Church hosts educational program on mental health

Brenda Prusak had an idea to educate people about mental illness and depression. She'd had some experience with it in her own family, and thought a forum to dispel the myths of depression could really help her friends and neighbors understand it better.

She just didn't know where to begin.

While attending First Parish in Lexington, Unitarian Universalist Church last summer, she heard Diane Coutu speak about depression during an open sermon. After a short conversation, the women decided to do something bigger. They wanted to get more people involved, and as Prusak learned over the course of the following year, that was easy to do. A lot of them, it turned out, had depression touch their lives in some way.

Next month, their grassroots effort to educate people on mental health will come to fruition. The church will host "Making Darkness Visible" during the first week of October, to coincide with the National Alliance on Mental Illness' mental-health awareness week.

"There is so much shame and stigma around this issue," Prusak said. "We thought, let's break that shame hold."

The program begins Sunday, Sept. 30 and continues Oct. 1, 3, and 5.

Through the Unitarian Universalist national Web site the program has gained national attention. Prusak and First Parish minister Rev. William Clark said they heard from people as far as California saying they wanted to be involved, or attend, or just wish them well.

The program includes speakers from the with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), a doctor who will speak on depression's biological effects, and from Rev. Clark himself, who will examine depression and spirituality.

"To me it was a wonderful experience in shared ministry," Clark said. "This is taking on a much larger framework than what we've done before."

Prusak and a team from the church began their work in earnest last winter. Originally the program was for members of the church, but a meeting in January showed them the issue was bigger than they realized.

"It was like a little stone had been thrown in a pond," Prusak said. "I got a call from one of the senior [church] members asking if we could find a speaker for us."

They grew support mainly through churches in Lexington, though had some help through a member's contacts with NAMI.

Howard Trachtman, the vice president of NAMI's national alliance, said discrimination against people with mental illness is still strong so he tries to promote one-on-one contacts and grassroots efforts like this one to spread the word.

"As much as a fifth of the population can be diagnosed" with a form of mental illness, Trachtman said.

He has worked with churches on similar programs in the past because people frequently seek out clergy for help. And Clark says it fits with the Unitarian Universalist method of community service.

"It's like taking depression or mental illness out of the closet and making it OK to talk about in public," Clark said.

The talks are free and open to the public. Parking is available at the church, 7 Harrington Road, near the Battle Green.

For more information visit the church Web site, www.fpcuu.org.