April 3:
Nothing About Dreaming:
6 - 9 pm: CC Theatre (Under the Chapel)

    "Nothing Like Dreaming" is a full-length, award-winning film, made in Vermont. The Vermont film-maker, Nora Jacobson, will be at this event. She will introduce the film and there will be a short presentation by Sandra Steinguard, MD, who is the Medical Director of the Howard Center for Human Services and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at The University of Vermont College of Medicine. She has practiced psychiatry in Vermont for 12 years. Her clinical interests include schizophrenia and related disorders. She is also interested in the current efforts to restructure the system of care for psychiatric services in Vermont.

    After the film, a licensed mental health counselor will lead a debriefing session and several people who are in recovery from mental illness will answer questions about how their own experiences are similar to those featured in the movie.

    Actors with leading roles in the film depict experiences related to mental illness. They include people diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, trauma-based disorders, and major depression. There are family members, friends, mental health service providers, police agents, and state legislators - many of whom you may recognize. Settings include homes, State Hospital and familiar scenes in the Barre/Montpelier area - including the Statehouse with several actual legislators playing parts in the film.

    Themes include healing through the arts, recovery through mutually-supportive relationships, differences among the attitudes of police officers, serious misunderstandings about the best ways to help people deal with psychiatric conditions, self-advocacy and use of advanced directives, lack of respect, stigma, personal boundaries, crisis interventions, use of medications, teens and drug use, and more. 

    This event is coordinated by the Mental Health Education Initiative and co-sponsored by The UVM Chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, The Howard Center for Human Services, and the Community Health Improvement office of Fletcher Allen Health Care.

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April 20:
Speaking Our Minds
7 – 9 pm: Lafayette 207

    What is it like to have mental illness on campus? A panel of students tell about their experiences battling depression, anxiety, self-injury, obsessive compulsive disorder, and dealing with family members having mental illness, all while struggling to stay in college and keep up with their classes.
Millions of students suffer from the affects of a mental illness, but the stigma surrounding these issues silences them. Students need to know that they aren't alone, and in fact there are people who understand and want to fight for a safer environment in which everyone feels heard. Please come listen as these young people reveal these experiences.

    Panel sponsored by the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI UVM)

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NAMI UVM Bi-Weekly Meetings

    NAMI UVM meets every other Tuesday from 6 to 7 or so. We meet in the ACCESS office directly following Soupy Tuesdays, so we usually have plenty of food! This is also the time we discuss what is going on in the world, nationally, in vermont and at our school in terms of mental and psychological events.

    Because we are an advocacy group, we also use this time to discuss ideas for events or speakers to bring to campus and assign members roles for upcoming events (such as working on publicity, reserving a room, etc... We really don't take up much time, so this is a great group for you to join if you would like to fight for social rights within our nation and within our own communities.

    We would also like to say that you do not have to have a mental illness to be in this group! We value any imput from others and gladly welcome anyone who can help those with mental illnesses get equal rights. This is one group you can join if you wish to change the world for the better and actually see your work influencing the community and UVM. Eduacation of others is the key to reducing stigma in the future and you can be the educator, pioneering this effort!