BALBOA PARK
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When health advocates planned last night's flashlight vigil to dispel the stigma of mental illness, a person told Sharron Hedenkamp how thoughtful it was to use flashlights instead of candles.
She said the person thought the mentally ill can't have candles because they could start a fire.
“We chose to use flashlights in case any wind might pick up and because we wanted something people could carry with them. That comment struck me about how tightly ingrained this stigma against people with mental illness can be,” said Hedenkamp, executive director of The Meeting Place Inc., a social services and mental health support agency in Hillcrest.
Yesterday's vigil at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park drew more than 100 people, including individuals who have suffered a mental condition, their friends and family members, providers of mental health services and county health officials.
In the gathering was Kitty Dukakis, wife of the former presidential candidate Michael Dukakis. She is in San Diego this week to promote her new book, “Shock,” in which she explains how modern electroconvulsive therapy helped her overcome depression.
The goal of the vigil, scheduled near the end of nationally recognized Mental Health Month, is to convey the message that mental illness is just like physical illness. Health providers said fear of rejection and discrimination prevent too many people from seeking the mental health care they need.
Without professional treatment, those individuals' disturbances in thought or behavior can make them unable to complete daily tasks.
“The brain is an organ just like any other,” Hedenkamp said. “We wouldn't make a joke or speak unkindly about someone with heart, lung or kidney disease.”
Alfredo Aguirre, director of mental health services for the county's Health and Human Services Agency, said the public needs to embrace the mental health community.
“Clients are isolated on the street, in the tight confines of board and care homes, in single-room occupancy dwellings downtown. They have to confront the ugly face of stigma every day,” he said.
As the vigil neared its end, the event's organizers unveiled a quilt made from 235 panels that were created by people with mental illness. The quilt, 7 feet wide by 9½ feet long, depicted everything from butterflies to sunshine.
Mental illness includes a constellation of diseases, including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and anxiety disorders.
More than one of every four U.S. adults suffer from a mental illness in any given year, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. About 6 percent of the country's population experiences serious disability because of it, the institute said.
People needing mental health care can call San Diego County's 24-hour crisis line at (800) 479-3339.
Cheryl Clark: (619) 542-4573; cheryl.clark@uniontrib.com
