| SEPT.
26, 2002 | An exhibit to promote knowledge about mental health
opened Sept. 19 at the Arkansas Museum of Discovery in
downtown Little Rock.
The Department
of Psychiatry in the College of Medicine at the University
of Arkansas for Medical Sciences sponsored the exhibit,
"Mysteries of the Mind: Pathways Into Hope." The
department's Partners in
Behavioral Health Sciences Program (PIBHS) created the
exhibit in collaboration with the museum.
It is the only children's exhibit in the nation focusing
exclusively on the science of mental illness.
The exhibit features a
multi-segment, interactive computer program introducing the
animated characters Nikki Neuron and Professor I.M. Wise.
Nikki and the Professor explain brain disorders in 60-second
messages that children and adults can understand. The
objective of the exhibit is to begin at an early age to reduce
the stigma of mental illness.
"This unique effort
stretched us in new directions and challenged us to think
about how to communicate our thoughts and ideas about mental
health and illness in a different way," Teresa Kramer,
Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry at UAMS, told about 165
guests at an opening reception. "We thought about how the
entire exhibit should make people curious and leave the visitor
wanting to learn more. We also wanted to create things that might
someday go into a traveling exhibit and be displayed in a local
school or library."
An interactive timeline along the
wall of the exhibit summarizes the history of the understanding
and treatment of mental illness from the days of the cave dwellers
up to modern scientific research and technology. Children can hone
their spelling and vocabulary skills with a word puzzle, and play
a video game that simulates how it might feel to suffer from
earning perception or attention disorders.
"I saw the exhibit for the
first time tonight," Caroline Stevenson of Little Rock said
after the reception. Ms. Stevenson is a board member of Friends of
Psychiatry, an advisory board soon to be renamed the UAMS
Psychiatry Advisory Board. "I'm thrilled to death, because it
will help me show my little grandchildren, who are 4-½ and 2-½,
what the brain does and how it is important to how we live our
lives."
Dr. Kramer is a principal
investigator on the Science Education Partnership |
Veta Rhoads (left) and Lori Skillings at an opening reception for "Mysteries of
the Mind" experiment with an interactive computer
program. (JohnPaul Jones)
Stanley and Tootie Kahn of Pine Bluff and Herb Rule of
Little Rock (JohnPaul Jones)
Dr. G. Richard Smith and Don Munro of Hot Springs (JohnPaul
Jones)
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