Kids & Family

Stamping Out Stigma of Mental Illness

A Great Neck organization embraces new social media campaign to promote mental wellness.

It’s Mental Health Awareness month, and Great Neck-based Brain & Behavior Research Foundation is recognizing it in a big way. It’s part of an effort to encourage people to speak openly about mental health.

All month, the foundation is showcasing scientific discoveries to, according to a press release, help “debunk myths suggesting that brain and behavior disorders are not bona fide illnesses. These myths—and the stigma they create—often keep people from getting the help they need to lead full, productive and happy lives.”

“The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation spearheaded ‘Know Science. No Stigma.,’ a unique science-focused anti-stigma effort for the 2013 Mental Health Awareness Month,” said Jeffrey Borenstein, M.D., the foundation’s president and CEO.  

“Stigma related to mental illness can prevent people from getting professional help,” he pointed out. “Discrimination against those with mental illness can stand in the way of recovery that enables happy, productive lives. The right treatment and opportunities can make all the difference.”

Formerly known as NARSAD, the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation claims to have raised nearly $300 million in private funds since 1987 and invested it into more than 4,000 research grants to better understand the causes and develop better treatments for a broad range of mental illnesses.

Throughout May, the foundation aims to raise awareness about causes of mental illness and to develop better treatments. Much of this conversation will be shared on social media on Twitter (hashtag #4BrainResearch), Facebook, LinkedIn. The foundation is featuring images, messages, facts, videos and statistics pertaining to mental illness research and stories of recovery. According to the foundation, a great deal of the information it will share is from research studies funded by its NARSAD grants, which are available thanks to the private contributions – and 100 percent of those contributions are used to fund grants, according to the foundation.

Already, the foundation has highlighted the work of Eric R. Kandel, M.D., a Nobel prize winner, foundation scientific council member and NARSAD grantee, who said, "All mental processes are brain processes, and therefore all disorders of mental functioning are biological diseases....Schizophrenia is a disease like pneumonia. Seeing it as a brain disorder de-stigmatizes it immediately." 

“As a foundation that funds mental illness research, we hope that our growing understanding about the biological underpinnings of mental illnesses will help to end stigma and discrimination of people with mental illness,” Borenstein said. 


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