{"id":43821,"date":"2018-05-04T12:02:29","date_gmt":"2018-05-04T18:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=43821"},"modified":"2018-09-07T08:47:08","modified_gmt":"2018-09-07T14:47:08","slug":"removing-the-stigma-of-mental-health-through-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2018\/05\/04\/removing-the-stigma-of-mental-health-through-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Photos help SAIT instructor focus on maintaining good mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"

I<\/span>n his photo series, Home of the Brave, SAIT instructor Danny Miller aims to remove stigma and encourage more conversation about mental health.<\/p>\n

T<\/span>he collection, which features 15 black and white portraits, will be on display for a second time on May 10, at the Canadian Mental Health Association\u2019s<\/a> (CMHA) new downtown office, at 1040 7th Ave. S.W.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made this project to showcase people with mental illnesses as being regular humans and not people to be scared of,\u201d said Miller.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is to get people talking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller, who has suffered from severe anxiety in the past, was inspired to take the project on after the death of actor and comedian Robin Williams in 2014.<\/p>\n

At that time, a photograph of Williams, looking uncharacteristically distraught, appeared on the front page of a local newspaper, along with the announcement of his suicide.<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of all the pictures they could have used, they went ahead and chose one that played into everyone\u2019s stigma of mental illnesses,\u201d said Miller. \u201cI thought it was really unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was that same stigma when Miller was younger that caused him to keep his own struggles with anxiety a secret. It took him several years to build the confidence to seek help.<\/p>\n

Mental health wasn\u2019t something people understood in the mid 70\u2019s and the only way to describe someone suffering from mental illness was with words like \u201ccrazy, insane or nuts.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an isolating time,\u201d Miller recalled in an interview.<\/p>\n

Since Miller never had the support he needed earlier on in life to handle his mental challenges, Home of the Brave is his way of paying it forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I could help to reduce the suffering of even just one person, it would be all worth it,\u201d said Miller.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe photos are all so beautiful and just seeing them takes away the shame of mental health as something that shouldn’t be spoken of,\u201d said Todd Hirsch, author of Halfway Home<\/a>, a book discussing his personal struggles with depression and mental health.<\/p>\n

Hirsch, who is vice-president and chief economist at ATB Financial, first heard of Miller and his project through a mutual friend. After being introduced, the two met for coffee and discussed their personal struggles with mental health.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things I loved most about Danny’s concept was that by taking photos of regular, ordinary people who have all in some way been touched with mental health concerns, we reduce the stigma,\u201d said Hirsch.<\/p>\n

In that meeting, Miller explained his vision for Home of the Brave, and mentioned to Hirsch that he’d like to see his work eventually displayed in a physical space.<\/p>\n

Knowing ATB\u2019s Stephen Avenue branch had rotating art shows that fit with what Miller had in mind, Hirsch put him in touch with the branch manager, and several months later, the first show was launched.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the more comfortable we become talking about mental health issues, the better off we will all be in managing and dealing with them,\u201d Hirsch said.<\/p>\n

Regular meetings with trained psychologists were one of the main ways Miller has been able to deal with his own anxiety.<\/p>\n

Talking to people about what he was going through helped Miller to understand his suffering wasn\u2019t something he had to deal with on his own.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s about knowing where I could go and what I could do to handle my anxiety,\u201d said Miller.<\/p>\n

A recent survey by The Press of\u00a0 SAIT students revealed that while 40 per cent of respondents say that they deal with some degree of stress on a regular basis, only nine per cent said they are actually seeking help from a counsellor.<\/p>\n

The online survey was conducted in late February and early March of this year.<\/p>\n

[su_quote]If I could help to reduce the suffering of even just one person, it would be all worth it. \u2013 Danny Miller[\/su_quote]<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe the reason people aren\u2019t going to counsellors for help is because they are still ashamed of the stigma,\u201d said Miller.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to be suffering for 30 years like I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Home of the Brave will be available for public viewing from 3 to 7 p.m. on May 10,\u00a0 as part of the CMHA’s open house.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his photo series, Home of the Brave, SAIT instructor Danny Miller aims to remove stigma and encourage more conversation surrounding mental health. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":430,"featured_media":44322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S2 Removing the Stigma","footnotes":""},"categories":[1109],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-43821","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-image","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"post_format-post-format-image"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/430"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43821"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44571,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43821\/revisions\/44571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}