Posted September 9, 2009

With Alarmingly High Suicide Rates, Stanly County
Gets a Much Needed Reality Check
Mental illness educational materials developed by Indiblu Creative to be distributed first week of school

Charlotte, NC – What do David Beckham, Abraham Lincoln, JK Rowling, and Jessica Alba all have in common? They’ve all suffered from mental illness. It is this reality – the fact that many everyday people and successful people live with mental illness - that spurred a new and innovative approach to talking to kids and adults about the truth behind mental illness.

Indiblu Creative developed a series of educational materials for Monarch as a way to reduce the stigma behind mental illness and with the hope of reducing growing suicide numbers in Stanly County. The Reality Check initiative began when the Stanly County Health Department reported in 2008 that local suicide rates were 35 percent above the state’s average.

The goal of the Reality Check program is to create understanding and find ways for people to seek help with an illness that takes more lives than cancer.  By talking to people about mental illness and helping them realize how common it is, Monarch hopes to open lines of communication between people living with the illness themselves or to encourage them to reach out to those who need help.

Kimber Flynn, principal and creative director at Indiblu, shares the inspiration behind Reality Check: “The challenge was, how do we get kids interested in learning about mental illness? We decided that the best place to start would be to tap into people the kids are already interested in –celebrities. Many very famous, very successful people have had personal experience with mental illness. By associating mental illness with pop culture, we hope to take away some of the discomfort of talking about it. After all, if David Beckham or Jessica Alba have faced mental illness, then it must be okay to talk about.”

The materials were designed in a square format to standout from your typical flyer inserts and feature edgy graphics that tend to capture the attention of young people. The printed pieces will be distributed in elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools all over Stanly County during the month of September. Students will be asked to speak with their parents about mental illness and to keep the information tear-off Quick Call List as a resource.

This effort follows the start of a similar effort targeted to adults in Stanly County in early August. Distribution of the message will include public speaking engagements, presentations, a Facebook page, website, newspaper inserts, take-home literature, and more.

“Our staff are doing public speaking engagements around the county to help people better understand the realities of mental illness and how we can save lives by changing behavior. The response to the Reality Check program has been very good so far,” says Daniel Brown, director of behavioral health and substance abuse services with Monarch.

The Reality Check educational program is supported with funding from Monarch, the Stanly County United Way, Speedway Children’s Charities, and the Stanly County Partners in Health.

Indiblu Creative is an award-winning firm in Charlotte, N.C. which specializes in branding, marketing, print design, web design, and social marketing for nonprofits, organizations, companies and causes that make a difference in the world. To learn more about how Indiblu is “creative with a cause,” please call (704) 587-3625, find us online at www.indiblucreative.com

 

                                                             -- ### --

back to pressroom