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Stamp Out the Stigma!
December 2005 Meeting
“Stamp out the stigma”! This is the resounding scream that continues to echo in my brain after leaving the meeting of the Mental Illness Ministry (MIM) held in the Upper Room at St. Joan of Arc on Monday evening, December 12th .
The meeting began when Theresa, a member of MIM, offered to say a prayer asking God to bless the meeting and all those suffering from any form of mental illness.
This brand new Mental Illness Ministry (MIM) beginning in our parish is off to a good start co-chaired by Mary Paradis and Ronnie Angelus, both steadfast St Joan of Arc members.
According to St. Joan’s Director of Ministries, Roseanne Rogers, “This ministry could become of prime importance here at St. Joan’s because there is hardly a family in our parish or anywhere, that has not been touched in some way by someone afflicted with some form of mental illness.” The response to the initial word of this ministry was an astounding amount of interest and, “It’s about time” responses.
Mental illness, which for too long has been treated with a blanket of denial covering it, must be shown to the world for what it is, another disease that just happens to affect a part of the body, in this case, the brain. It is a disease and should be treated the same as pneumonia or diabetes, both by the medical world and the world at large.
Far too long has the world fed the mentally ill to the snakes. The motion picture industry, for example, has portrayed the mentally ill as violent people who need to be locked away from “normal” people.
As the meeting progressed, I listened to statements regarding mental illness from the mentally ill themselves and also family members of the mentally ill.
I have never before witnessed such enthusiasm for any ministry here at St. Joan’s. This group was eager to tell about their experiences. They felt comfortable in the arms of their own parish and with people they trust. They graciously allowed me to photograph the meeting.
I volunteered to report on this new ministry after hearing Roseanne Rogers speaking about it. Any trepidation I felt before starting this report immediately dissipated upon hearing what people had to say and hearing their goals and mission statement. It was an interesting mix of ages and genders. Some were afflicted with this illness and some were caring relatives or friends of those pursuing wellness.
Their total understanding and openness in discussing this disease as they told their heartrending stories warmed me. Much of their trauma was exacerbated by the dreadful stigma of fear, misunderstanding, blame and shame about the mentally ill. Their mission statement below says much about what is needed and why this ministry is so necessary:
Purpose of MIM is three fold:
Ronnie Angelus continued the meeting by announcing that a generous grant had been given to help start this ministry to allow speakers to come in to educate people on various aspects of assistance in the greater metro community.
Her second announcement was that a generous parishioner in the St. Joan of Arc community had donated $2500 dollars to build a library to hold reference material, along with audio or any other helpful information that might be available. The possibilities are endless.
The Guild of Catholic Women, which is associated with the Deanery office of the archdiocese, offered to send a speaker to the next MIM meeting on January 9th. The Guild is a well-known and respected organization that has worked within the archdiocese for over 100 years. The Guild more recently has concentrated its efforts on helping promote mental illness awareness. Their experienced speaker will be very helpful in assisting MIM. Watch for details on St. Joan’s website or in the weekly bulletin handed out at Sunday masses.
Our own St. Joan’s website, www.stjoan.com has within it, a website set up for MIM and offers links to internet information; speakers around the metro area; assistance in many areas from NAMI (National alliance on Mental Illness www.nami.org/namimn and other such helps.
The St. Joan MIM group, as one of their goals, will search out and relay any new information to St. Joan’s webmaster, Jeff Rholl, through co-chair, Ronnie Angelus, who will try to keep pace with fresh information. She will need help in this endeavor by the vigilance of MIM members so as to reach the larger community in need of this information.
Another focus of this particular ministry is to gather people who are “pursuers of wellness” (this includes families of mentally ill persons) to be a “switchboard” to fight stigma and educate others of the real facts of mental illness disease.
One such support group I heard about recently was for siblings of a mentally ill person who are trying to recover from a family suicide trauma. Information for that is at: Survivors of Loved Ones’ Suicides (SOLOS), http://www.solos.org. This organization was very helpful to one woman at the meeting who had lost a mentally ill sibling from suicide.
The meeting was ended after two new members of this group spoke of their experiences dealing with mental illness. Both of these stories were so poignant that I doubt that I can ever see or hear of another person with mental illness in the same way again.
The meeting was officially adjourned after one woman said that Change CAN Happen if the commitment is there.
It was time to “party” according to Ronnie. Everyone moved toward the table that was now overflowing with various plates of tasty snacks and soft drinks. People began to circulate and gather in little groups where there was a great deal of animated conversation.
It was an eye opening experience, being amid people in varying stages of mental illness and one of the most exhilarating meetings I have ever been to. I envision hope and light and promise of a better tomorrow if we take that first step to demolish and stamp out this stigma. This effort at St. Joan’s seems to be the beginning of a successful climb,
The next part of the mission or goal might be: To free the many people shrouded in some form of mental illness; help them heal and then place them back into the mainstream of life where their talents, intelligence and strengths of all kinds might be just what is needed to help bring about that peace of mind and body that we all seek.
As an example of that, there was a table for receiving donated warm winter clothing for the vulnerable. Many brought an Hors d’oeuvre to share as well.
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A national organization was formed in 1990 called "Stamp Out Stigma". You can view their website at www.stampoutstigma.org.
