Approximately 60 attendees joined together to kick-off a new collaborative health care effort, the Got Blue campaign, on Monday, March 30th. With its mission to overcome the stigma associated with mental illness, and provide resources to sufferers of mental illnesses and their families, GotBlue.org, has officially been introduced to Essex, Morris and Hudson Counties.
The initiative kickoff on March 30th coincided with an announcement by the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, which recommended pediatricians screen children between the ages of 12 and 18 for depression. Statistics have shown nearly 2 million teens suffer from depression and fewer than half of people of all age groups who are battling depression seek treatment.
GotBlue.org is spearheaded by the Jewish Family Service of MetroWest, the Mental Health Association of Essex County, Inc., and the NJ Governor’s Council on Mental Health Stigma. The collaboration has received funding from the Russell Scott Atkind Memorial Fund.
The idea stemmed from a roundtable discussion two years ago led by the Executive Director of the Jewish Family Service, Reuben Rotman, and Executive Director of the Mental Health Association, Robert Davison. They jointly reached out to Executive Director of the NJ Governor’s Council, Celina Gray. The NJ Governor’s Council on Mental Health Stigma was formed in 2004 when Acting Governor Richard Codey signed Executive Order #58 into effect, which created the Governor’s Task Force on Mental Health.
Davison introduced Codey as a speaker at the event, chronicling Codey’s lifetime advocacy on behalf of those with mental illnesses. He said Codey worked for his father’s funeral home transporting patients from Greystone, and how, in Codey’s father funeral home, they were "treated more with dignity in death than they had been in life".
Codey later elaborated on his father’s work, explaining how his father worked around the church and synagogue rules governing suicides to ensure families had their loved ones buried the way they wanted. Davison also described Codey’s undercover work at Marlboro Hospital as an assemblyman in 1987, uncovering during overnight shifts "grotesque patient abuse." He also said Codey encountered more abuses in the 1990’s in a surprise visit to an East Orange mental health facility, where Codey witnessed "dead rodents, urine covered floors and mattresses with no sheets."
Davison said on Codey’s first day as Governor, he had breakfast with Greystone patients. When one patient told Codey he wanted to go home to East Orange and had no home, Codey realized he needed to help. As Governor, Codey established a $200 million housing trust fund, providing mentally ill individuals assistance in purchasing their own homes.
In 2007, he pushed for the revision of the portion of New Jersey’s State Constitution, which prohibited those with developmental disabilities and mental illness from exercising the right to vote. Since 1844 the constitution read, "No idiot or insane person shall enjoy the right of suffrage." Codey said this was a "disgrace" and 90% of New Jersey voters agreed when they voted to amend the constitution and remove this wording.
Codey’s own wife, Mary Jo, battled postpartum depression after the birth of their first child. During her second pregnancy, her depression ran deeper when she had to discontinue her medication for the sake of their child. In place of medication, she endured 10 electric shock treatments over the course of her pregnancy. Codey said she eventually was able to connect with the right doctor and mix of medications, and now helps other women daily who are dealing with their own battles of mental illness.
Both Codey and Gray applauded Marsha Atkind, another speaker at the event, whose son’s journey with depression, which resulted in his tragic suicide, led to the backing of the GotBlue.org campaign by the Russell Scott Atkind Memorial Fund. Atkind said her son was "a gifted singer and jazz musician, a teacher who loved learning, and a person who had a sense of how to repair the world."
Initially, she said his depression was mild, but became overwhelming, and in between medications and work demands he felt he couldn’t ask for help. She said his feelings were further compounded with thoughts of failure and isolation.
Since her son’s death, others have approached her, sharing stories of their own loved ones’ suicides. "No one should suffer alone," said Atkind, "Got Blue will provide individuals with the help and hope needed to walk through the dark tunnel."
Rotman said the campaign’s message emulates the "Got Milk?" concept, and will be displayed on billboards, in movie theaters and in print materials throughout Essex County. He asked kickoff attendees to help by further spreading the message through their organizations.
Gray compared the stigma associated with mental illness to the stigma once attached to cancers, which were thought to be contagious. "No one is talking about the disease not being fatal, but the stigma was fatal." "This is the last frontier of discrimination," said Gray, "There is a white hot spotlight on the issue and New Jersey is at the front of this revolution."
"Mental illness knows no boundaries," said Codey, "It’s those with resources who get better treatment."