boom below.

That's it for this week. Short and Sweet.                                          

...

Each week through this blog, I try to bring you new opportunities for funding, events and some gentle social comment. This week’s sees a hideous car-crash of polemic and funding, as I caught sight of a new government fund for a pot of gold and a ridiculously short run-in time! Still, the monstrously titled: New Character Education Grant Fund has to have a mention, doesn’t it? I fear it may just be me, but it sounds like some bastard hybrid love child of the government’s Nudge Unit and Quack Psychiatry. It seems only a moment ago that simple religious conversion/treatment or behaviour modification techniques and a cocktail of prescribed meds, could cure you of being gay! Then of course, there are people who by their very nature, question the status quo - we can’t have that. 'New Character' - good grief! 

Still this agenda to change ‘character traits, attributes and behaviours’ is probably innocent stuff designed to give future generations more ‘perseverance, resilience and grit.’ Ahh - True Grit - I guess it’s what our children need battering into them by the state. I whole new generation of John Wayne’s, or else - heaven knows - John Wayne Gacy, Jr’s?

So artists and free-thinkers - be the instrument of the state - you have the power to be the next generation of behaviour-eugenicists. And we’ll have absolutely no discussion of the social determinants of health and well-being, let’s just focus on all the idiosyncrasies of being human, being different, having opinions and hearty dissenting voices. Let’s not question authority and instead, just focus on creating children who are wholesome, fresh-faced and utterly, utterly, compliant - the 'stupid athletes of capitalist productivity'.

Government Launches New Character Education Grant Fund 

The Department for Education has announced that schools, colleges, universities, local authorities and voluntary organisations can apply to a new £3.5 million character education grant fund to support projects in character education. The Department want to ensure that more children develop a set of character traits, attributes and behaviours that underpin success in education and work, such as perseverance, resilience and grit; confidence and optimism; motivation, drive and ambition; etc. The funding is available to encourage the expansion of existing projects that demonstrate effective character education. The funding will also support new and innovative projects to develop promising approaches in this area. Up to £3.5 million is available to grant fund projects in the 2015 to 2016 academic year. There is no predetermined level of grant award, but as a guide grant awards are expected to be in the region of £50,000 to £750,000. The closing date for applications is 12 noon on the 6th February 2015. Read more by clicking on those athletic, javelin-throwing, G.M.  women at the top of the page.

Making Mental Health Fashionable

Senior Lecturer in Psychology at University of the Arts London and friend of Arts for Health Dr Victoria Tischler writes, that outsider art can refashion how we think about mental illness. Read her article by clicking on the Adolf Wolfi drawing above. If you like what you read, why not check out an event that Victoria is planning called Making Mental Health Fashionable on 27 February. Find out more by clicking on the crowd of everyday people below.

BMA Patient Information Awards 2015
The British Medical Association has run a Patient Information Awards for the last twenty years in order to recognise excellence in the provision of information to patients and to support the valuable work which is done by many charities and agencies,   It is free to enter and shortlisted agencies are invited to an awards ceremony at BMA House in London in September. The closing date is the end of February 2015 but if you have resources you wish to enter then please do it as soon as possible.  You can find more information by clicking on this link. http://bma.org.uk/librarypia



ARTS MENTORING FOR ARTISTS IN MANCHESTER
Are you an artist in the Manchester area that has experienced mental health needs? If so, you may be eligible to take part in a limited number of mentoring sessions with Pool Arts. Our mentor, James Bloomfield offers one to one sessions where you can show your portfolio, discuss how to progress with your practice and explore opportunities that may be available to you. You will also find out more about Pool Arts and the benefits of becoming a member. 
We are offering up to two mentor sessions per person for a small fee (to cover admin costs) on a first come first served basis. Just e.mail us a short paragraph about yourself and why you would like a mentoring session and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Sessions take place in our central Manchester studio facility from February 2015. Cost £10 (for up to two sessions) Contact Alison Kershaw poolarts@gmail.com and put MENTORING in the subject bar. Alternatively call our office on 0161 273 1492 and leave a short message and we will ring you back as soon as we can. Find out more by following this link.

http://poolarts.org/blog/arts-mentoring-for-artists-in-manchester/

De Profundis – From the depths

“I was diagnosed with Cyclothymia (considered to be a milder form of Bipolar Disorder) in my early twenties. It was a dark point in my life. I was struggling, spending months in bed without leaving the house, completely isolated from society. Thankfully from the depths of depression, I was given a camera. The camera has over the years transformed my life. In this project I explore how the arts can help people who are suffering, as I was. Beauty can be found in the smallest of things and I attribute the camera for seeing beauty and purpose in life again…” Pete Regan. An exhibition starting Saturday 7 Feb 2015 - Saturday 2 May 2015. More details by clicking on the flyer above.

PRN

Artist, illustrator and nurse Anna Magnowska is developing a new web resource and magazine making connections between art, medicine, culture, science, technology and history whilst also focusing on the practical elements of nursing. Anna says: “we aim to create something beautiful that explores what it is be human, and what it is to be a nurse in the 21st century.” We say - this looks superb. Click on the logo above for more.

A brief footnote from history 
The US-based Arts and Health Alliance, formally The Global Alliance for Arts and Health, formally The Society for the Arts in Healthcare, has currently ‘...has ceased functioning as a going entity due to management and financial issues.” More soon…

You want to do what?!?! The importance of informed consent in treatment

By Gail  A. Edelsohn, MD, MSPH

We come across ads in print, on television
and on the Internet for medications and therapies that promise to make your child
do his homework without a screaming match, behave better and generally restore
harmony to home life. Not so easy, taking a medication raises a host of
questions:  How long does the therapy
take? Should I as the parent sign off on this? What about the possible serious
side effects, such as significant weight gain, thoughts about suicide, risk of
diabetes or a life-threatening condition?

Parents and legal guardians make
decisions about psychosocial therapy and medication treatment for children and
adolescents every day. But who should give permission and sign informed
consent?  What should parents, advocates,
guardians be looking for or consider before signing informed consent? Is
signing a form enough?  What about the child
or teen - do they have a voice regarding their own treatment?

What is Informed Consent?

Psychiatric informed consent
involves a parent or legal guardian giving
permission for his/her child to undergo evaluation and treatment.  It is a
process which partly involves receiving sufficient relevant information about
the condition, prognosis, risks and benefits of treatment to be given and other
types of treatment available. Informed consent is NOT simply a signed and dated
form. Parents and guardian should expect informed consent to include:

  The purpose of the treatment

• To address a specific condition or diagnosis?

• To lessen symptoms?

•  To change behaviors?

  The effects of treatment

• How will you know if it is working?

•  How long till you see an effect?

  Risks of treatment

• Side effects of medications

• Consequences of psychosocial treatment (e.g., therapy
  can be emotionally difficult)

  Risks of NO treatment

• Will symptoms improve over time without
  treatment?

• Will things get worse or lead to other
  consequences? (e.g., Untreated individuals are more likely to use substances,
  get into legal trouble)

  What alternative treatments are available?
  

For medication

• Is it FDA approved for this age and condition?
  (i.e., prescribed FDA on label)

• If it is prescribed off-label, why?

• Are there any FDA warnings about the medication
  and what do they mean?

• What is the plan for stopping or phasing out the
  medication?

     Parents and legal guardians are
asked to give legal permission or informed consent for treatment.  If a child is in foster care, it may be the
parent or it may be child welfare service or court that can give consent.   Where a child is living (home, out of home
placement) does not tell you who the legal guardian is.  In some states an adolescent may give
informed consent for psychiatric treatment depending on the state’s legislation
about mental health procedures. Ideally the parents/guardians and the child
should be involved in treatment decision making.

Children also have a voice in
this process.  Children and youth should
be involved in giving assent.  Assent involves providing the child or teen
with information about the therapy or medication in terms appropriate to their
age and stage of development. The assent process should include opportunities
for the child/adolescent to ask questions and have their concerns addressed.

Gail A.
Edelsohn, MD, MSPH, is senior medical officer with Community Care Behavioral
Health, clinical professor of psychiatry and human behavior,  Jefferson
Medical College, and clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral science,
Temple University School of Medicine.

…the little things in life

Unexpected Outcomes

A number of you will be aware that I’m involved in a piece of research called Dementia and Imagination, (D & I) which is going from strength to strength. As part of that work I am exploring what I’m calling the Unexpected Outcomes of the research engagement with people affected by dementia. In other words, what are all the things that happen around a visual arts intervention, but that aren’t necessarily what the research is formally investigating; things like small moments of disinhibition, revelatory and sometimes poetic reflections - negative and positive moments in people’s lives, and the moments often swept under the carpet - irritation, dissent and ‘inappropriate’ behaviours  Whilst my primary focus is on people participating in D & I, I would be very interested to hear more widely from artists, health/care professionals, researchers and people affected by dementia who may have personal perspectives and stories about their engagement with the arts more broadly than the visual arts (of which D & I is focused). Please feel free to email at artsforhealth@aol.com

I’m rather chuffed to say that the Chaos and Comfort event here at MMU on the 12th February is now sold out, but as someone who’s organised free events before, I know there’s a chance that people may drop-out at the last minute, so please feel free to join our waiting list by clicking on the black, red and white image above. And if you can't make it, please cancel your ticket on the eventbrite page. Thank you to everyone who has asked to share their practice/research at the event. I’ll be emailing you all next Monday to respond.
It will of course be a full day and inevitably chaotic, but I hope - absorbing and stimulating. Next week’s blog will have a run down of what you can expect!

Lead Artist(s) required for Early Years Outreach 

Co-commission for Big Imaginations in the NW

Contract: up to £8000

Closes Monday 26 January 2015 

Contact: Zoe on 01612261912 or email zoe@z-arts.org

Big Imaginations is a network of 16 venues working together to bring brilliant children's theatre to the North West. Big Imaginations are recruiting for an energetic and creative lead-artist(s) based in the North of England to research, develop and perform a brand-new piece of interactive performance for early years (0 to 4) children that can be performed in community and non-theatre settings such as libraries, nurseries and village halls. Alongside the performance will be an outreach programme to engage hard to reach and non-engaged children and families in each of the community settings. The outreach programme could be delivered by the lead artist, or the lead artist could guide the delivery by workshop leaders if appropriate. The successful artist will be provided with a budget of up to £8000 to cover research and develop and to make the performance, including 14 performances (1 at each community venue). For all the details and how to apply, click on the ancient tree, by Beth Moon above. the application deadline is short and is Monday 26th January 12noon.

The Birth Rites Collection is the first and only collection of contemporary artwork dedicated to the subject of childbirth. The collection currently comprises of photography, sculpture, painting, wallpaper, drawing, new media, documentary and experimental film. It is housed between the Royal College of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians in London and Salford University Midwifery Department. 

Submissions for our Bi-annual award are now open!

Artwork can be submitted in any medium. 

DEADLINE 7th February 2015. Entrance fee £10

The winner will receive a residency at the Women’s Art Library, Goldsmiths University, London plus a stipend and winning work to be included in the Birth Rites Collection, Salford University. Shortlisted artists will have their work screened digitally at Media CityUK in the Egg Suite in March 2015. Judges: Helen Knowles BRC Curator & Althea Greenan, Women's Art Library, Goldsmiths University, London.

All the details can be found by clicking on the photograph above by Dominika Dzikowska, part of her Warm Wet Velvet series of images from the Birth Rites Collection.

Applications Invited for 2015/15 Clore Fellowships

Are you an exceptional individual with the potential and desire to lead within culture? The Clore Fellowship brings together some of the most creative and dynamic cultural leaders in the UK and beyond for a life-changing adventure - it is a personal and professional learning experience unlike any other. The Fellowship will support you to be the leader you have the potential to be, through in-depth learning tailored to your individual needs, aspirations and circumstances. For more information simply tap your cursor over the cosmos above - maybe, just maybe you are that exceptional individual that they're after! Deadline for applications is 12 noon, 2nd February 2015.

ADVANCE NOTICE

Reassembling the Self  

The Lauriston Gallery

Saturday 7 February - Saturday 30 May

Monday - Saturday 10am - 5pm (8pm on performance nights)

To think of schizophrenia as a fragmented mind and then to focus on isolated fragments – the altered visual perceptions, heard voices, paranoid delusions – is to miss the whole experience… All of the work [in this exhibition] is at heart about human identity, the sense of self and how it holds itself together.

    Professor Anya Hurlbert 

    Institute of Neuroscience

    Newcastle University

Reassembling the Self is an exhibition centred on a study of the condition of schizophrenia, which weaves together art, science, psychiatry and individual histories in an extraordinary exploration of self, perception and the fragility of human identity. Find out more by clicking on the image, Reassembling the Self 1 by Susan Aldworth, above.

Postcode Community Trust Community Grants Scheme 

(North of England, Scotland & Wales)

The Postcode Community Trust has announced that its new Community Grants Scheme is open for applications. Funding of between £500 and £20,000 is available for innovative and engaging projects (lasting for up to one year) in the north of England, Scotland and Wales that bring a positive impact to local communities. Charities and community groups that support environmental protection, community development, engagement in sport, advancement of health, promotion of human rights and prevention of poverty, can apply. The deadline for applications is Friday 30th January 2015. Read more at: http://www.postcodecommunitytrust.org.uk 

BBC Children in Need Small Grants Programme

The next deadline for applications to the BBC Children in Need Small Grants programme is the 1st March 2014. Through the Small Grants programme, funding up to £10,000 is available for projects that combat disadvantage and improve children and young people's lives. In particular, grants are available for projects that help children and young people experiencing:

Illness, distress, abuse or neglect

Any kind of disability

Behavioural or psychological difficulties

And / or living in situations of deprivation

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4fJVTzz5QmQx5rx0S4NVg0Q/small-grants

.

Happy for Life?

Awful week - and I’ve nothing of import to add to what you already know about attacks on cartoonists. We all know art and popular culture are powerful. From my very limited life experience, I can only reflect on my own community, and living on a very ethnically diverse street, I feel yet again, the mortification of neighbours affected by prejudice. The very real horrors of this last week might best be considered alongside a thousand other atrocities carried out by suited and booted others. Hideous - the whole bloody thing.

So too - and I guess because it’s the new year, and everyone builds up their temporary delusion of fame - I notice that the Guardian, alongside all its smug celebrity columnists, (who now don’t just have huge byline photos, but more often than not, are the paper's cover stars) is increasingly selling its delusional brand, through its ‘UEA-Guardian Masterclasses’. They’re now ‘accepting’ applications for their February courses ranging from ‘How to tell a story’ to ‘How to finish a work of fiction’. If you want the honour of taking part in one of these courses and having a taste of fame by proxy, you’ll only have to pay between £1,500 and £4,000 for your one night a week course. Bargain bucket and obviously open to the masses. 

Another full-page ad in the same rag this week advertises a new Guardian app. - Happy for Life - sponsored by a life insurance company! Under the banner: Find Happiness in the Everyday - here are some of the highlights from Sunday 11th January, and a reminder that apparently their app. gives ‘simple activities to make you happier, every day.’ Simple? Puerile? Deluded?

• Will juggling satsumas really make me happier?
• Are you happy with your partner?
• Take the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire.
• Life getting you down? Learn to bounce back.
• 10 ways to get more exercise - without really trying.
• The shocking history of life insurance.
• The 11 best films about life insurance.

OK - enough already and on with the show. If you were still living the good life last week, and missed the blog, it was a short essay called Fiction-Non-Fiction.

Arts and Health Event February 12th
Whilst others may charge ludicrous amounts for training and conferences, our event on the 12th of February is free, free, free to those working in, or interested in the people’s republic of arts and health! Whilst - CHAOS & COMFORT - the ARTS - from LONG-TERM IMPACT to SOCIAL CHANGE - might explore fleeting moments of happiness, it will also allow time for some disquiet. Over half the tickets went last week, so if you want to attend, please register by clicking on the glittering dream below.

Judging by peoples responses and offers of sharing their work, we’ll be hearing about arts/health research/practice that explore:

• Drama
• Reading
• Dementia
• Substance Misuse
• Dance
• Children and Young People’s Mental Health
• International Perspectives

Of course the whole thing is framed in Dr Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt’s new report on long-term influences of arts participation on health and wellbeing. There’ll be fee copies of the report and MA students from the School of Art will be responding to the agenda. OK, more next week.

Young People and Mental Health:Training for People Working in the Creative Industries
Monday, February 9, 2015  and Monday, March 16, 2015
42nd Street is a Manchester based charity, nationally recognised for its work with young people experiencing mental health issues.
We are offering a two day training course aimed at people working in the Creative Industries who would benefit from a greater awareness and understanding of the mental health issues facing young people and how to most effectively support them. This opportunity is free of charge for people working in the Creative Industries. We are particularly keen to offer places to work in the Heritage Sector. 
http://us7.campaign-archive1.com/?u=01812bdd62a28e7b4a97adaf7&id=edbe31c297&e=0679f7fb52 

City Health Care Partnership Foundation Small Grants Programme 
The City Health Care Partnership Foundation has announced that the next deadline for its small grant programme is the 1st March 2015. The programme provides grants or donations of up to £1,000 to local voluntary and community organisations, schools and/or other not-for-profit organisations to carry out activities, projects or one-off events that contribute towards the health and wellbeing of people throughout the UK. To be eligible, groups and organisations needs to have been in existence for at least one year, have an annual income of less than £30K, and work for the benefit of the local community in which CHCP CIC operates. Click on the unhappy sunflower for more details.

Austin & Hope Pilkington Trust
The Austin and Hope Pilkington Trust which awards grants to registered charities in the United Kingdom has announced that the next closing date for applications is the 1st June 2015. During 2015, the Trust is seeking to fund projects that promote Community development and Medical - Research and non-research. Grants are usually between £1,000 and £3,000 and are awarded for one year. http://www.austin-hope-pilkington.org.uk/what-we-fund/

Clore Poetry & Literature Awards 
The Clore Duffield Foundation has announced that the seventh funding round under its £1 million programme to fund poetry and literature initiatives for children and young people across the UK is now open for applications. Through the programme, schools, FE colleges, community groups, libraries and other arts/cultural organisations can apply for grants of between £1,000 and £10,000 to support participatory learning projects and programmes focused on literature, poetry and creative writing for under 19s.
http://www.cloreduffield.org.uk/Grant_Programmes.htm

The Power of Words: Addressing the Stigma of Mental Illness

Jenna Bowen, medical student, University of Wisconsin

Reviewed by Claudia Reardon, MD

Crazy.  Insane.  Deranged. Mad.  Lunatic. —Misused as nouns, adjectives and
lay-diagnoses, their use perpetuates stereotypes of the wide variety of people
who experience mental illness.

Maybe you know someone or, more likely, a number of people who
experience depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder or other brain disorders.  According to the National Institute of Mental
Health, 1 in 4 American adults and 1 in 5 American youth experience a form of
mental illness every year. People with mental illness are teachers, accountants,
neighbors, sisters, fathers and friends. Anyone you know could be experiencing
mental illness, but afraid to come forward and be treated. Maybe that person is
you.

People living with mental illness continue to have an identity
that is beyond a diagnosis, similar to other medical conditions. While managing
mental illness may be challenging at times—similar to challenges faced by
people with diabetes, high blood pressure, or other medical illness— there is
greater difficulty in getting the treatment needed because of feelings of shame
and stigma surrounding mental illness. However, treatment for mental illness
works. Research shows the majority (65 percent to 80 percent) of individuals
with mental disorders will improve with appropriate treatment and ongoing
monitoring. People with mental illness need to know that they will continue
to be seen as people – your brother, best friend, daughter —and not “crazed” or
“insane” if they appropriately seek help for a treatable medical condition that
they happen to be experiencing.

Bring Change 2 Mind, an organization aimed to end stigma and
discrimination surrounding mental illness, offers recommendations to reduce
your impact on the stigma surrounding those with mental illness.

• Use "person first" vocabulary. When we say a person is
  schizophrenic, we make their mental illness fully define their identity.
  Instead, be clear that this is a disease that individuals manage and live with—
  "He is living with schizophrenia."


• Avoid the verb "suffers" when discussing mental illness.
  Instead, choose, "lives with mental illness" or "is affected by
  mental illness."


• There are many phrases and terms; "crazy,"
  "nuts", "psycho", "schizo", "retard"
  and "lunatic" that may seem insignificant, but really aren't.

Be an advocate for those that you know, and the many that you
don’t know, who are living with some form of mental illness by breaking down stigma,
and being conscious of language surrounding brain disorders. To learn more check
out:

·        
Bring
Change 2 Mind

·        
NAMI
– Stigma Busters

·        
Resource Center to Promote Acceptance, Dignity and
 Social Inclusion Associated with Mental Health (SAMHSA)

·        
Mental
Health Terminology:  Words Matter