2007 Welcome Back Awards Winners Honored for Educating Individuals, Communities about Depression
May 17 2007 - 2:00PM
PR Newswire (US)
-- Five Persons from Across the U.S. will be Recognized at a
Special Ceremony in San Diego -- INDIANAPOLIS, May 17 /PRNewswire/
-- Addressing teen suicide, empowering the underserved to overcome
their shame, and uniting communities in the fight against
depression -- these are just some of the accomplishments of the
2007 Welcome Back Award winners. Each year, an independent
committee of mental health leaders chooses five honorees to receive
a Welcome Back Award for their outstanding commitment to helping
others in the depression community. "Each honoree recognizes that
mental illnesses affect more than just the individuals diagnosed
with them -- they impact the surrounding community, as well," said
Roberto Lewis-Fernandez, M.D., Welcome Back Award committee member
and associate professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia
University in New York. "They are proud to inform everyone about
depression, in turn reducing stigma and increasing knowledge of
treatment options." Eli Lilly and Company is proud to honor these
inspiring honorees at the ninth annual Welcome Back Awards ceremony
in San Diego, California, on Saturday, May 19. The 2007 Welcome
Back Awards honorees are: Lifetime Achievement: Harold House, South
Bend, Ind. As a teacher at the South Bend Juvenile Correctional
Facility in Indiana, Harold noticed that his students -- most of
whom had severe mental disabilities -- were not receiving the
medication or care that they needed. Because he had been diagnosed
and hospitalized for depression in the past, Harold understood that
without treatment, these children's chances of productive
rehabilitation were greatly diminished. Harold testified before the
U.S. Justice Department, highlighting this inadequacy in the
system. Due in large part to Harold's hard work, children and
adolescents with mental illness across Indiana now receive the
medication and counseling they need. In addition, Harold helped
establish the Pacers Academy, an alternative school for troubled
youth where members of the Indiana Pacers basketball team serve as
tutors and mentors for the students. Psychiatry: Karen Swartz,
M.D., Baltimore, Md. In 1998, Dr. Swartz founded the Adolescent
Depression Awareness Program (ADAP), to educate high school
students, their teachers and parents about the symptoms of
depression and the risks of letting the condition go untreated.
ADAP aims to reduce the stigma of depression and focuses on the
importance of getting help. The program sends psychiatrists and
nurses to high schools in the Baltimore-Washington area, carrying
the message that depression is a treatable medical illness. Now,
after expansion to Oklahoma and development of a training program
for school personnel, ADAP is poised to become a national program.
A respected psychiatrist, Dr. Swartz is director of Clinical and
Educational programs at the Johns Hopkins Mood Disorders Center.
Primary Care: Sara Valentino, LCSW, Naugatuck, Conn. Sara is the
clinical director of Melissa's Project, a program designed to be
the "glue" holding each client's support system together. The
program is designed to empower people with mental illnesses,
including depression, by focusing on individual treatment goals to
prevent further court involvement, hospitalization and jail time.
Through this program, Sara has decreased emergency room
hospitalizations by 64%, arrests by 50%, incarceration days by 64%
and private hospitalization days by 49% among participants in her
case load from Waterbury, Connecticut. Sara believes in empowering
the individuals with whom she works to become a part of their own
treatment plan, in turn creating attainable goals and speeding up
the recovery process. Community Service: Thomas S. Stanage, Ph.D.,
Yankton, SD. Dr. Stanage is the executive director of Lewis &
Clark Behavioral Health Services, Inc., in South Dakota. Through
this program, he has developed outstanding programming in a very
rural area and expanded mental health services to remote areas,
including American Indian reservations. He was instrumental in
developing a grant proposal that will implement theatrical programs
to increase awareness for suicide interventions in three small
communities near an American Indian reservation. In addition, he
developed the Cedar Village Assisted Living Facility, to provide
housing for persons with severe and persistent mental illness. He
is also chairman of the board for the Yankton Area Mental Wellness,
Inc. Destigmatization: Sylvia Axelrod, North Brunswick, NJ. Sylvia
is the executive director of the National Alliance on Mental
Illness (NAMI) in New Jersey and serves as the vice chair of the
Governor's Council on Mental Health Stigma. Through NAMI New Jersey
she works on a program called NAMI New Jersey Expressive Arts
Network, which teaches children about depression at an early age in
an effort to help break down mental health stigmas for future
generations. In addition, she works to reduce the stigma of
depression across cultures by working with New Jersey's South
Asian, Chinese, Hispanic and African American communities. She also
implemented and chaired the NAMI New Jersey Task Force on Children
and Adolescents, which fostered the creation of "Educating the
Educators" a program that provides education to K-12 teachers about
depression. This year's honorees will share a total of $55,000 to
be divided among not-for-profit organizations of their choice,
which will help ensure that their important work continues. The
ceremony will take place in San Diego at the Westgate Hotel on May
19, 2007 at 2 p.m. "All of these honorees have achieved victories
in not just the mental health community but the entire community,
which will help diminish the devastating impact depression often
has on the lives it touches," said John Hayes, M.D., vice president
of Lilly Research Laboratories and global brand development team
leader - Neuroscience, Eli Lilly and Company. "It is important for
Lilly to recognize these unique voices in the depression community
as a way to inspire them to continue their good work and promote
recovery. I am honored to present Welcome Back Awards to these
admirable individuals." About the Welcome Back Awards The Welcome
Back Awards was established in 1998 by Lilly to fight the stigma
associated with depression and to promote the understanding that
depression is treatable. Each year, an independent panel of
national mental health leaders recognizes five individuals for
their outstanding achievements, and Lilly awards a donation of
between $10,000 and $15,000 to the not-for- profit organization of
each winner's choice. Nominations for the 2008 WBA may be submitted
by anyone wishing to be recognized for his or her outstanding
achievements in the depression community or wishing to recognize
someone else. For more information, call 800-463-6440 or visit
http://www.welcomebackawards.com/. About Lilly Lilly, a leading
innovation-driven corporation, is developing a growing portfolio of
first-in-class and best-in-class pharmaceutical products by
applying the latest research from its own worldwide laboratories
and from collaborations with eminent scientific organizations.
Headquartered in Indianapolis, Ind., Lilly provides answers --
through medicines and information -- for some of the world's most
urgent medical needs. Additional information about Lilly is
available at http://www.lilly.com/. O-LLY (Logo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20051107/WBALOGO )
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20051107/WBALOGO DATASOURCE:
Eli Lilly and Company CONTACT: Kristin Campbell, of Chamberlain
Communications Group, +1-212-884-0636, for Eli Lilly and Company
Web site: http://www.welcomebackawards.com/ http://www.lilly.com/
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