TEACHER’S RESOURCE A guide for developing an awareness program for youth Talking about Mental Illness: A guide for developing an awareness program for youth Teacher’s Resource isbn 0-88868-401-0 Printed in Canada Copyright © 2001Centre for Addiction and Mental Health With the exception of materials noted as handouts/overheads, which may be photocopied for use with students, and the evaluation forms, no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the publisher — except for a brief quotation (not to exceed 200words) in a review or professional work. For information on other Centre for Addiction and Mental Health resource materials or to place an order, please contact: Marketing and Sales Services Centre for Addiction and Mental Health 33 Russell Street Toronto, on M5S 2S1 Canada Tel.: 1-800-661-1111 or 416-595-6059 in Toronto E-mail: [email protected] Web site: www.camh.net Cover illustration: Karine McDonald ii PREFACE This guide contains all of the information, support and tools teachers will need to implement “Talking about Mental Illness” in their classroom — an awareness program that has been proven to bring about positive change in students’ knowledge and attitudes about mental illness. The program supports teachers in four essential ways: 1) it outlines the links between the program and the new Ontario Secondary School Curriculum Guidelines; 2) it provides teachers with practical, ready-to-use information on mental illness; 3) it offers teachers and students an opportunity to meet and interact with people who have experienced mental illness first-hand; and 4) it provides links to community resources and support for further information and professional help. iii WHAT’S INSIDE? The information contained in this guide includes: · practical ideas and suggestions for secondary school teachers teaching about mental illness · curriculum guidelines for a variety of courses showing how the program fits curriculum requirements · ready-to-use overheads and activities that address issues such as the impact of stigma on the lives of people with mental illness, and types, causes and treatments of mental illness · evaluation tools to help teachers measure the program’s impact on students’ knowledge and attitudes · suggestions for resources and supports for teachers. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The support, creative thinking and hard work of a number of people made the development of this guide possible. It was produced jointly by the following program partners: the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the Canadian Mental Health Association, (Ontario Division), and the Mood Disorders Association of Ontario. From the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Barbara Steep, Project Manager Catherine Willinsky Rozsa Guylay Cindy Smythe Rhonda Mauricette Andrea Stevens Lavigne Hélène Philbin-Wilkinson Janice Cole Trevor Wereley Nadia Zurba Lena Coppola Marty McLeod Rena Scheffer v Acknowledgments From the Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario Division Allen Flaming From the Mood Disorders Association of Ontario Eric Jonasson Joan Bassett A number of people gave generously of their time and expertise to review drafts of this document. We wish to acknowledge their contributions to the Teacher’s Resource — their comments and insights were invaluable. Teachers Mary Lou Cortese, London Henry Winter, Kitchener Kimberly Blacker, North Bay Debra Walsh, Kingston Mary Cunningham, Toronto Carole Whelan, Toronto Cathy McConachie, Toronto Scientific reviewers Christina Bartha, Administrative Director, Addictions, Child Psychiatry, Mood and Anxiety Programs, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health April Collins, Manager, Schizophrenia and Continuing Care Program, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Lauren Dixon, Therapist, Eating Disorders and Addictions Clinic, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Dr. Paul Garfinkel, President and CEO, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Dr. David Goldbloom, Physician-in-Chief, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Dr. Marshall Korenblum, Psychiatrist-in-Chief, Hincks-Dellcrest Centre for Children Karen Letofsky, Executive Director, Distress Centre 1 and Survivor Support Programme Dr. Ian Manion, Associate Director, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute Dr. Gail McVey, Director, Ontario Community Outreach Program for Eating Disorders Carolyn Michaud, Therapist, Intensive Therapy Program, The Phoenix Centre for Children and Families Christine Starr, Supervisor of Operations, Kid’s Help Phone Marion Wright, Executive Director, Canadian Mental Health Association, Halton and Grey Bruce Branches vi CONTENTS Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii What’s inside? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND TO THE PROGRAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 OVERVIEW OF THE GUIDE Who is this guide for? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 What’s in the guide? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 SECTION 1: INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROGRAM RATIONALE FOR THE PROGRAM What is stigma? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Why do we stigmatize mental illness? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 How does stigma affect people’s lives? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Why an awareness program? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 vii Contents How does the program help to eliminate stigma? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 What does this program offer young people? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 OVERVIEW OF THE PROGRAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 What is the purpose of the program? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 What are the goals and objectives of the program? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Where does the program fit?: Links with the Ontario Ministry of Education and Training’s curriculum guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Looking at your school: School information survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 FOR FURTHER READING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 SECTION 2: CONTENT OF THE PROGRAM PROGRAM OUTLINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 PROGRAM COMPONENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Component 1 — Stigma:What is it? How does it affect people’s lives? . . 21 Educational activities: Descriptions, instructions and tools for Component 1 . . . . 22 Activity 1: Free association exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Activity 2: What is stigma? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Activity 3: Case studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Activity 4: Art and literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Activity 5: Famous people with mental illness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Component 2 — What is mental illness? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Educational Activities: Descriptions, Instructions and Tools for Component 2 . . . . 40 Activity 1: Fact or fiction? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Activity 2: Mental illness statistics for Ontario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Activity 3: Understanding mental illness: Definitions, possible causes and treatment 46 Activity 4: Auditory hallucinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Component 3 — The presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Preparing for the presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Preparing your students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Preparation checklist for teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Component 4 — Follow-up activities and resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Educational activities: Descriptions, instructions and tools for Component 4 . . . . 67 viii Talking about Mental Illness: A Guide for Developing an Awareness Program for Youth Activity 1: Analysis of media coverage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Activity 2: Dos and don’ts brainstorm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Activity 3: Support strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Activity 4: Working and volunteering in mental health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Activity 5: Where to get help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Activity 6: Awareness posters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Activity 7: Class newsletter or magazine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 SECTION 3: EVALUATION OF THE PROGRAM Why evaluate? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Past evaluations: Summary and results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 How much evaluation should you undertake? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Making evaluation a success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Evaluation tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Student evaluation — Pre-test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Student evaluation — Post-test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Teacher evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 SECTION 4: APPENDICES Appendix A:Ontario Ministry of Education and Training Curriculum Guidelines — mental health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 1) Healthy Active Living Education (Grade 11) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 2) Health for Life (Grade 11) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 3) Introduction to Anthropology, Psychology and Sociology (Grade 11) . . . . . . . . . 89 4) Media Studies (Grade 11) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 5) Leadership and Peer Support (Grade 11) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 6) Philosophy: The Big Questions (Grade 11) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 7) Individuals and Families in a Diverse Society (Grade 12) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 8) Healthy Active Living Education (Grade 12) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 9) Challenge and Change in Society (Grade 12) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 10) Parenting and Human Development (Grade 12) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Appendix B:Useful mental health-related Web sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Mental health resources for educators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 General mental health Web sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Children and youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Anxiety disorders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Eating disorders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 ix Contents Mood disorders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Schizophrenia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Mental illness and the arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Appendix C:Resources for youth (alternative formats — CD-ROMS, ’zines,on-line discussions) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Appendix D:Toll-free phone lines — distress lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Appendix E:Ontario mental health organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Appendix F:Suggested audiovisual resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Documentaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Feature films . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Appendix G:Additional programs and resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Substance use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Suicide prevention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Eating disorders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Appendix H:Overheads and handouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 x