Stand Up for Mental Health

Artreach Partners with Stand Up For Mental Health 

Artreach, Inc. is thrilled to once again collaborate with Stand Up For Mental Health — and to bring this humorous and healing comedy to New London!

The program will feature Stand Up for Mental Health’s founder, award-winning comic and counselor David Granirer, along with stand up sets featuring Artreach members. The comedy performances will be followed by a fireside chat moderated by Artreach’s executive director, Becca Atkins.

This performance is the culmination of a 12-week workshop in which participants have worked with David to craft and perform stand-up comedy based on their mental health and addiction recovery journeys. This stand up is sure to inspire, uplift, and break down the stigma around mental illness and addiction.

What’s so funny about mental health? As far as Stand Up for Mental Health and Artreach, Inc. are concerned– everything! Founded by award-winning counsellor and stand-up comic David Granirer, who himself lives with bipolar, SMH teaches stand-up comedy to people with mental health challenges as a way of building confidence and fighting public stigma. Granirer, in partnership with Artreach, Inc. has trained three first-time comedians to do stand-up comedy about their mental health journeys.

“Living with mental illness isn’t easy- but learning to turn my bad days into comedic moments is a beautiful way to connect with others and remind myself that there’s humor to be found even when I’m at my lowest,” said Carin Jennie Estey, one of the comics who will be performing, and also an employee of Artreach, Inc.

ABOUT STAND UP FOR MENTAL HEALTH

In David Granirer’s Stand Up For Mental Health™ course, people with mental health issues turn their problems into stand up comedy, then perform their acts at conferences, treatment centers, psych wards, for various mental health organizations, corporations, government agencies, on college and university campuses, and most importantly for the general public. “We use comedy to give people with mental health issues a powerful voice and help reduce the stigma and discrimination around mental illness,” says Granirer. “The idea is that laughing at our setbacks raises us above them. It makes people go from despair to hope, and hope is crucial to anyone struggling with adversity. Studies prove that hopeful people are more resilient and also tend to live longer, healthier lives.”

Granirer, who suffers from bipolar got the idea for Stand Up For Mental Health™ from watching students in his Langara College Stand-Up Comedy Clinic course. “Though Stand-Up Comedy Clinic isn’t intended as therapy, I’ve had students overcome long standing depressions and phobias, not to mention increasing their confidence and self-esteem. There’s something incredibly healing about telling a roomful of people exactly who you are and having them laugh and cheer.”  To learn more about SMH, visit StandUpForMentalHealth.com.

ABOUT ARTREACH

Artreach heals through creativity. Using the creative arts, Artreach supports sustainable recovery from psychiatric disorders and raises awareness about mental health in the community. By providing theater, music, visual arts, and recreational opportunities to members, Artreach enhances the quality of its members’ lives and teaches skills that help them achieve and sustain recovery after experiencing mental illnesses. Our public performances and art exhibits engage attendees in conversation about mental health and serve to bust the stigma of mental illness, creating social change. Founded in 1985, Artreach is known for the Second Step Players sketch comedy troupe, the Music Heals Coffeehouse, and Mixed Bag performances of stand up comedy and music. ArtreachHeals.org and social media @ArtreachHeals.

Sponsored by:
Lawrence + Memorial Hospital/Yale New Haven Health & Chelsea Groton Bank 

This program is made possible with support from the Community Foundation of Eastern CT, and the George A. and Grace L. Long Foundation, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee.