Stand Up For Mental Health Anti-Stigma Initiative
SMH is passionate about helping to create a World where the discussion about having mental illness is as normal and everyday as talking about having diabetes, cancer or a migraine. We are fully committed to breaking down the stigma that surrounds mental illness by using Laughter and Story-telling.
About You
Section 1: About You
First Name
Pat
Last Name
Bayes
Website URL
Country
Canada
Section 2: About Your Organization
Organization Name
Stand Up For Mental Health
Organization Website
Organization Phone
604-707-0483
Organization Address
Stand Up For Mental Health, 3633 Triumph Street, Vancouver BC V5K 1V4
Organization Country
Canada
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
Your idea
Name Your Project
Stand Up For Mental Health Anti-Stigma Initiative
Country your work focuses on
Canada
Describe Your Idea
SMH is passionate about helping to create a World where the discussion about having mental illness is as normal and everyday as talking about having diabetes, cancer or a migraine. We are fully committed to breaking down the stigma that surrounds mental illness by using Laughter and Story-telling.
Innovation
What makes your idea unique?
SMH Creator and Teacher David Granirer brings a unique set of abilities to his program. Not only is David a professional counselor, stand-up comedian and author, he is also a mental health consumer. David has Depression. This gives him well-rounded perspective of the issues that his students are dealing with. He brings an empathy and understanding to his role as teacher that few can match.
David is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that each of his comics succeeds. No other program that we know of provides quality comedic training, rehabilitation and recovery opportunities and post-program support the way SMH does.
While there are a number of solo stand-up comedians out there, in the US and the UK, there is no other comedy troupe out there that we are aware of, that is performing where we do, and creating innovative new programs that use the comedy and the comedy troupe to facilitate the critical discussion about mental illness. The outstanding quality of our comedy has been acknowledged by our peers and many others. SMH is on the cutting edge of comedy and the dialogue about mental illness.
SMH is all about inclusion. Our comics come from every walk of life. They come from every socio-economic, cultural, gender and age group. Our youngest comic is 11 years old. Our oldest comic is 74.
SMH has been described as “The Full Monty, only people want us to keep our clothes on!”
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What impact have you had?
SMH has had a positive, some would say life-changing impact on our comics. Many come to SMH with an overwhelming sense of hopelessness and despair. Under David’s guidance, these students discover a talent that they never dreamt they had. They realize that they have an important contribution to make to their community. As their self-confidence grows, they go out and perform for an ever-growing range of SMH audiences, forever changing how those audiences think about mental illness.
SMH portrays people with mental illness as what they truly are: brave, smart, capable, talented, resourceful and resilient. It shows what they can achieve.
SMH is reaching a broad cross-section of the Canadian public. We have performed for Members of Parliament, the BC Legislature, and the Canadian Navy. We have performed in prison, psych wards, at community forums, healthcare and corporate conferences and at mainstream comedy festivals. Everywhere that we bring the laughter, a serious discussion about mental illness has followed and we are passionate about moving this discussion forward.
We brought SMH Days on Campus to BC this October as part of MIAW (National Mental Illness Awareness Week). SMH is passionate about facilitating an open, frank, compassionate, inclusive and lively discussion about mental illness on Campus.
Our prison performance led Corrections Canada to ask SMH to develop a Pre-Release Program for inmates in a number of institutions. They see the value in rebuilding self-esteem and helping offenders develop practical life-coping skills.
Our positive impact with these and other initiatives continues to grow. SMH is Changing Hearts and Minds One Laugh at a Time.
Problem
Talking about mental illness is still one of the last great Taboos.
Stand Up For Mental Health is passionate about breaking down the prejudice, stigma and discrimination that surrounds mental illness. People with mental illness are always being told what they can’t do. They are called incapable. They are called a “drain on the community and its resources”. People with mental illness continue to be marginalized, oppressed and written off.
Mental illness continues to be diagnosed in younger children, adolescents and youth. Schools and post-secondary institutions are overwhelmed with the repercussions of those diagnoses.
Many people with mental illness end up homeless and/or live with serious addictions. People with mental illness make up over 34% of prison populations. Many of those people were convicted of crimes caused by their mental illness and are incarcerated instead of receiving the treatment that they so desperately need.
Actions
1. SMH is maintaining our Classes and taking 8-10 new students per cycle.
2. We continue to network with grass-roots organizations, mental health, municipal, provincial and government agencies and corporate entities to exchange ideas, arrange performances and do workshops. We are community-building at every level.
3. We are working together with Universities and Colleges in BC as a Pilot project for Annual SMH Days on Campus. SMH is facilitating an open, frank, compassionate, inclusive and lively discussion about mental illness on Campus...
4. SMH is developing programs for Corrections Canada provincial and federal prisons in BC. These programs will come into the institutions. When offenders are released into the community, they will be able to join our regular SMH programs in their community as Alumni comics.
5. SMH inaugurated the First Annual Island Comedy Festival in Sidney this August. Working together with Vancouver Island media, mental health agencies and corporate and local businesses, we were able to begin raising the money needed to start the Victoria program.
Results
SMH wants to make it OK to talk about mental illness at home, at school, at work and elsewhere. We must talk about mental illness in an open, frank, compassionate and inclusive way. Laughter will change the dynamics of this important universal discussion.
SMH Days on Campus will become an annual event across Canada and the US. Students will actively plan, promote and run SMH Days in the future. There will be campus-wide workshops and break-out sessions after SMH Day performances resulting in a change of attitudes towards and understanding of mental illness.
SMH programs in prison will strongly affect how staff and offenders look at mental illness. Our prison comics will regain some self-esteem, and the laughter will help them face the challenges ahead of them with a different perspective.
We are already planning the Second Annual Island Comedy Festival to continue reaching out to a broader public audience.
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Please address each year separately, if possible.
A. SMH 2010: SMH will maintain its current Programs and start new ones in Victoria and Montreal. The Montreal program will be our first bi-lingual program. Great comedy translates into any language.
SMH will expand SMH Days on Campus to the other Canadian cities where we have programs, in coordination with Colleges and Universities in those cities.
SMH will evaluate the success of its Corrections Canada programs. We will perform on-site with our students and evaluate the reaction to these performances from our students, the general inmate population and staff. If the feedback is positive, we will graduate students and give them the opportunity to become SMH Alumni.
SMH will hold the Second Annual Island Comedy Festival. Our Festival Partners plan to promote the Festival throughout Washington State and British Columbia. We plan to grow our mainstream audiences.
Our annual national Budget for the year is expected at $195,000
B. SMH 2011: SMH will continue to maintain, monitor and improve all of the programs outlined above.
SMH will begin an innovative and important program to train SMH Facilitators in many of the cities where we have programs so that these programs can run more effectively.
SMH will continue to perform and grow our mainstream audiences.
Our annual national Budget for the year is projected at $240,000.
C. SMH 2012: SMH will continue to maintain and evaluate the success of all SMH programs. Several independent qualitative studies about the impact of the SMH program on our students should be completed and adjudicated by 2012, and we will use them to help us improve our programs.
SMH will continue to train and monitor SMH Facilitators and possibly train US facilitators where there is interest.
We will continue to perform and grow our mainstream audiences.
Our annual national Budget is projected at $325,000
What would prevent your project from being a success?
SMH has a vision and a passion. We are totally committed to breaking down the stigma around mental illness.
SMH has developed a quality program designed to contribute to our student’s recovery and rehabilitation. SMH is fully committed to each student’s personal success. The program is based on solid, simple and proven principles. The integrity of the SMH Program is acknowledged by our peers and those whom we serve.
SMH is developing a broad and enthusiastic (inter)national audience who are eager to hear our message of hope and empowerment.
The only thing that can truly prevent SMH from continuing to be a success is Lack of Funding.
The current Global economic crisis has affected most of our corporate and government funders. Many of them had their budgets frozen or slashed.
If we are unable to maintain our BC and Canada-wide SMH Classes, the projects that we are developing would be unable to continue. Without SMH Classes, SMH comics would be unable to create new material, rehearse and perform. The Classes are the source of the talent and performances that make any of the initiatives described earlier in the proposal possible.
Many of the folks who used to come out to our performances can no longer afford a $25 ticket for an evening of comedy. SMH is finding it impossible to pay our comics the small honorarium that they normally receive for performing.
Lack of stabilized funding is the one obstacle to SMH’s continued success.
How many people will your project serve annually?
More than 10,000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
Less than $50
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
Sustainability
What stage is your project in?
Operating for more than 5 years
In what country?
Canada
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
If yes, provide organization name.
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with businesses?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
All of our traditional funders (Health Authorities, mental healthcare agencies and NGOs) have had their budgets eviscerated and were unable to support us this year. We pledged to work together with them without the funding, to intake students and perform throughout the community as we have done in better times.
These partners are the backbone of the community that we serve. They are our audiences, our sounding boards and our champions.
SMH is proud with work with our community partners to recruit new students, to provide rehearsal spaces and performance venues. They provide feedback about our programs, and invite SMH to participate in theirs. They include us in conferences and community forums because they feel that we have something positive to bring to the table.
These partnerships make SMH a part of the Community – not apart from the Community. Without these partnerships there would be no SMH.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization?
The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
David Granirer was a seemingly “normal” young boy, who grew into a gifted young musician as a teenager. When a serious hand injury ended any promise of a successful musical career, he spiraled into a deep depression that alarmed and isolated him from his family and friends. This depression eventually resulted in a failed suicide attempt. This suicide attempt led to long stays in the psych ward.
Those were the 70’s, when people were released from the psych ward with no support system, no safety net. They were basically set loose and told not to come back. David left the hospital with a terrible sense of being flawed and worthless. He lived with an overwhelming sense of shame for many years.
He now reflects upon how different his life might have been if there had been a program around at that time, like Stand Up For Mental Health.
David persevered through sheer determination, plenty of mediocre and indifferent therapy, and slowly, ever so slowly, began to regain his self-confidence and his life. He also found laughter creeping into his life, and a growing appreciation of good comedy.
Finally, David decided to create and teach a stand-up comedy program at Langara College, in addition to running his counseling practice. The classes filled with students, and there is now a waiting list to get in. The pre-requisite for the course is having no comedy experience.
One day, a student mentioned to David ‘how therapeutic these classes were for her’.
The light-bulb went on. David thought “Wow, imagine how therapeutic comedy classes would be for my counseling clients, and other folks with mental health issues!”
It is the culmination of all of these smaller defining moments that led to the development of what is now Stand Up For Mental Health.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
David Granirer is the creator and teacher behind Stand Up For Mental Health. He is the Author of “The Happy Neurotic – How Fear and Angst Can Lead to Happiness and Success”. He is a professional stand-up comic.
David teaches a Comedy Clinic at Langara College in Vancouver, where he turns hundreds of people with no comedy experience whatsoever, into stand-up comics. Many of his students have become professional comics, appearing on TV, radio and in comedy festivals across Canada and the US.
He has taught stand-up comedy to drug addicts and cancer patients.
David was featured in the CBC Passionate Eye documentary “Cracking Up”, about a year in the life of Stand Up For Mental Health.
David is a professional speaker giving presentations to hundreds of organizations across North America on using humor in the workplace to overcome stress and adversity. Clients include AT&T, Canada Revenue Agency, Chevron, Wendy’s, TD Canada Trust, Canada Post, the RCMP, Service Canada, Sanofi-Aventis, Hilton Hotels, MS Nordion, Travelodge and others.
David is still a Counselor in private practice. He works with couples, individuals and groups in the areas of anger management conflict resolution, emotional, physical and sexual abuse.
He is also a consultant and trainer specializing in workshops and keynote addresses to numerous organizations on violence prevention and workplace wellness.
Previously David had worked as a Group Leader for the Family Services of Greater Vancouver, While there, he designed and facilitated a program on “Dealing with Difficult People.”
David was an Associate trainer for Perspectives Human Relations Consultants in Vancouver, delivering workshops on Violence Prevention and Conflict Resolution.
He was a Trainer at the Vancouver Crisis Centre.
David obtained his BA and MA, Counseling Psychology, from Summit University in Louisiana.
David currently lives in Vancouver with his wife and two children.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Newsletter from Changemakers
If through another, please provide the name of the organization or company
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| stand_up_for_mental_health_mike_macdonald_797.jpg | 1.64 MB |
 | 191 weeks ago Patricia Breuer Moreno updated this Competition Entry. |
| 191 weeks ago Elizabeth Araujo updated this Competition Entry. |
| 191 weeks ago Nick Desloge updated this Competition Entry. |
| 191 weeks ago Nick Desloge updated this Competition Entry. |
| 191 weeks ago Nick Desloge updated this Competition Entry. |
| 191 weeks ago Pat Bayes submitted this idea. |
