Changing Hearts and Minds One Laugh at a Time
PEOPLE WITH MENTAL ILLNESS ARE ALWAYS BEING TOLD WHAT THEY CAN'T DO. IN OUR FIRST FUNDRAISING PERFORMANCE OF 2008, WE GET TO PROVE WHAT WE CAN DO!!! Come laugh with us on Sunday April 13, 7pm, at The Arts Club, Granville Island Stage. LAST YEAR'S SHOW SOLD OUT EARLY.
VISIT OUR WEBSITE www.standupformentalhealth.com for more info or contact pat bayes at (604)707-0483
Who We Are: Since 2004, Stand Up For Mental Health has taught stand-up comedy to people with mental illness, as a way of building confidence and fighting public stigma. In the past 4 years we have performed upwards of 100 shows for audiences across BC and Canada, and generated a tremendous amount of positive media coverage for people with mental illness.
We want to continue our major program in Vancouver/Burnaby that accepts residents from, and does shows all across the Lower Mainland and throughout B.C. This program includes an initial year-long class that meets once a week plus our Alumni Program that meets every two weeks and is comprised of students who wish to continue after completing the initial program. Students create, write and perform original comedy material.Each year’s initial year-long class accepts 12-15 students. The current Alumni program has 15 participants. Both classes combined do approximately 30 shows a year, thus reaching thousands of people. We will also do 2 major fundraising events in 2008.
The demand to get into these programs is overwhelming. We always have a waiting list. Each year we turn away at least 15-20 people.
Why we want to do it: Many people with mental illness suffer from crippling shame, feeling flawed and hopeless because they are not “normal”. They often spend years hiding their mental illness for fear of being ostracized and shunned. Sometimes they just give up on life, and stay mired in poverty and isolation. It is such a huge waste of their talent and potential as human beings. This costs our society hundreds of millions of dollars in lost productivity, especially when you consider that one in five people will be diagnosed with a mental illness during their lifespan.
Who benefits and how: Teaching people with mental illness to do stand-up comedy about their mental health journeys has an amazing affect. For the first time in their lives, students embrace the word crazy, and learn to laugh at their mental illness-and their audiences are laughing right along with them. They have discovered a talent and confidence that they never dreamt they had. By offering this creative and unique approach, we’ve had great success in engaging some very hard to reach people within the mental health services-consumer population.
Our program is a lifeline for those who take it. We’ve heard students say more than once, “This program has given me a reason to keep on living”. We’ve also seen people who have done nothing but smoke and watch TV for 15 years, all of a sudden become re-engaged in their lives and make healthy changes so that they can stay in the program and keep performing. The fact that people with mental illness can succeed at something that most “normal” people wouldn’t even want to try, is a huge boost to their self-esteem.
Benefits to the general public: Our shows and workplace presentations on fighting the stigma at work also reach thousands of people with mental illness, their family, friends, caregivers, and the general public, helping to fight stigma, raise awareness, and send a message of hope and empowerment. One attendee from HRDC said that two years from now she would not remember what some 'expert' on mental health had said, but she would “…never forget the 'Stand Up for Mental Health' presentation that you and your 'mental health services-consumers' gave us.
Stand Up For Mental Health is an incredibly cost-effective program because every dollar serves a dual purpose: Promoting Recovery and Rehabilitation for our comics, and raising awareness and fighting stigma in the general public.
WE SEE OURSELVES AS A POSITIVE AND UNIQUE PART OF THE DIALOGUE ABOUT MENTAL WELLNESS.
