May Events

2nd Annual Spring Mental Health Fair

The public is invited to the 2nd Annual Spring Mental Health Fair. Visitors will be able to enjoy refreshments and conversation while browsing exhibits of local wellness organizations. Participating in the fair will be 15 mental health and wellness providers, who will be present to talk about their services and specialties. Among the exhibitors are Quantum Counseling, Eastern Shore Psychological, For All Seasons, Chesapeake Rural Network and Mid-Shore Mediation. Support Groups and Mental Health First Aid will be featured at a table, along with MHATC’s new Eldercare Program. Quantum Counseling will provide a Reiki demonstration and Kids on the Block will present a short program on children’s mental health. The program is free to the public.

• Date: Thursday, May 15, 2008
• Location: Avalon Theatre
  40 East Dover St., Easton, MD
• Time: 4:00-6:00 pm
• Contact: For more information call 410-822-0444

Pete Earley
Author of Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's
Mental Health Madness

Pete Earley, award winning author and journalist, will speak about his experience with his son’s illness as recorded in his book, Crazy. For more information about Pete Earley, go to his website at www.peteearley.com/home. This event is sponsored by the Defeating Stigma Coalition and is free and open to the public.

• Date: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 at 7:00pm
• Location: Avalon Theatre
  40 East Dover St., Easton, MD

Book Review: Pete Earley, a journalist for the Washington Post and the author of several non-fiction books, wrote for many years from the objective distance of a reporter. When his son was diagnosed with a mental illness, he discovered the complexities and roadblocks in the mental health system. With concern for his son and others like him, he began a serious journey investigating the mental health system in America today. Pete Earley discovered that, with the closing of inadequate state-run hospitals decades ago, there were few adequate community programs established in their place. Too often, Earley found, with deinstitutionalization, emergency rooms, the streets, and jails had become our nation’s new institutions. He notes that while mental health courts and diversion programs are progressive, the mentally ill should not have to be arrested to receive mental health services and treatment. Recalling a history of overreaction to legal cases, lack of funding, and stigma, Pete Earley advocates for an improved system where a patient’s loved ones can be brought back into the commitment process to create a safer and more effective treatment environment for those who suffer from mental illness. Other improvements he suggested were simply medical histories following patients and adequate assisted living centers. Crisis Intervention Team training for police has proven very effective in identifying the mentally ill and preventing tragedy, he states. Earley’s book ends with a father’s realization of the seriousness of the disease and a promise to his son that he will never abandon him. His son replies, with the optimism of his youth, ”You worry too much, Dad. Everything is going to work out fine for me. You’ll see.”

MHATC Board of Directors Meeting

• May 15, 2008 at 12:00pm