‘Lives Worth Living’ Premiere!

On October 27, 2011 (check local listing for time) the PBS Emmy Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens will premiere Lives Worth Living. This is the first television history of the decades-long struggle for equal rights for people with disabilities. The film traces the development of the disability rights movement from its beginning following World War II through the 1960s and 1970s. The history is explored through interviews with the movement’s pioneers, legislators, and others. See the attached document for more information.

To learn more about the film, and the issues involved, visit the film’s companion website at
www.pbs.org/independentlens/.

Two days later, on Sept 22, we will be taping an informational show on autism at UpNorth Media with United Way of Northwest Michigan. This show will feature several service providers and people with lived experience and will show in October.

On that same day, Sept 22, we will host a training for providers on Training Ethics, Boundaries & Pain Relief in Health Care in our Cadillac office.

At the end of the week, on Saturday, Sept 24, we are participating with the Crawford Roscommon Suicide Prevention Coalition’s 2nd annual “Alive and Running: 5K for Suicide Prevention“. This is an awareness and fund-raising event for the Crawford Roscommon Suicide Prevention Coalition for both runners and walkers.

On Thursday, Sept 29, we are teaming up with the Cadillac Wexford Public Library (411 South Lake St., Cadillac) to provide a free movie and panel discussion on depression and its impact on families. The library’s movie licensing restrictions do not allow promotion of the name of the movie or the studio outside the library, but we can tell you that this is a major movie recently released on DVD starring Jodie Foster and Mel Gibson. The movie concerns a man living with depression and its impact on his family. He begins communicating using a toy beaver hand puppet. The movie is rated PG-13. There will be some light refreshments at the library beginning at 5:30 PM. The movie will run from 6:00-7:30 and the panel discussion will happen after the movie, from about 7:30-8:00.

Welcome to the first issue of Northern Lakes CMH Recovery Newsletter!

This newsletter will be published quarterly for people interested in Recovery from a mental illness. Each issue will contain tips, inspirational stories, information about different learning opportunities, conferences and classes, personal expressions, and progress reports about improvements to the Northern Lakes CMH system as it transforms to be even more focused on recovery.

We are looking for a name for this newsletter and are looking for your ideas. Leave a comment if you have a catchy name for future issues!

You may subscribe to receive future issues by email by using the form at the right.

Our “Stigma Busters” documentary movie, To See What I See, is now available for download at 75% off the price of a regular DVD – $11.24. Watch a To See What I See 30-second clip before purchasing.

The download is in MP4 format and should play on video iPods, iPhone, Zune and other hardware devices, Windows Media Player and with Quick Time.

Check out a trailer of our new movie, To See What I See: The Stigma of Mental Illness. This 20-minute movie, produced by Mary Pierce and Jeff Morgan, tells the story of our Stigma Busters’ work to help make a difference in our local communities. Stigma Busters have come together to create photobiographies, art work, media campaigns, buttons, and other creative projects in order to spread the good news that recovery from a mental illness is possible. The photo above features buttons with sayings that were created by the Stigma Busters group. The movie is available to be shown at community meetings, along with a discussion panel with some of the authors who have created their photobiography stories. You can purchase the movie at Film Baby (or see the trailer).

One of our good friends, Larry Fricks of the Appalachian Consulting Group of Georgia, is featured in this book and on The Today Show, along with others who are living with chronic illnesses.

Bonded by their will to live - January 9, 2008:
This 7-1/2 minute video interviews the five people who are living with chronic illness that are featured in the book. The interview speaks to the value of love, our connectedness and sameness, and the importance of gratitude and hope.

Living with mental illness – January 9, 2008
This 8-1/2 minute video interview focuses mainly on Larry Fricks. It features Larry’s life and work as an advocate, as well the consumer memorial project he is leading throughout the U.S. to build a monument in Washington DC to honor people who died in state hospitals in the past. There’s a movie about this memorial project called Recovered Dignity. We have copies of this movie, along a discussion panel about it which features Northern Lakes CMH consumers, and will make them available in each office soon.

If you would like to see any of these video clips and stories, just click on the bolded words above.