Mental Illness Campaign in Chicago and Milwaukee

By John M Grohol PsyD
September 27, 2007

We give a big kudos to the cities of Chicago and Milwaukee for running advertisements on their respective public buses, in an effort to better educate the public about mental illness and its continuing stigma in many people’s minds:

“Out of Nowhere,” the artwork featured on this bus sign by Patricia Obletz, was inspired by the experience and the unexpected upheaval of a full-blown manic episode in Obletz’ life some years ago.

For the last 16 years or so, and after she got treatment for her bipolar disorder, Patricia has been been an activist trying to find ways to, as she puts it, “normalize” mental illnesses. They are ultimately a common, human experience, she says.

This month, 27 Milwaukee County buses rolled out with an image of her artwork and her message, encouraging people to make ailments of the mind a medical priority in the same way cancer or diabetes is. Thirty buses in Chicago carry the same message.

You can read the blog entry, Mental illness campaign, by Mary Louise Schumacher. (The photo on the blog is very large, so dial-up users may just want to avoid it for now.)

One unfortunate choice is the phone number used on the campaign. It is actually the National Suicide Hotline’s phone number, which is probably not the best number to use for a mental illness education campaign. After all, most people with a mental illness are not suicidal.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues, and the intersection of technology and psychology since 1992.