What a month! Here are some of the highlights:
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April has been a whirlwind month, but in the best sense of the word.
The club was thrilled to have NAMI NYS members, including executive director Wendy Burch, come in to talk with us about other NAMI NYS programs such as Breaking the Silence, and the upcoming NAMI Walk in September. I also had the wonderful opportunity to go in and speak with many members of the NYS Office of Mental Health, including commissioner Ann Sullivan. I was so pleasantly surprised at how much they cared about the club and truly believed that it should spread to other schools. I really cannot fully express my gratitude for their kindness and generosity with their time and advice. It was good practice for me to be asked questions about the club and for presenting, which I hope will help me for my Signature presentation! The OMH also said they would be happy to right a letter of support for the club, which I believe could help tremendously in spreading the club to other schools. I also was notified this month that NAMI@Emma would be receiving a What's Great In Our State award for Children's Mental Health from the OMH.The awards ceremony is Tuesday, May 3rd. Lastly, I was ecstatic to learn that I was accepted to the ANNPower fellowship program for 2016-17, which begins with a leadership seminar in New York City from June 14th-17th. What makes me the happiest about this acceptance is that last year I was rejected, I believe in part due to my lack of a concrete idea about how to combat stigma and enhance mental health education. I am excited that they see the promise in the NAMI@Emma model, and hope to learn many skills I can use in club meetings and in spreading the club. Spring Break has flown by, and I can't believe there are less than 3 months left of school (although I must say I am grateful junior year is coming to a close). I'm looking forward to planning events for May, as it is Mental Health month.
I have written and was very hopeful about getting Hakeem Rahim to speak at Emma as the headliner for this month, but recently ran into some roadblocks. For one, I recently learned that Mr. Rahim's fee is $3000. Since NAMI is a non-profit, and NAMI@Emma, being a first year club, has $0, we have a major financial barrier. It would take a lot of bake sales to raise that kind of money. I also had some trouble effectively communicating the urgency of scheduling a speaker given our tight school schedule. While I had first proposed having a speaker in December, given the scheduling of Emma Talks at school and NAMI NYS's reorganization, it was difficult to have the two collaborate to find a time when Mr. Rahim is available. At this point, I feel it is much too late in the school year to plan a major, mandatory speaking event, which does sadden me, although I do have some other plans for May that I am very excited about. I believe that next year if I begin planning even earlier and am more assertive about getting responses we will be able to get a major speaker on campus. Instead I am hoping to take a service orientation to the Mental Health Month in order to help the Albany community and to make sure that club members feel that they are a vital part of the club. I plan on running a clothes drive for an organization (possibly the Equinox House) that works with the mentally ill homeless populations in Albany, and possibly making a trip to one of these organizations to cook a meal with other club members. In May we will also be participating in the NAMI Ribbon Campaign. In the mean time I am starting to work on compiling resources for the club toolbox that can be given to other schools to spread the club. I have a meeting with NAMI NYS and the Commissioner of the Office of Mental Health next month to talk about a partnership surrounding the NAMI high school club's promotion, and I also hope to see if I can intern at the OMH in August. On Friday March 4th NAMI@Emma hosted Gemma's Beauty in Body Diversity workshop. She first gave a great presentation about beauty myths portrayed by the media, then each participant worked on filling out a chart that listed different aspects of beauty, which they had to rank in importance based on their opinions. A vast majority of girls put weight as the most important factor in beauty. Lastly, each girl filled out a poster on which they wrote what their body could do for them (such as swim, run, bike, etc.), one perceived flaw they had, and in what ways that flaw might benefit them. These posters are now hanging in the 2e cafe. We did a fair amount of advertising for the event (Morning reports announcement, posters, announcements in health classes and some peer ed teas), and about 20 girls came to the event, but some left before making the posters because they were too daunted by the task. I completely understand their reluctance, and hope they will stay next year. It is only when you get into that zone on the border of your comfort and panic zone that you can grow. I think this event was very successful because it allowed all of the participants to reflect upon their own body image, while also seeing that everyone has issues with their own bodies. Reading some of the posters, it is interesting to see many of the people commenting on their perceived flaws that I had never even thought about. With body image and many other things, you really are your harshest critic. I hope we can run this event next year, and maybe integrate more information about eating disorder symptoms and resources in it. That being said, I think this event exemplified teaching girls good mental health practices. I truly wish everyone came to the event, because I think they all would have gained something from it. In the past I know that Gemma had made the event part of the Peer-Ed tea, which I think is a great idea for the future. Today I went in with my mother to her work at the Department of Health for Principal's Play Day and had the wonderful opportunity to listen to a lecture given by the Director of the Schenectady City Mission, Mike Saccocio, and some of his associates. The program was centered around the Bridges Out of Poverty program that is being implemented in Schenectady and across the country to help eradicate generational poverty (2 or more generations in poverty). Before I dive into the connection I found in this program to NAMI, I wanted to go over what I thought to be some of the most interesting points of the discussion:
Of course many people living with a mental illness face poverty and homelessness (especially considering the lack of housing available to them). This is one direct connection to the lecture, but more loosely a lot of the ideas they expressed about the mental models that shape out perceptions, the necessity of respect and understanding, the the importance of collaboration, and the change over time of different issues were very closely related to the issues of decreasing the stigma surrounding mental illness. I can't yet say what I hope to do with this newly gained knowledge, but I do know that I'm very happy to have had this opportunity to reevaluate the best ways to solve problems in a community, which I think will prove to be useful for my project. On Tuesday the 23rd Ella, Grey, and I had the wonderful opportunity to attend NAMI NYS's Legislative Day. Similar to the Educational Conference we got to listen to many speakers such as Assemblyman Phil Steck and the Commissioner of the NYS Office of Mental Health Dr. Sullivan. It was great to hear from people who were really at the front lines of getting some really good and overdue policies passed and into law. In addition to making some small talk about NAMI@Emma with supporters of NAMI and government officials, we took part in a rally on the Capitol steps advocating for preserving and increasing the budget for housing programs for people living with mental illnesses. My favorite part of the day was speaking to my Assemblyperson, Patricia Fahy, advocating for the Mental Health Education in Schools Bill. This bill would revise the current New York State health class curriculum, which currently does not cover mental health at all. And really, can you have physical health without having mental health? Also, 50% of mental illnesses arise before age 17, and if students are not taught about the symptoms and signs of certain illnesses and where to go for help, it may take them many unnecessary years to figure out that they have an illness, if they do at all. Early treatment has also been shown to significantly improve the outcomes for those living with mental illnesses. To me, this bill really seemed like a no brainer, but the main opposition is coming form the NYS Teacher's Union. We also got to talk to Assemblywoman Fahy about NAMI@Emma, and expressed out hope that she would encourage Albany County school districts to set up chapters of their own NAMI clubs. We would like to start with Guilderland and Albany schools. This was such a great opportunity to get directly involved with the policy surrounding mental illness, and I know it was an invaluable learning experience for me! Last Friday the 5th Matthew Shapiro, NAMI NYS's Public Communications Director, came to visit NAMI@Emma. He spoke to us about NAMI NYS's Legislative Day, which will be occurring on February the 23rd in Downtown Albany. My co-head Ella and I will be attending and advocating for a Mental Health in Schools Bill, which would make mental health education a mandatory aspect of school's health curriculum.We hope that the girls who are unable to attend the conference will get involved with a letter writing campaign or with advocating for these bills via social media. Mr. Shapiro also spoke to us about NAMI NYS's walk next year, which will be happening on September 24th. I'm very excited to use this walk as an opportunity to fundraise some money for NAMI! Some girls also asked some very good questions about the genetics about mental illness, which, based on their curiosity, I think would be a very interesting topic to delve into further. It was great to have the club feel more connected with the state agency, and I'm very excited to continue this closer collaboration. On Friday the 22nd NAMI@Emma hosted a Wellness Night as a Friday Night activity. We were able to get Meredith Shorb to host a yoga session from 7 until 7:30, then we played Inside Out in the Student Center for about 30 students. What I think people liked the most about the night was the abundance of free food and tea we had. I had a lot of fun hosting this event, and am very happy with how it went. I think it was a great first big school wide event for NAMI@Emma, since it appealed to a wide range of interests. I also was so thankful for the help I got from club members in planning and executing the night. Looking forward to the future, I'm excited to do some more serious activities with the whole school and in the club. Ella, the co-head, and I will be attending the NAMI NYS Legislative Conference on February 22nd to advocate for a more thorough mental health curriculum in schools (and I'm hoping to get the chance to meet my local representative, Patricia Fahy). That same week we are planning on hosting an event for National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. Last meeting the club members came to an agreement that this event should be centered around recognizing the warning signs of eating disorders in friends, and we are also hoping to collaborate with the Feminism Club to have another seminar on body positivity. "The Campaign to Change Direction." The Campaign to Change Direction. Jan. 2015. Web. This organization is a good example of the work being done to increase awareness of mental illness. By making the warning signs of mental illness more widely known, they are helping people realize they might need treatment, helping friends and family encourage their peers to seek treatment, and also preventing suicide.
Garsd, Jasmin. "For Students With Mental Health Issues, Transition To College Is Complicated." National Public Radio. 12 Sept. 2015. Web. In addition to outlining the struggles of living with a mental illness in this day and age, this article brings to light why mental health services and education are so important to have in colleges and other educational institutions. Holmes, Lindsay. "7 Mental Illness Myths People Still Believe." Huffington Post. 2 Sept. 2015. Web. This article defines many of the myths that fuel the stigma surrounding mental illness. In particular, it addresses the spectrum of misconceptions regarding mental illness which range from believing they are "all in your head" to thinking they make a person dangerous and violent, both equally incorrect and harmful beliefs. Patrick, Corrigan W., Druss G. Benjamin, and Perlick A. Deborah. "The Impact of Mental Illness Stigma on Seeking and Participating in Mental Health Care." Psychological Science in the Public Interest 15 (2014): 37-70. Web. This article not only helps to define stigma and its roots in culture, but also describes the sometimes detrimental effect stigma can have in preventing people to seek treatment, which demonstrates the importance of decreasing stigma. Styron, William. Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness. New York: Vintage, 1992. Print. While this is only one example of a memoir documenting life with mental illness, these books serve as a way for people unfamiliar with mental illnesses to seek a better understanding of what life living with various mental illnesses. By cultivating understanding and empathy, these types of books can help to decrease stigma. December has been a hectic month, and as such NAMI@Emma actually did not meet this month. That being said we've been working on a celebrity poster campaign that we will hang up in school next semester. I'm hoping that we can emphasize the fact that people living with a mental illness can live highly successful lives with these posters.
We also have confirmed that out Mental Wellness Month event will take place Friday evening on January 22nd. We've started recruiting teachers to lead mediation and yoga, and also plan on showing a movie, selling food to fundraise, having adult coloring book pages, and possibly leading a craft such as making a stress ball. I've also emailed Julie Clancy about having Mr. Rahim come to speak to school sometime next semester. In February we are planning to collaborate with the F Word club to lead activities during National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, in particular a body positivity workshop which would probably be a Friday night activity. This will be a great chance to explore the intersectionality between mental illness and women's issues. While this semester we've really been focused on educating ourselves as a club, next semester will be really devoted to community events like these, which will culminate in May with Mental Health Month. I can't wait! |
Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, but stigma and bias shame us all. -Bill Clinton
Katherine WallaceEmma Willard Class of 2017. Archives
May 2017
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