Mental Health Humor and Cartoons

Last week I posted about the MINDS ON THE EDGE : Facing Mental Illness. I just watch it, it is a must see! Find your station to watch it at this month at the sites schedule page.

They also ask for people to get involved.  To make a YouTube video to tell our own story.  I thought I would try and do this, I thought it would only take a few minuets to do a video about my story.   It took me almost two days and 3 different locations.  I just finished it and posted it to YouTube.

Starting this week a show on PBS will be tackling the subject of mental health with a one hour program. Find your station. to watch it at this the schedule page .

  MINDS ON THE EDGE : Facing Mental Illness connects the dots between personal dilemmas facing individuals and families who are living with mental illness, medical practices that can be obstacles to treatment, and public policies that all too often fall short in providing support that could make a positive difference.

 

 Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer (L) and Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Dr. Eric Kandel wrestle with how to effectively reach out to someone with mental illness in MINDS ON THE EDGE: Facing Mental Illness, premiering on PBS stations in October.

MINDS ON THE EDGE: Facing Mental Illness connects the dots between personal dilemmas facing individuals and families who are living with mental illness, medical practices that can be obstacles to treatment, and public policies that all too often fall short in providing support that could make a positive difference.

The one-hour television program zeros in on wrenching and confounding situations that are playing out every day in homes and hospital ERs, on city streets and school campuses, in courtrooms and in jails, as Americans struggle with the challenges of severe mental illness.

HOUSE M.D. star Peter Jacobson says “If I can talk about mental illness, so can you.” 

Produced for PBS by the Fred Friendly Seminars using their signature format of a hypothetical scenario, the program considers the case of a college student who develops mental illness while at school. Her professor knows something is wrong, but is unsure how to approach her and whether it is even legal to contact her parents. Upset and confused when they see their daughter, her parents do not know where to turn and are shocked to discover how limited their options are when they try to seek medical help.

The program also explores the circumstances of an adult who has coped with his mental illness until his mother dies, and then he is left without critical support. As his mental health unravels, and he is unable to get treatment or maintain his home, he is arrested for a minor crime and absorbed into the criminal justice system. For him it is the beginning of a merry-go-round of homelessness and jail that has become all too common for many individuals who are living with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other severe mental illnesses.

Moderator Frank Sesno, unfolds this story and asks the program panelists to put themselves in the shoes of these hypothetical characters and talk about what they would do if faced with this situation. The distinguished panel includes US Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer, Noble Prize winning neurologist Eric Kandel, along with attorneys, doctor, legislators and other experts in the field. Several of the panelists have personal, as well as professional experience, in living with mental illness.

What a night! A full family baseball outing of fun and more…  But let’s go back to where it all started.   A few weeks ago, my local Centennial Bank held a free cook out and S’mores day.  I was taking the kids to a new local water park and we stopped there for a nice and messy snack.  While there, my son put his name in for a drawing for a baseball game with the Stone Crabs who are the Tampa Bay Rays’ minor league team.  Yep, you guessed it, he won.  But the Game was a wash-out due to a storm.

The manager of the Centennial Park then went the extra mile and got us enough tickets for the whole family, with free parking and free all-you-can-eat buffet at the ball park.

Thanks Pat!  But it gets better, while at the buffet two staff members asked my son and I to participate in a few games they do during the innings.   After I signed the damages waver, they told us to meet them during the 4th inning.

My wife and kids got our full at the buffet and then played at the kids’ playground inside the new park.  There was a little delay due to rain.  The game started and we had seats above the visiting team’s dug out.

This was all of my kids’ first game… So, it was going to be special! We just didn’t know how special.  There was light rain but that gave us a beautiful double rainbow out over center field.

The Stone Crabs mascot named Stoney, who was, of course, a “stone crab” but my two youngest girls loved him so much they kept calling for him to come over… and he did many times during the game.  But, they had their own name for him… “Lobster!”  So, the whole game the girls were calling out “lobster, lobster, lobster”.

Now time for the game.  My son had to stand on the top of the home team’ s dugout and play a matching game during the bottom of the 5th inning… He won 2 more tickets to any game he wants…

Then it was my turn… It was a dance off against me and Ron over the dugouts on top of the roofs.  What was up for grabs?  A year’s worth of Hamburgers at Wendy’s.  The music  started and we both had to dance and do our grove thing… The crowd would pick the winner by cheering for the winner when…

We both got up there and I danced and grooved my butt off… Not too sure what I did or if it was a dance at all but I danced around and I could hear my kids laughing and even heard some one yell, “shake it baby”.

The music ended and they asked every one who wanted Ron to win to cheer…  Then they asked if they wanted me to win… WOW, the stadium roared with cheer… Yes, I won.

It gets even better.  My son got a free baseball hat and two staff workers behind us gave my girls baseballs from the game. Plus, the kids had their baseballs and programs autographed by their favorite player of the evening, Shawn Williams No. 4.

It was without a doubt a great night out…

Oh, here is what happened in the game:

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — The Charlotte Stone Crabs put things away early in a dominating 8-2 victory over the Jupiter Hammerheads and claimed sole possession of first place in the FSL South division on Wednesday night at Charlotte Sports Park.

What a Day,

All day I’ve been getting my art supplies, sharpening my pencils and writing up ideas for our Cartoon-A-Thon.  Thirty one Mental health humor cartoons in the thirty one days of Mental Health month.

I will need your support to pledge your time once a day to check the new cartoon that will be posted at http://mentalhealthcartoons.com

BLOGGERS - GET LINKED on the website below the calendar when you post about the Cartoon-A-Thon…  Yes, every URL will be linked as long as you link to that site.

e-mail if you want to help…

Chato B. Stewart
Mental Health Advocate - Cartoonist - and a few other things!
http://www.mentalhealthhumor.com

http://www.mentalhealthcartoons.com

“Using Humor to Heal and Educate with badly drawn cartoons.” - Chato B. Stewart

Hi all,

In getting ready for May’s Mental Health month I had to add up some numbers for my blog.  I was over joyed to get our annual numbers totaled up.  In the last twelves months the Mental Health Humor blog has almost 100,000 unique visits and over 366,000 page views.  That does not unclued the the website or all the published cartoons.  So I want to thank every one for your support.

Now I’m getting ready for our second annual  Cartoon-A-Thon to draw one cartoon for each day of Mental Health Awareness month.

This year you will be able to see the cartoons here on the blog, but the site I’m volunteering for will post them first. That URL is mentalhealthcartoons.com

They will help keep track of any donations too.

I’ve been hired to do a few presentations for some local non-profit mental health groups.   More presentations will come if this cartoon-a-thon works out.

“All proceeds from our Cartoon-A-Thon go to support the development and implementation of the Mental Health Humor project and funding free public presentations. “

I need a new laptop (new-ish) and projector and other supplies.  Since there have been so many cut backs down here finding funding is harder then winning the lottery.

Well, I’m getting my art supplies ready and thinking up some ideas for cartoons so make sure you keep checking in for the new toons.

I’ll keep every one updated… I am looking for volunteers….

Any bloggers that want to help by posting the daily cartoons let me know.
If you have some free time and want to ask people or providers in your area to make pledges here is a pledge sheet *(PDF file) .

e-mail if you want to help…

Chato B. Stewart
Mental Health Advocate - Cartoonist - and a few other things!
http://www.mentalhealthhumor.com

http://www.mentalhealthcartoons.com

“Using Humor to Heal and Educate with badly drawn cartoons.” - Chato B. Stewart