The lights go down in a hushed theater. A collage of Central Coast scenes flashes on a screen: foam-topped waves crashing against the beach at sunset, a rolling expanse of oak tree-studded hills.
But this is not the beginning of Sideways or some other wine-infused Hollywood blockbuster. According to officials at Transitions Mental Health Association, it’s a movie with a message.
SLO the Stigma is a 15-minute documentary sharing the stories of four San Luis Obispo County residents living with depression, bi-polar disorder, and schizophrenia. The film is the keystone component of an ongoing campaign of the same name to decrease social stigma surrounding mental illness.
“[The movie] tries to put a local face on mental health,” Transitions Mental Health Association’s executive director Jill Bolster-White said at a Feb. 4 screening of the film in downtown San Luis Obispo.
A collaboration between the association and 20|20 Creative Group, SLO the Stigma uses personal experiences to shed light on mental illness and provide resources to people whose lives it impacts.
“More than 50,000 San Luis Obispo County residents may struggle with depression, bi-polar disorder, and schizophrenia,” the documentary said. “Many of them live in the dark. While living seemingly normal lives they are often alone and isolated, separated or feeling separated from families, from friends, from treatment, from hope.”
Mental illness, the documentary goes on to explain, is often as treatable as diabetes or high blood pressure. But unlike diabetes, mental illness is often accompanied by feelings of personal shame and social stigma.
To reach out to, and educate, the public, Transitions Mental Health Association is also launching a resource website, slothestigma.org, and the new SLO Hotline: 1-800-549-4499. The 24-hour, confidential SLO Hotline was developed to augment the county’s 211 resource hotline and covers all of San Luis Obispo County and parts of Santa Barbara County. The overall campaign is being paid for by funds from the Mental Health Services Act of 2004 (also known as Proposition 63).
Volunteers manning the line are trained to respond to a wide range of mental health topics—a major one being suicide—said J.T. Hass, president of Transition Mental Health Association board of directors.
“The first part is having a caring voice on the line who says, ‘I understand. I’ve talked to other people who have gone through that. You’re not alone,’” Haas said. “The other part is getting them the resources they need to get help and seek treatment.”
Pismo Beach resident Amanda Nelson, who shared her story of living with bi-polar disorder in the documentary, said she hopes SLO the Stigma will inspire people to get help or help others.
“Hopefully people will realize that having a mental illness is not one extreme or the other,” Nelson said. “It could be the person sitting next to you at work or on the bus.”
This article appears in Feb 11-18, 2010.