Cancelled - “Relieving Caretaker Stress”, a lecture and workshop with Barry Crook

This event has been cancelled.

When I encounter caretakers who appear to be coping well in difficult situations, I ask them to tell me their stories. These amazing people give 24/7 to a loved one and are often unappreciated and taken for granted. The individual with the physical or emotional issue receives the majority of attention. Over time some long-term family caregivers have developed a tool box that I would like to share in this workshop.

Free and open to the public.

To read about Barry Crook visit: https://lsa.umich.edu/rc/programs-and-community-engagement/Why-I-Fight/agenda.html

Why I Fight, a theatrical adaptation of the 2019 Michigan Quarterly Review novelette by James Munro Leaf, dramatizes the perils of being defined by a mental illness and being caught in the psychiatric system. It probes the presumption of labels and the complex dynamics of power, dehumanization, and abuse in clinical settings. Creative director Gillian Eaton and actor Malcolm Tulip, faculty of the U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance, engage students in this production at U-M Residential College’s Keene Theater from March 26–29, 2020.

Based on collaboration with the U-M Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Program and other University units, a series of panels on mental illness and the arts follow each performance. Panelists will expand on themes in Why I Fight and invite conversation with audience members. Individuals and family members who live with mental illness; U-M faculty conducting psycho-social, public health, and biomedical research; and practitioners in the arts will explore the roles of creativity and the outdoors in healing. Dr. Melvin McInnis, Director of the Prechter Program, and other U-M mental health experts, will moderate the panels.

A catered reception and information tables for community resources in the arts and mental health follow each performance.