No different than me and you

A lot of people don't understand mental illness. And, unfortunately, most of them probably never will. While everyone knows February is black history month, I doubt anyone realizes April is National Awareness Month for Autism (http://www.autism-society.org/about-us/national-autism-awareness-month/). I was lucky enough to have been presented with a job that allows me to work directly with the developmentally disabled. Before this job though, I too thought April was only for Easter and rain showers.
I've personally gotten to experience mental illness discrimination within my current work environment. One of the things we do is take our clients into public in order for them to learn how to act in social situations. Just like the public, if they don't go out, they wouldn't be aware of a life outside of their house. The client I work now is a little boy who is just precious. He doesn't have a problem with walking or drooling, or any other features of the face that allows one to immediately know he is dev. disabled. However, he's autistic and can't talk and just does what he wants to do. Sometimes when out in public he'll begin screaming and people look at me like I've just hit him or something. But honestly, most of the time I have no idea why he's screaming. I have had clients that do "look" different too. And it sucks to go out in public at times. One of the places we like to go is the mall, which, so does everyone else. And a lot of people will run out of the way to purposely avoid us like that if they were to get to close they would "catch" the disease. I quickly learned not to care about those that stare at us. My client's don't care, so why should I. However, not everyone who is diagnosed with a mental illness can just ignore those around them, or have no idea what is being said or that they are being judged and stared at differently.
There are three forms, according to Bruce Link and Jo Phelan, about discrimination (http://www.ahrn.net/Lancet-Stigma_and_its_public_health_implications.pdf). Direct discrimination is purposely going out of ones way to not do something because of the other person, such as not allowing someone into a restaurant for an unjustifiable reason. Fortunately, I've never had anyone blatantly discriminate against me or one with me. Structural discrimination is a bit different, because one might not even realize they are being discriminating. Link and Phelan demonstrate this by saying a a white man is given a job opportunity by another white man, then when it is the guys chance to hire someone, he hires a white man. This shows both racism and gender discrimination. One has to be careful to avoid this and really think about what they are doing in order to reduce this type of discrimination. There is also internalized discrimination, which is almost like learned or placed discrimination (a mental institution in the poor areas of a city).
There needs to be a lot of change before discrimination is ever erased and it is something that will most likely never disappear. Some individuals will always feel that they are better than others. But it is up to everyone else to change the way we are. I believe that there needs to be more awareness in the school system. There are some programs now that try to help, such as having dev. disabled students placed into certain classrooms. But there needs to be a much bigger change. I believe a lot of discrimination still exists because people are unaware. I know I didn't know much until my job.

The Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Educational_Opportunities_Act_of_1974, opened up the public school system to everyone. This was a huge step toward opening the doors of understand those that are different. But, once inside the school, these students were placed out of sight. In my hight-school, the mental ill students were locked away in a classroom and we never really saw them. If we did it was just in the hallway and everyone would stare and avoid them. I think the teachers need to provide a better understand and the fact that these are just people, like everyone else. Just like a sex ed class, there needs to be communication about those that are diagnosed. I believe the first step to understanding that we truly are equals is having the knowledge about each other. If we talk about stigmas, the general public could understand that they don't have to be afraid and go to the other side of the store to avoid 'catching' what these individuals are diagnosed with. They deserve a chance to be heard and to have friends and to go shopping just like everyone else. There are programs set up to educate others in the mentally ill. One particular group has a program just to educate teachers so that they may educate their students (http://www.camh.net/education/Resources_teachers_schools/TAMI/index.html). I believe discrimination can be decrease if we educate the young before it gets set into their heads or before they enter the world on their own. If just one person learns that these are people like everyone else, then that's one more than what there is today.