By Frank Bublitz
Did you know that a Gallup Poll once ranked the fear of public performance and speaking greater than the fear of death? It’s true! Which makes the efforts of users of the public mental health system, including myself, to use one and three act plays to show how productive we can be as well as others.
First was the St. Clair County CMH Masquerade Players. After that successful effort the Thumb Alliance PIHP created the CMH Players. One of these entities, local to St. Clair County, still exists today as far as I am aware.
Now none of us, myself included, will ever win a Tony Award. That wasn’t the goal. The goal was to address external and internal stigma related to mental illness and developmental disabilities. Our approach, while using creative arts as a tool, were backed by scientific evidence about what can break down these forms of stigma.
Readers saw an explanation of stigma in my last article but, for the new readers, I will briefly repeat the information. Stigma is a Greek word translated as A mark against someone or something. Loss of hope and feelings of shame are obviously internal, while beliefs that people with disabilities are useless drains on society is external.
Patrick Corrigan PhD and his team at Chicago University demonstrated that two approaches working together, Contact and Education, were the best ways to reduce stigma against “…the other…”. Two of the Thumb Alliance CMH Players were teachers. They wrote curricula that was used by some high schools, with pre and post surveys of the play attendees, that contained lessons on mental illness and other disabilities.
Surveys returned by students attending our first performances were promising. They showed that students felt more knowledgeable about and accepting of people who had these disabilities. One show, The Boys Next Door, featured mostly developmentally disabled characters but one had a mental illness.
Another, The Curious Savage, primarily dealt with how families rupture in the face of learning a member has a mental health problem.
The Masquerade Players consisted of people with and without mental illness who acted out skits written by people from the Blue Water Clubhouse. Some of the authors also acted in the skits, but they were primarily performed by others.
Both efforts received an award from the Community Mental Health Association of Michigan for their creation and positive results.
The art shows that I wrote about in last week’s article still take place today. CMH in St. Clair County also has an art contest for students. One piece is featured on billboards throughout the county during May. Check them out! Because the arts are healthy!
