Mental health takes center stage Sunday at Embassy Theatre

Nov. 13--One in four adults in the United States experiences mental illness in a given year, and one in 17, or about 13.6 million, lives with a serious mental illness, the National Alliance of Mental Illness reports.

Serious mental illness costs Americans $193.2 billion in lost earnings every year, NAMI says. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ranks suicide as the 10th-leading cause of death in the United States and the third-leading cause of death in young adults ages 15-24. More than 90 percent of those who die from suicide have one or more mental disorders, NAMI says.

To help create more awareness about mental health, the St Joe Community Health Foundation and East Wayne Street Center will sponsor a performance of the live stage production of "Mother 4 5 and 7even" at 7 p.m. Sunday at the Embassy Theatre. The production is part of a multi-phase program East Wayne Street Center will initiate with an $18,000 grant from the foundation.

"Mother 4 5 and 7even" was produced and directed by local playwright and mental health counselor James Wesley Williams. The event co-stars his niece, Cynda Williams Plummer, who lives in Chicago, a professional actress who first appeared in movies in a Spike Lee film, was once married to actor Billy Bob Thornton, and has performed with Halle Berry.

Williams said he initially wrote a monologue for his niece about mental illness, which she performed several years ago at a charity fundraiser in Hollywood. The piece was so successful they thought about making it into a short movie, but eventually it became a one-person show. Cynda Williams spent part of last year traveling across the country performing it.

It is a subject near and dear to James Williams, who as a mental health counselor works both for the Crime Victim Care of Allen County and NAMI. The performance Sunday is not just for mental health care workers, Williams said, but also for the people of Fort Wayne and all those trying to navigate the mental health care system and are at a loss as to where to turn.

Williams said he has done some rewriting and added props for the Embassy performance.

Reppard M. Horne, executive director of the East Wayne Street Center, said he met Williams a few years ago at a mental health seminar. At that time, Williams told him he had written a mental health-oriented play. Horne was intrigued. The mental health event Sunday turned out to be a good way to showcase the play and to bring community leaders and mental health care providers together.

"One in four people experiences a mental health illness," Horne said. "If you don't know someone, then you are the one."

Horne said they have invited ethnic community leaders to attend so they can learn how to connect people in their communities to mental health services. They have also contacted front-line organizations, such as the Allen County Library, township trustees and Fort Wayne Rescue Mission, to be there as well. Before the play, 16 different mental health service providers will have booths so people can find out more about them.

"Sunday is just the first part of this three-phase program," Horne said.

On Dec. 12 there will be a training session for community leaders and front-line agencies so they can learn how to identify individuals with a mental-health problem and refer them to the services they need.

The third phase, planned for next summer, will follow up to see if there have been any measurable benefits from the training people went through. They will measure it by finding out the number of people connected with mental health services by the agencies and community leaders who participated in the training.

Tickets are $10 per person and available at the Embassy box office, local Ticketmaster outlets, www.ticketmaster.com and 1-800-745-3000.

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