Anti-Stigma Advocacy Award

The Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry, Inc. presents this annual award, established in 2016, to recognize a worthy piece published in a major newspaper that accomplishes one or more of the following:

• Shares with the public their experience with mental illness in themselves, a family member, or simply in the community.
• Helps others to overcome their inability to talk about mental illness or their own mental illness.
• Imparts particularly insightful observations on the general subject of mental illness.
• A Maryland author and/or newspaper is preferred.

The award carries a $500 prize.

Please send nominations to mfp@mdpsych.org by January 10, 2024.

Winners

2024: Lt. Governor Aruna Miller
Personal Interview
Published May 23, 2023 with WBAL News
Description: Lt. Gov. Miller was very informative, conveying to the public in a very personal way the impact of her father’s mental illness – not only on him, but on their family. Her experience also demonstrated that some children can live through this kind of experience and still become very successful adults. She also made the important point that mental illness isn’t a moral failing, but is a chronic health condition.

2023: Carolyn Im, BS
“Major Developments During Medical School”
Published October 25, 2022 for her Piece of Mind series in Journal of the American Medical Association
Description: Im very effectively articulates some of the adjustments medical students with recurrent depression might have to make.  She encourages students to seek psychiatric help when needed and points out that dealing with mental health issues can foster personal growth and make us better physicians.

2022: Deepak Prabhakar, M.D.
“Biles is leading a new generation of athletes who prioritize mental health”
Published in the August 2, 2021 print issue of The Baltimore Sun.
Description: Dr. Prabhakar very effectively expressed important ideas such as that the best athletes with “steely” inner strength can nevertheless be vulnerable to mental ill-ness, that people should not feel ashamed to seek treatment when needed, and that everybody should routinely check on friends and family to make sure they are okay, and encourage them to seek professional help when needed.

2021: Jamie Raskin and Sarah Bloom Raskin
“Statement of Congressman Jamie Raskin and Sarah Bloom Raskin on the Remarkable Life of Tommy Raskin”
Published January 4, 2021 on Medium.Com
Description: Awarded for the tribute about their son, Tommy, posted January 4, 2021, which was very effective in conveying what a wonderful and gifted person their son was, that depression did not detract from this, and how painful and sad his loss and the loss of others suffering from depression can be.

2020: Janice Lynch Schuster
“People are not defined by their diseases”
Published October 14, 2019 in the Baltimore Sun
Description: Ms. Schuster very effectively portrays not only how hurtful stigma can be, but that health care providers themselves may be the culprits thoughtlessly participating in stigmatizing people – particularly when people are abusing drugs. Her statement inspires others to seek and give help, and to reframe substance abuse as a disease that must be treated scientifically and empathically.

2019: Damion Cooper, Th.M.
“Surviving a gunshot, one man’s story”
Published October 18, 2018 in the Baltimore Sun
Description: The culture around of not talking after being shot makes recovery very difficult for survivors. The courage in this piece may empower others to seek help and speak more openly about their own or their family’s suffering.

2018: W. Daniel Hale, Ph.D
“We need to talk about depression ”
Published June 13, 2016 in the Baltimore Sun
Description: Dr. Hale eloquently writes in a very personal way about his daughter’s depression and suicide and his own depression and successful recovery.

2017: John Lion, M.D.
“Steadfast talking is the only cure for suicide”
Published December 18, 2016 in the Baltimore Sun
Description:This piece, reassures readers that even serious mental illness like depression can be overcome, even if there are setbacks along the way that evoke suicidal thoughts.

2016: Amy McDowell Marlow
“My dad killed himself when I was 13. He hid his depression. I won’t hide mine.”
Published February 9, 2016 in the Washington Post
Description: In this piece, Ms. Marlow gives a very poignant description of dealing with her own depression and emotional experiences beginning in childhood while dealing with a parent’s depression and eventual suicide.

Amy Marlow’s comments at November 19, 2016 Anti-Stigma Award Presentation

I am so deeply grateful to be the recipient of this award, and would like to thank the Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry for giving me this honor. I spent 17 out of the past 20 years of surviving my father’s suicide in relative silence about my experience. Until recently I had never heard of “mental health stigma” yet I had lived with it for most of my life. I continue to be amazed and humbled by the impact that my story has on those who have shared similar experiences.

In February 2016 I was published in the Washington Post. I wrote about my father’s suicide in 1996 and my own struggle with mental illness. On the day that my article went live, it was viewed over 300,000 times. By that evening I had received more than 500 emails from people who personally connected with my story. People who had lost a loved one to suicide, people who struggle with mental illness and people whose eyes were opened about how depression impacts everyday people like you and me.

I was stunned and overwhelmed. I didn’t know where to begin with responding. There was one email I received on that first day that I answered right away. The subject line was “Weeping.” Steven was 50 years old and married with an 11-year-old daughter. He hid his depression from everyone around him, including his own family, and was contemplating suicide. He wrote, “The moments you describe [with your father], those few days before his suicide – I have had those with my daughter. You have given me permission to tell my wife that I am sick.”

I told him that his email was brave. That he deserves the love and support of his own family. I encouraged him to seek professional help and to let someone else know when it gets too hard. I wrote, “When it gets bad, think of me. I believe in you. And it will get better.”

In August I received this reply:
“It is now 6 months later. I edged out, began to speak, and things flowed. Some time in the hospital. New medications. New awareness. I did think of you and your story. Almost daily. It mattered. Some days it was the ONLY thing that mattered, that I thought about. I showed my email to you and your reply to my wife this morning for the first time. We both thank you. It is always difficult to know some things for sure, but it is possible and perhaps probable that your article and reply saved me. More importantly, it saved my daughter and wife.”

This award is for Stephen. For Stephen’s wife and his daughter. For those whose lives are impacted by mental illness and suicide. For those we have lost and for those who keep going and live to fight another day. I am one of them. May our stories continue to open hearts and minds so that, in the words of Jenn Marshall, a friend and mentor of mine, one day talking about mental illness won’t have to be considered brave. It will just be considered talking.

Thank you.