Inspiration Through Empathy: Peer Support

A short documentary by a student filmmaker about a peer support group in Kelowna, BC, Canada. A group of mental health consumers meets weekly, views a presentation on a topic of their choice, then breaks into smaller groups to talk about their mental health issues and building wellness. Peer support is different than other support services (not a replacement, it’s complementary to professional services) because it’s a space for people to come together with others who truly understand what it’s like to live with a mental illness, providing empathy, reassurance, and connection that can’t be found any other way.

Click here to view with English subtitles

Mentally Ill Seek Afghan Shrines, Not Hospitals

With only 80 mental health treatment beds for an entire country of (an estimated) 29 million people (in 2009), desperation and superstition thrive in Afghanistan. An alternative “treatment” program in a religious shrine involves chaining people by the ankle for 40 days, allowing them to eat only bread, water, and black pepper, forbidding bathing, toilets, or changing clothes, wearing necklace amulets, and heavy doses of Islamic prayers. “The philosophy is, God can heal you or make you ill if he wants.” Although Afghan officials, medical personnel, and some consumers condemn the practice, devotees continue to visit the shrines to be chained up (or force their relatives to be chained), hoping for a miraculous cure. This video features the Mia Ali Sahib Shrine near Jalalabad.

Andre Picard: Mental Health and the Media

An interview with a health reporter for The Globe & Mail, a national Canadian newspaper. Topics include mental health stigma, sensationalization, marginalized issues, and policy. They also talk about reader feedback, and parallels to journalism about breast cancer.

Possible Worlds: Hearing Voices or Uninvited Guests

Art video featuring performance poetry and imagery about modern living and madness. Winner of the 2011 reTHiNK Possible Worlds award, with the theme “We are all human beings navigating the maze of life.” reTHiNK Possible Worlds was a series of multimedia performance art shows developed to reduce the stigma and discrimination associated with mental ‘illness’ in Auckland, New Zealand. It incorporated a video contest and the best submissions, including the above, were featured at the shows at Galatos during Mental Health Awareness Week.

Challenging The Stigma of Mental Illness & Suicide

Mariel Hemingway accepts The McLean Award for her efforts to inspire mental health and wellness. She talks about coming from a family with seven suicides and more mental illlness, stigma, the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and “moral code,” and McLean Hospital’s mental health services on their 200th anniversary. Award inscription: “For your tremendous efforts in furthering the public’s understanding of mental health.”

Cameron

Candid interview with a Fort McMurray, Alberta man who is homeless and dealing with a drug addiction, talking about the lack of accessible drug rehab programs, a dangerous story of life and death in dumpsters, what it’s like to experience withdrawal, and barriers to treatment. Part of Invisible People Road Trip 2011, a summer’s worth of street interviews with Canadians who are homeless. The short interviews reveal a variety of challenges including mental health issues, abuse, racism, and addictions. Click here for the full series of videos from Canada, and check out blog posts about other mental health issues around the world in the World Mental Health Day blog party.

Tristan Jepson Memorial Foundation 2008 Lecture

Ian Hickie presents research on mental health issues in the Australian legal profession. He discusses help-seeking behaviours, productivity, disability, economic burden of illness, suicide and prevention efforts, substance use, neurobiology, treatments, gender and age differences, stigma and discrimination, and more. Extremely well-researched presentation with many statistics and perspectives. The 40 minute lecture is followed by a panel discussion, a Q&A session with the audience, and a brief talk by organization co-founder George Jepson. The Tristan Jepson Memorial Foundation works to “raise awareness, improve education and build effective models of support which focus on mental health wellbeing” in the legal profession, and funds relevant research including that of Prof. Hickie.

Dave deBronkart: Meet e-Patient Dave

Participatory medicine and patients’ access to their own health data are subjects in a powerful talk by a pioneering e-patient (empowered and engaged patient). Features an interactive transcript. Subtitles available in English, Spanish, French, Romanian, Italian and Dutch.

e-Patient Dave describes his experience with cancer and how learning about his condition online and networking with peers saved his life. Although his focus is cancer, mental health also has e-patients including here at PsychCentral, a member organization in the Society for Participatory Medicine. Personally, I’ve been an e-patient and peer advocate for over a decade, online and off. It’s encouraging to watch the movement grow, both informally and in organizations, but also a bit frustrating. I’ve noticed that while e-patients with other types of health conditions are met with growing acceptance, people living with mental health issues have met with more resistance. In my opinion this may be due to the attitude that we are incapable or unable to participate responsibly. It’s a tricky issue, since there are people whose mental health issues reduce insight into their problems (anosognosia, psychosis), but there are far more who do have the capacity and intelligence to be well-informed participants in their care, and involved in peer advocacy and research. I’m living proof, with experience as a writer, curator, forum moderator, board and advisory committee member, peer support group member, and founder of a peer information sharing suicide prevention service (@unsuicide). It’s my hope that my work and that of people like Dave deBronkart will coalesce to reduce stigma while at the same time improve care and outcomes for peers. Join us!

Trapped: Mental Illness Inside America’s Prisons

A beautiful and harrowing short film by documentary photographer Jenn Ackerman, examining conditions inside the Correctional Psychiatric Treatment Unit of the Kentucky State Reformatory.

A-Way Express: A Courier Service for Peace of Mind

Toronto’s A-Way Express is a “social purpose courier” founded and staffed by mental health consumers, from the executive director to the couriers. This sheltered work environment is a workplace where peers are free to talk about their experiences without stigma, and have the ability to take leave from work and return as needed. However, most of the employees are part-time and paid commission from deliveries instead of a salary.