Mental Illness Awareness Week (5-11 October) carries on where Mental Health Week leaves off by focusing attention on mental disorders: signs and symptoms, how to get help, stigma, hope and recovery, and the impact of mental illness on lives, families, workplaces and society. MIAW was initially spearheaded by the Canadian Psychiatric Association and is now an education project of the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health, a national fifteen-member alliance of organizations representing the entire mental health-illness continuum. Mental Illness Awareness Week is always the first full week of October. For more information: Mental Illness Awareness Week
woah...at first i thought the title was "mental awareness". im just like, "wow. they have a week for people who need to doscover that they actually have a brain? i know alot of people who will be celebrating, then. ...wait a second..." ill totally have to come up with something. maybe ill educate my algebra class about what teretes, bipolar disorder and depression actually are, because they seem to be having some trouble with that. :S
Strangely, I already knew about this, I was talking to my form tutor about it yesterday, and I'm doing a talk about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which I suffer from, and my form tutor and I kinda want the people in my form to understand why I have bad days, and that I'm not depressed, and there is a reason why I get so clammed up and anxious. I'm not quite sure how the class will react, but it's something i'm going to do whether they like it or not.
I need to talk to my classmates about this. We all need to put more focus on Mental Illness Awareness Week. People have this notion that people with mental illnesses are either whiny, over-emotional freaks or deranged monsters bent on destruction when they are actually everyday people walking down the street. I hope I can find some ribbons or something to increase the awareness.
Definately this should get more attention. People w/ mental health problems are so stigmatised and neglected by society.
Thanks for bringing this up. The general population definitely needs to be made more aware of mental illness. It affects SO many people, yet we don't talk about it because of the stigma attached.
