Wanted: Psychiatrists to Run For Better Mental Health

APA members and their families have an opportunity to “walk the talk” on behalf of treatment for mental illness and substance abuse at this year’s annual meeting in San Francisco.

Psychiatrist Ron Sterling, M.D., of Seattle is seeking other APA members and their families to join the “Mental Health Matters!” team that will take part in San Francisco’s famous Bay-to-Breakers Fun Run, on Sunday, May 18.

Sterling said he hopes to have the largest team in the “team challenge,” creating publicity—“a buzz,” as he put it—about the importance of treatment for mental illness and substance abuse.

For now, the team can raise money only for the charities supported by the Bay to Breakers Foundation, which sponsors the race. But Sterling hopes the publicity created by the team will persuade the foundation in the future to include among those charities organizations that provide treatment for mental illness and substance abuse.

Sterling is working with several groups to form a coalition to advocate for just that. “Accomplishing the coalition-building part of the mission has been the most daunting and difficult task so far,” he said. “Rev. Chet Watson, president of the California chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), has been very supportive, and so have the California chapters of the National Association of Social Workers and Marriage and Family Therapists. However, as of March 4, several other organizations and university departments in central California have not responded to this effort.”

Sterling said that a precedent was set in his home city of Seattle. “The Greater Seattle Chapter of NAMI is one of the forerunners of mental health fundraising fun runs,” he said. “They started the annual Seattle Move for Mental Health Fun Run in September 2001, and we are in the midst of organizing the third annual run for this September.

“Last year, I volunteered to be a team captain,” Sterling said. “The team was made up of Washington State Psychiatric Association members and their friends. It was our first team, and we made a good showing. We plan on being bigger and better this year. This year I am assisting the Seattle run’s work group to raise the run’s profile with larger Seattle-area corporations to sponsor corporate teams. When large corporations get on board and support their workers to form teams to represent the corporation, media and individual attitudes often start changing.”

Sterling said it’s as much about raising awareness as it is about raising money. “In my opinion, that is why fun runs and walks are so attractive,” he said. “They don’t put a lot of pressure on people’s belief systems. Fun runs allow people to have fun while they help others and contribute to their community. In a sense, they provide a form of desensitization for traditionally stigmatized issues.”

The team will have members who run to compete, run for fun as a group, walk for fun, and many who may not walk at all. Sterling urged APA members who can’t participate directly in the run to join the team and support the effort by wearing the team logo name tag to APA sessions on Sunday, May 18.

Team members will receive their team pins and running bibs either by mail or at one of two meetings before the race. All team information and meeting changes will be posted on the Web site.

“As team captain, I will have a wireless phone with me so team members can contact me,” Sterling said. “We are developing a team T-shirt, but have not yet found any funding to help pay for costs. Team T-shirts may become available depending upon how many sign up and whether members will be willing to pay a nominal fee for a shirt.”

He added, “We need team members. This will be fun, collegial, and good for our relationship with Bay Area residents and organizations.”

People who wish to join the team can find easy-to-follow instructions at the Web site www.MentalHealthRun.org, where they can register online. ▪