The Mental Health Education Initiative (MHEI) in Chittenden County, VT
Our mission is to promote recovery from mental/emotional disorders by increasing hope,
understanding, and reducing stigma. MHEI is a speakers' bureau.
understanding, and reducing stigma. MHEI is a speakers' bureau.
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- Share your experience with mental illness. Your story can convey to others that having a mental illness is nothing to be embarrassed about.
- Help people with mental illness re-enter society. Support their or your own efforts to obtain housing and work.
- Respond to false statements about mental illness or people with mental illnesses. Many people have wrong and damaging ideas on the subject. Accurate facts and information may help change both their ideas and actions. See below.
Source: The National Mental Health Association 1-800-969-NMHA
| Myths and Facts: | |
| After the doctor has told them they have mental illness, they know they are sick, and should comply with the Drs’ orders, but they choose to not take their medication. | The illness itself can keep people from recognizing that they are sick, and some medications can have unpleasant and sometimes severe side effects. Compliance is not always the best thing. For recovery, the patient often needs to be a good self- advocate and ask the doctor to adjust the treatment to see the effects. The National Empowerment Center |
| The average person is not likely to have mental illness. | No one is immune. In any given year; about 6% of the general population has a diagnosable mental disorder. President’s New Freedom Commission |
| They should be in the hospital, not on the streets. | Being in the hospital often makes MI worse. Being in the community gives them opportunities to recover. Paul Carling, PhD. |
| Children do not get MI. | The percentage of children with mental disorders is about the same as for adults - 6%. President’s New Freedom Commission |
| People who have mental illness are dangerous because they may get violent. | Violence correlates with social distance, poverty, addictions, relationship problems, feeling of no control or personal power - seldom with only mental illness. Liz Sayce |
| People who change their thinking and count their blessings will recover from depression. | This is sometimes true for those who have mild depression, but for severe depression, medication or another medical treatment is usually necessary. Typically, changes in thinking and behaviors are very helpful (along with medical treatments) after the recovery process begins. Many sources |
| People who have schizophrenia or bipolar illness will never recover. | Up to 2/3rds of people with these diagnoses recover to live satisfying and productive roles in the community, some without using any medication. Courtney Harding, PhD |
| When people visit their primary care doctor, he/she can determine whether they have a mental illness. | Primary care physicians are often not trained to recognize symptoms of mental illness, and they may avoid the subject because of stigma or not knowing what to do. President’s New Freedom Commission |
| The leading causes of disability in the world are cancer and heart disease. | Mental illness ranks first. Of people with disabilities, about 25% have a mental illness (in the industrialized world). World Health Organization |
| Professional mental health treatment is the only pathway to recovery. | Some people recover “outside the system” - usually using self-help support groups. GROW, inc.And – Many psychiatric symptoms are actually caused by physical illnesses – which are often overlooked by mental health specialists. Ronald Diamond, MD |