May 8, 2008 in City

Rallying to erase stigma of mental illness

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One of the worst nights of Becky Bates’ life started the afternoon her twin 12-year-old daughters didn’t get off the school bus.

It was January in Wisconsin, and the temperature was below zero. The girls had left school, but the school hadn’t called their parents. A frantic night of searching led the police to the children the following day, holed up in an abandoned trailer.

“There were days we didn’t know if they’d be dead or alive,” said Bates, the founding director of Passages Family Support, a support network for families of mentally ill children in Spokane. Both her daughters have bipolar disorder, which causes extreme shifts in mood, energy and ability to function. Through treatment, education and a solid support network, the girls have learned to manage their disorders and are preparing to graduate from college. Both have jobs waiting, Bates said.

To raise awareness regarding the experiences of families with mentally ill children, Passages and other organizations are sponsoring Spokane’s first rally and awareness walk in Riverfront Park on Saturday. It’s called Lifting the Veil and will include games for children, information for parents, speakers, live music, and a walk around the perimeter of the park. Green ribbons will line the walk to signify the green paint mentally ill people were sometimes branded with in the 1800s, as a way to label them as “insane,” according to Passages.

“Part of the mental health movement is an empowerment of the people who receive the services,” said Mary Ann Murphy, executive director of Partners with Families and Children: Spokane. Murphy said the next generation of mentally ill youth might succeed at knocking down some of the stigmatization through activism. “They are not going to be treated as second-class citizens, and good for them.”

Spokane’s Youth ‘N Action, which strives to be a “youth voice in public policy,” has about two dozen members volunteering Saturday to help increase understanding about kids with mental illness, said Ryan Oelrich, the director.

“I see these remarkable, wonderful, talented young people that have so much to offer, yet they are discounted because there is such stigma around mental health issues,” Oelrich said. “If we could help people in some way to get past the stigma … that would make the event a complete success in my mind.”

Discomfort or lack of understanding about mental illness can quickly isolate mentally ill children and their parents, said Lou Sowers, director of child and family services at Spokane Mental Health. Mental health issues can lead to serious emotional and behavioral problems, and youths might, for example, say or do things that alienate them from other children. One goal of education and awareness is to create a culture in which people feel comfortable asking for help, he said, explaining that 100 to 120 young people aged 15 to 24 commit suicide in Washington every year – about two per week.

“If we can help kids recognize the signs of depression and suicidal thinking and create an environment where it’s OK to ask for help, then we can save lives,” Sowers said. “There’s still the myth that if a child has mental health problems, that it’s poor parenting.”

Having organizations like Passages available to create a support network is critical, Sowers said. Passages offers peer counseling for parents, by trained, certified parents of mentally ill children. It provides parenting classes, a monthly support group and a stipend for parents to attend conferences on the topic. Counselors visit families at home, drive them to treatment, and accompany them to church, if that’s what they need.

“We meet that family where they’re at,” with a goal of keeping children at home, Bates said.

The focus for the event this weekend, Bates said, is “to try to have it be positive and have it be about mental health wellness, not mental illness. With the right resources … families can be resilient; they can help these children recover.”

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