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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Auditor to be spokesman for mental health topics
I was able to rebound and to reach my fullest potential. I want to spread the word, that recovery is possible’ -- Winnipegger David Albert Newman
Winnipegger David Albert Newman is joining Canadian personalities like Margaret Trudeau by standing up this week for thousands of others who suffer in silence from mental illness.
The auditor for the province of Manitoba is a private person who volunteers with the Canadian Mental Health Association while he studies in his spare time for his Masters in Business Administration.
Newman, 34, says his battles with schizophrenia and people in the health care system forged a fierce determination to combat the negative image of mental illness.
"There's so much stigma against mental illness and people look down on you. It's hard to describe but I was on the psych ward three times. A psych nurse at HSC basically wrote me off and she said, 'You'll never work again and you'll be institutionalized the rest of your life," Newman said from Ottawa where campaign organizers hosted an annual awards dinner last night
Newman is one of five Canadians chosen to be spokespeople for the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness 2010 mental illness awareness campaign this week and the only representative from Manitoba.
Trudeau acted as one of a group of similar spokespeople for the annual campaign last year, waging a public battle for more awareness after overcoming her own demons. One in five Canadians deal with mental illness during their lifetimes.
"I was able to rebound and to reach my fullest potential," Newman said. "I want to spread the word, that recovery is possible."
Mental Health Awareness week is designed to raise awareness about mental illness, lower stigma against it and to promote practices including services from community organizations such as the Canadian Mental Health Association which people can use to prevent, diagnose and treat mental illness. This year, campaign materials were distributed in English and French to over 6,000 organizations across Canada.
Each year sponsors host the annual awards dinner to honor individuals who make a contribution to advancing mental health awareness. Among the award winners this year is Maple Leaf Foods CEO Michael McCain.
Canada Post is the event's main sponsor, along with marketing giant Fleishman-Hillard Canada, telecommunications giant Rogers TV and drug companies Bristol Myers Squib, Astra-Zeneca, Jannssen-Ortho Inc.. Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Rx&D, Apache Canada Ltd..
For more information, visit www.miaw.ca
alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 5, 2010 A7
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