LANSING (AP) -- Two Public service announcements aimed atending stereotypes associated with mental illness have begun playing on Michigan's television airwaves.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness Michigan ads began appearing this month and feature several dozen people who either suffer from mental illness or have family members who do. Sherri Solomon, the organization's Michigan executive director, tells the Lansing State Journal about 250,000 people in Michigan have been diagnosed with mental illness.
She hopes the ads will air for at least three months - but acknowledges that eliminating social stigmas will take much longer. The Centers for Disease Control says about one in four American adults suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.
(Copyright ©2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)