Mental health festival aims to stop stigmas
Foster's Daily DemocratJan 10, 2020
"Everyone has mental health," said Sturtevant, who works as a home health aid. "It's not just people with a disease. And I think that if we started to move in that state of mind, it would definitely make a difference."
The first Rochester Mental Health Awareness Festival will be held
The plan is to have the main portion of the event on city-owned property along the
"That's why I called it a festival," Sturtevant said, adding that a specialized seminar or non-celebratory event wouldn't be broad enough or do enough to take mental health out of the shadows. "Everyone can be one incident away from a depressive state or a suicidal state, and if we don't take of ourselves when we're in a good condition ... the damage has been done. (People are) already in a bad condition when they (usually) think, 'Maybe I should get this checked out?' It should be routine, just like going for a physical or going for a dental checkup."
Sturtevant said she has personally experienced many struggles due to her borderline personality disorder, an emotional dysregulation disorder.
She said her personal experience with stigma, societal issues affecting people of all ages, and the coping skills she's learned through sessions at
"I think that for future generations and our youth, it's extremely important to publicize these things," she said. "It may not remove the opioid crisis or completely (eliminate) the suicide rates and things like that, but learning from an early age how to care for yourself mentally could give us a brighter future."
Todd Radict, the owner of Skele-Tone Records and one of the downtown business leaders supporting the festival, said what Sturtevant is trying to do is "beautiful."
"I think it would bring the community together and make people aware of the situation that's going on," said Radict, who is also one of the leaders of the pro-revitalization community group Rochester Rise Up. "A lot of individuals put people down and don't understand what they're going through... It might change their ideas of how things are around here. Hopefully it will also get some more resources in our town."
Anyone interested in participating in or helping organize the first Rochester Mental Health Awareness Festival on
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