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Depicting Mental Health
Services and Supports...
Suggestions for Depicting Mental Health
- Consider showing a character living with a mental health challenge who utilizes services like talk therapy, social workers, or community groups and medication, if needed. There is no ‘magical pill’ to cure mental health challenges; instead a combination of services is most successful.
- Think about ways to spotlight the personal and emotional struggles that may accompany a mental health challenge -- not just the clinical implications.
- Try to create characters that are successfully managing symptoms of their mental health challenges who can serve as mentors to someone who is newly diagnosed or reaching out for help for the first time.
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Did you know?
- The definition of health, according to the World Health Organization since 1948, is “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
- One in 5 American adults aged 18 or older, or 45.6 million people, lived with mental illness in the past year, according to a report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). [Source]
- About 9.2 million adults struggle with both mental illness and substance addiction. [Source]
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EIC's Mental Health Resources
Visit EIC Online!
www.eiconline.org
For more EIC updates check out our social media sites!
 
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In this issue...
Services & Supports
- Suggestions for Depicting Mental Health
- A Message from Brian Dyak
- Profile On: Glenn Close Narrates "A New State of Mind: Ending the Stigma of Mental Illness"
- Did you know?
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 A Message from EIC's President, CEO & Co-Founder, Brian Dyak
Most everyone has experienced a mental health challenge, either personally or through a family member, and although these challenges can seem daunting, difficult to understand, and hard to explain, there is still hope. The first step to finding that hope is to seek out help from mental health professionals in order to start on the road to recovery.
Utilizing the services and supports available for mental health challenges, like the Mental Health America (MHA) Dialogue for Recovery program, provide individuals with the information necessary to build successful treatment plans and understand their own path to recovery (Click here to learn more).
Recovery from diagnosed mental illness is defined by the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) as a process, beginning with diagnosis and eventually moving into successful management of the illness. Successful recovery involves learning about the diagnosis and the treatments available, empowerment through the support of peers and family members, and finally moving to a point of taking action to manage the illness by helping others. [source]
Characters and storylines that focus on hope and recovery are both engaging and inspiring to your audiences. Consider ways that you can incorporate an individual learning about their diagnosis, seeking out help, and finding hope in recovery. Stories like this can also dispel myths and the stigma that is often associated with mental illness by showing your audience that it is not the end but instead a new beginning.
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Profile On: Glenn Close
Narrates "A New State of Mind:
Ending the Stigma of Mental Illness"
Glenn Close pictured here with her sister Jessie Close
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Glenn Close is both an
award-winning actress and a leading advocate for the reduction of stigma
and discrimination against people living with mental illness. She
founded Bring Change 2 Mind in 2009 to reduce misconceptions about
mental illness. She also narrated a documentary that was released on May
30, 2013, titled “A New State of Mind: Ending the Stigma of Mental
Illness,” which was produced by KVIE-TV, as a part of the Each Mind
Matters California Mental Health Campaign.
Glenn Close has personal experience
with the affects of mental illness on a family. Both her sister, Jessie
Close, and her nephew, Calen Pick, live with mental illnesses. Jessie
and Calen appear with Glenn in short videos and PSAs on the
organization’s website, http://bringchange2mind.org.
The Entertainment Industries Council
worked closely with the production team of the “New State of Mind”
documentary and was instrumental in bringing Glenn Close on board as the
film’s narrator. The documentary is available for viewing at http://www.eachmindmatters.org/great-minds-gallery/view-the-film/.
Portions of the documentary will also be showcased at EIC’s mental
health First Draft briefing on August 8th (more information below).
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