LAC looking for personal stories for mental health PSAs

The Hill County Behavioral Health Local Advisory Council is looking for 10 to 12 people in the community who are willing to share their mental health or addiction stories of struggle and recovery for their new series of PSAs they hope to play in the area.

LAC Chair Andi Daniel said the organization’s aim is to normalize mental health struggles and say it’s OK to seek help through local people telling their own stories.

Daniel said she believes seeing and hearing from people in the community will be more effective than just using national PSAs.

She said LAC is looking for people from every age group and background to participate.

“As much diversity as we can get to really represent our community,” she said.

She said the interviews of participants would likely be between five and seven minutes long with clips to be used in these PSAs that would play around town in audio or video form.

Daniel said in preparation for the interview she would have a conversation with the participant to get an idea of what they want to talk about and where they want their story to go before doing the interview.

She said they also want to provide options for people who are not comfortable showing their face or providing their name, but still want to tell their stories.

“I don’t want to make anybody uncomfortable,” she said.

Daniel said if someone is uncomfortable showing their face their interview can be used as voice over, or exclusively in audio versions for radio.

She said they could also have someone else read their stories if they wanted to.

She said because she has connections to Montana Actors’ Theatre she knows some people who might be willing to do just that, but she’s also willing to hear from anyone else in the community that may want to help out as well.

Daniel said they also are looking for poetry, short stories, or art that has a mental health and recovery theme, all of which could be used in the PSAs as well.

She said participants younger than 18 will need to have their parents or guardians give consent as well, and everyone will need to sign release forms for their footage and audio to be useable.

She said LAC aims to be as flexible with the terms as possible and accommodate people who may not want their footage or audio used in certain establishments, i.e. in the waiting room of a health care provider they use, or other situations like that.

Daniel said anyone interested in participating can get in touch with her by email at [email protected], and find more info at http://hillcountylac.com .

She said participants will be offered a $10 gift card for their time.

She said the LAC hasn’t worked out where this gift card would be from, but she hopes there will be a lot of choices.