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Meet the 2006 mpower award winners
Check out these five inspiring youth who are
taking action and making an impact in dispelling myths about mental
illness and reaching out to those who need help.
The National Mental Health Association recently recognized five
young people for their efforts to change attitudes about mental health
and fight the stigma facing the 1 in 5 youth with mental health problems.
These inspiring advocates were presented with mpower awards at NMHA’s
Annual Meeting, Building the Movement, on June 10, 2006 in Washington,
D.C.
mpower is a youth mental health awareness campaign, sponsored by
the National Mental Health Association and supported by hundreds
of musicians, that reaches out to teens and college-age adults to
help them get informed, get help and get involved.
Meet the 2006 mpower award winners:
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Shay Daily, 23,
of Indianapolis, Ind., has been in and out of treatment for almost
10 years for depression, anxiety, panic disorder and obsessive
compulsive disorder. After being homeless at the age of 19, Shay
enrolled in Our Town, a program run by the Mental Health Association
in Marion County (IN) that helps young adults ages 18-25 with
severe mental illnesses stabilize their lives.
During the past three years, Shay has spoken up about what
he went through to educate people his own age and adults in
his community about the realities of mental illness and stigma.
He continues to fight the stigma and encourage others to seek
treatment.
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Like Shay, Aaron Dugan,
18, of Astoria, Ore., bravely revealed his personal experience
with depression to shed light on teen depression and battle the
stigma that prevents so many teens from getting the help they
need. In a documentary he filmed and starred in for his senior
class project, he courageously recounted his struggle with depression
and risked being ridiculed and shunned by his classmates in an
effort to dispel negative attitudes and misperceptions about
mental illness in his small town community.
The documentary has been shown throughout his high school
and has gained interest from several local colleges. Of his
project Aaron says, "For me, this is worth sacrificing
my privacy" (The Daily Astorian, February 2006).
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Like Aaron, Holly Fletcher,
16, of Shelton, Neb., knows what it’s like to be a teen
struggling with mental health problems in a small town. Holly
was bullied and misunderstood by her peers as she dealt with
depression, anxiety and learning disabilities.
Feeling the need to do something about the way she and other
students with mental health problems were being treated, Holly
and her sister April went to school officials at their high
school with an idea to combat stigma and get students to listen
up. The result was a 12-foot "graffiti" wall featuring
names of mental health diagnoses and common slang words used
to describe people with mental disorders. Students were invited
to write down words they
associate with mental health. The goal was to put a spotlight
on the negative stereotypes and misperceptions of people with
mental illness. The project was so successful that similar
walls have now been erected at several area schools.
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Like Holly, Stephanie Orlando,
23, of Buffalo N.Y., felt the need to do something about
the way young people labeled with mental health illness were
being treated. Building upon her personal experience in the children’s
mental health system, Stephanie has dedicated the last nine years
to advocating for youth with special needs on county, state and
national levels. Although Stephanie was a high school drop out,
in 2005 she graduated magna cum laude from the University at
Buffalo. Today she is the Statewide Youth Coordinator for Families
Together in New York State. Through this position, Stephanie
continues to promote change within the children’s mental
health system and teach youth how to advocate for their own needs
and rights.
Stephanie is the Chairperson of the National Council on Disability’s
Youth Advisory Committee (NCD YAC) and is currently a member
of the New York State Coordinated Children’s Services
Initiative (CCSI) Tier 3 State Level, and the National Youth
Leadership Network (NYLN). She serves on the Board of Directors
for the Mental Patients Liberation Alliance and the Children’s
Mental Health Coalition of Western New York.
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Like Stephanie, Jessica Norman,
16, Acworth, Ga., started speaking out about mental health issues
at an early age. At just eight years of age, Jessica appeared
in a TV news story about her personal experience with attention
deficit disorder (ADD). Jessica’s message: “treatment
works.”
Since then she has gone on to talk about ADD, depression,
panic attacks and other mental illnesses with her peers, at
major national meetings and in the media to get other people
her age to listen up and not be afraid to seek treatment.
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