Comedians Stand Up For Mental Health at UA

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Stand Up For Mental Health, a Vancouver, British Columbia-based organization is teaming up with local agencies to offer a comedy program at The University of Alabama Ferguson Center Theater on Wednesday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. as a way of raising awareness of mental illness among college students.

The UA Counseling Center along with Wings Across Alabama, the Alabama Minority Consumer Council and the Alabama Department of Mental Health Office of Public Information will host the Stand Up for Mental Health comedy team of Alex Winstanley and Kim Van Dyck – both are in their early 20s, have schizophrenia and are accomplished stand-up comics.

“These two individuals are proof of what people with mental illness are able to accomplish. They’re funny, intelligent and creative. They also show people that it’s possible to recover from mental illness,” says Ronald Hunt, Wings Across Alabama executive director.

“We think this is a great way to reach out to young people and their perceptions of what it means to have a mental illness. When it comes to mental illness, people are often too ashamed to seek treatment,” says Hunt. “Stand Up For Mental Health provides a great way of fighting the shame and making it OK for people to reach out and get help.”

Stand Up For Mental Health, whose work was featured in the VOICE Award-winning documentary “Cracking Up” is a project where people with mental illness turn their problems into comedy and then perform at different venues.

“Doing comedy about their illness builds participants’ self-esteem and helps reduce public stigma around mental illness,” says Stand Up founder David Granirer, who has depression. “Laughing in the face of pain makes people go from despair to hope, and hope is crucial to anyone struggling with a mental illness.”

For more information, go online to www.standupformentalhealth.com or www.friends-stand-up.com.