Research Report

I can't wait until all of these blog posts are behind me and I can focus on recording the video essay and actually going out and capturing footage for this project. Patience.

1. "The Stigma of Mental Health" a Ted x Talk at UNC by Alyse Schacter

• Alyse Schacter has been publicly speaking out about the stigma surrounding mental illness since 2002.
• She's won the Dr. John Davis Burton award, the Royal Ottowa Foundation for Mental Health Inspiration award, and Centre for Addiction and Mental Health's (CAMH) "Courage to Come Back Award," among many others.

• The target audience is college students and college administrators since she's speaking at a college campus and sharing her own personal testimony.

• Her main goal of the Ted x Talk was to tell her personal story about how she was able to overcome her mental illness (OCD) and be able to use her experience and speak out against the stigma that surrounds mental health and being open about her disorder. A cal lto action to students who are currently struggling to be an advocate for mental illness and for students who haven't reached out, to reach out.

• This video is a good fit for the project since she says, "In this country, every single year, we will lose three times the amount of people in this room right now in the amount of youth who die by suicide." She also mentions that, "70% of people who drop out of college, do so because of a mental illness."

2. "Imagine There Was No Stimga to Mental Illness" a Ted x Talk at Charlottesville by Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman

• Dr. Lieberman is the author of the book SHRINKS, where he explains psychiatry's origins and case studies that shock the audience into a call to action to start treating mental illness as a disease rather than a set of behaviors.

• Dr. Lieberman is also the chairman of the Columbia University Medical Center, where they have been #1 in annual research funding from the National Institutes of Health since 2007.

• The target audience for his Ted Talk are college students who struggle with a mental illness to let them know they're not alone, as well as anyone in the college administration who can help to break the stigma against mental disorders across the entire campus.

• His Ted Talk's main purpose is to raise the idea that once the stigma around mental health is broken, then that will eventually lead to better treatment for millions of people who are struggling.

• This talk is a good fit for my project since he says, "there's a resilient anti-psychiatry movement that claims there's no such thing as mental illness and wants to eliminate psychiatry." He also states that, "Treatments don't just eliminate the symptoms, they also eliminate the prejudice and stigma."

3. "Lessons From the Mental Hospital" a Ted x Talk at TraverseCity by Glennon Doyle Melton

The source’s author(s)

• Glennon Melton is a New York Times best-selling author for her book Carry On, Warrior, a book about the journey of her self-discovery through her mental illness and the light at the end of the tunnel.

• Melton is also the founder and president of the nonprofit organization Together Rising, which serves women who are trying to get back on their feet.

• The target audience for Melton's talk is anyone who is going through a mental illness or has been to a mental hospital, to help normalize the situation and make it relatable and open to talk about.

• The main purpose of her talk is to get people who have been in situations she's been in, has been admitted to a mental hospital, or may be currently struggling with a mental disorder to accept themselves as they are right in this moment. She also helps to normalize the experience of going to a mental hospital since that's one of the larger dtigmas around mental health.

• Her talk would be very beneficial to my video since she says, "[in the hospital] people wore the truth on the outside so you knew where they stood and told the truth so you knew why they stood there." as well as, "While I was in the mental hospital, for the first time in my life, I found a world that made sense to me."

4. "The Kids are Not All Right: College Mental Health Needs an Intervention" a talk sponsored by Big Think done by Dr. Victor Schwartz

• Dr. Schwartz joined the Jed Foundation back in 2012 as the medical director. The Jed Foundation is the nation's leading organization working to promote emotional health and prevent suicide among America's college students.

• Dr. Schwartz also served as a member of the Presidential Task Force on College Mental Health and has written and lectured extensively on college mental health.

• The target audience for this Youtube video by Big Think is for anyone who is interested in the college mental health crisis (more specifically college students and those in college administration who have the ability to make a change). 

• The Youtube video's main goal is to inform people of the crisis that is college mental health and to raise awareness for the 70% of college kids who drop out of college due to a mental illness.

• This video will be useful for my video since he says, "It's in the school and the student's best interest to provide a very broad array of support systems to its students." He also says, "A real challenge for the school to balance the cost and benefit of the range of services they're providing."

5. "The Suicide Rate is Going Up. Here's What We Can Do to Stop it." a video by Big Think by Dr. Christine Moutier

• Dr. Moutier is a leader in the field of suicide prevention and has testified before US Congress on suicide prevention.

• Dr. Moutier has also been the host of AFSP's (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention) latest documentary on surviving suicide loss.

• The target audience for the video by Big Think is people who have struggled with suicide, known someone who has struggled with suicide, or people in the field who want to get more information on how to better prevent suicide.

• The main purpose of this video is to inform the audience how even prejudices against people who struggle with suicide can actually increase the suicide rates. The only way for the rates to go down is if these people receive the treatment they need and don't feel ashamed about going.

• This video will be very beneficial to my argument since she says, "[suicide rates] have been trending up, in terms of our national rates over the last decade or so. It had trended down prior to that." What changed? She also mentioned that, "[men are more prone to suicide since] they are the least willing and able to seek help because of social norms."

6. "6 Things You Need to Get Right About Depression" a video by Big Think by Dr. Patricia Deldin

• Dr. Deldin is a professor of psychology and psychiatry as well as the Clinical Science Chair and Director of Clinical Training at the University of Michigan.

• Dr. Deldin is also leading a community-focused mental health research recruitment project in collaboration with the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance.

• The target audience for this video are people who don't know that much about mental illness or depression and don't really understand what exactly depression, as a mental illness is. It can also be for people who struggle with depression to let them know that they're not alone and that everyone who struggles with this illness feels the same way that they do.

• The main purpose for this video by Big Think is to shed light on the the mysteries that is depression and mental illness. Even though depression is one of the most common mental illnesses, it's still treated as taboo to talk about it in public or to tell someone that they're struggling with a mental illness. This video helps normalize depression to make it easier for people to talk about it.

• This Youtube video would be very helpful in my video essay since she says, "depression is an invisible illness, it's not something you can see jsut by looking at someone." She also points out that, "depression is definitely not related to someone's character or moral shortcomings." Also, "if medication can help people who have these illnesses, how could it really be about their morality?"

7. "Why We Need to Talk About Depression" a Ted Talk by Kevin Breel

• Kevin Breel is a critically acclaimed writer, comedian, and mental health activist. Recently, Parade Magazine named him as one of the top six "Most Influential Millenials in the World" alongside Mark Zuckerberg and Malala Yousafzai.

• He also has been featured in Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, INC Magazine, and NBC.

• The target audience for this Ted Talk are people who don't know about mental illness or depression as a mental disorder. It's also for people who do struggle with a mental disorder and can relate to his message so they don't feel as alone. But more importantly, this talk is directed at the movers and shakers of this world who have the power to change how mental illness is stigmatized in America.

• The main purpose of this Ted Talk is a call to action the movers and shakers of this world in order to change how mental health is stigmatized and by removing the stigma, people will feel more willing to seek the help they need without having to hide it or keep their condition a secret.

• This talk will be extremely helpful since Breel states that, "Real depression isn't being sad when something in your life goes wrong; real depression is being sad when everything in your life is going right." He also mentions that, "Depression isn't chicken pox. You don't beat it once and it's gone forever, it's something you live with and the scariest part is, after a while, you become numb to it."

8. "Why We Choose Suicide" a Ted x Talk at Toronto by Mark Henick

The source’s author(s)

• Mark Henick, at 22, was the youngest president of a provincial Canadian Mental Health Association division in history.

• Currently, he's the youngest ever board member for the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

• The target audience for this Ted x Talk are people who continue to keep suicide a hushed topic only to be talked about in the privacy of their own home. This talk is also meant for people who are currently struggling with the possibility of suicide, so they know that they're not alone.

• This talk's main purpose is a call to arms for people who were once ignorant on this topic. He calls for people who weren't previously aware of just how serious suicide is and how important it is to break the stigma behind it, which would allow people to be more open about how they're feeling so they can get the help they need instead of trying to commit suicide and feeling like they don't have any other option.

• This video will be extremely important to use in the video since he brings to light, "Because that's how these things go: people seem plenty eager to talk about suicide, just as long as it's behind closed doors and in hushed voices." He also says, "Can suicide really be a choice, if it's the only choice available?"

9. "Here's the Real truth About Mental Health" by Lindsay Holmes and Sahaj Kohli

• Lindsay Holmes is the Deputy Healthy Living Editor at the Huffington Post and has published countless articles relating to mental illness.

• While Sahaj Kohli has been a blog editor at the Huffington Post since March 2014 and also an emotional and mental health advocate working alongside Holmes.

• The target audience for this video are people who don't know that much about mental health or how the mental health stigma can affect people who are struggling with a mental disorder and what they can do to help stop the stigma that surrounds mental health.

• The main purpose of this video is to inform people who don't know what a mental disorder means, as well as a call to action for those same people who didn't know what a mental disorder was to seek more information on it and to feel comfortable talking about it. Because if a person feels like it's a safe environment, they'll feel more comfortable opening up and receiving the care they need.

• This video will be helpful since it has a lot of statistics I can use in my video such as, "Only 25% of people with mental health issues feel like others are understanding of their condition." Which means that, "75% of people with mental illness feel judged and shamed for something that's not even in their control."

10. "What's so Funny About Mental Illness?" a Ted Talk by Ruby Wax

• Ruby Wax has a master's degree in Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy from the University of Oxford and has used this degree for the basis of her Sunday Times #1 bestselling book: Sane New World: Taming the Mind.

• It was also announced in April 2015 that Ruby will be awarded an OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) by the Queen.

• The target audience for this Talk are people who don't know that much about mental illness, but Ruby is also a comedian and so she delivers the content in such a funny way that it doesn't scare people off with the reality of what a mental disorder means. Since it takes on a more light-hearted tone, it's an easier pill to swallow for people who haven't really had to deal with a mental disorder before.

• The main purpose of this Talk is to help break the stigma behind mental health using humor. Everyone relates to humor and by Ruby laughing at her mental illness and making jokes, it makes it easier for people to open up about mental illness and make it a more normal conversation.

• This video will help my video essay since she talks in a more fun, light-hearted way (like me) with, "You hear about a hundred thousand abusive voices all at once, like if the Devil had Turrets, that's what it would sound like." Or when she says, "Here's my question, my question is how come, when people have mental damage, it's always an act of imagination?"