
{"id":2642,"date":"2008-05-23T11:19:19","date_gmt":"2008-05-23T19:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2008\/05\/23\/carrboro-and-mental-health-dancing-to-an-alternate-beat\/"},"modified":"2008-05-23T11:20:17","modified_gmt":"2008-05-23T19:20:17","slug":"carrboro-and-mental-health-dancing-to-an-alternate-beat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2008\/05\/23\/carrboro-and-mental-health-dancing-to-an-alternate-beat\/","title":{"rendered":"Carrboro and mental health: Dancing to an alternate beat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>Peter Kramer<br \/>\n<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\nMay is Mental Health Month and this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s theme is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Get Connected.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The importance of social connectedness to good mental health has led some of us to consider Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s role as a leader in innovative programs that promote mental health wellness.<\/p>\n<p>Carrboro is home to, among other organizations, the Mental Health Association of Orange County, the Caramore Community and Club Nova. For example, for two decades, the latter \u00e2\u20ac\u0153clubhouse\u00e2\u20ac\u009d program has supported its members\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 efforts to improve the quality of their lives. At the homey house on West Main Street, Club Nova members drop by daily to socialize, develop personal skills, improve their employment outlook and more. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I recently asked some people about the relationship of the town to these programs. Karen Dunn, the long-time executive director of Club Nova, wrote me that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153being welcomed before we ever moved in to 103 West Main Street almost twenty-one years ago set the tone. And the tone hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t changed since then. The leadership and citizens of Carrboro are open, progressive and inclusive. For lack of a better word, Carrboro is a funky town, a community that as a whole dances to an alternate tune\/beat.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Club Nova board president Esphur Foster told me that Carrboro is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153an artistic community with a capacity for loving all kinds of people, a town that embraces humanness.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Orange County commissioner Moses Carey, who also serves on the OPC Area Board, said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something about Orange County, and Carrboro in particular, that embraces people who may first appear to be \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcdifferent.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 We integrate persons with disabilities into the everyday life of the community. All of us want to feel as if we can make a contribution.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>David Chapman, the executive director of the Caramore Community on Smith Level Road, said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153People in Carrboro see \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpeople with disabilities\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 as \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpeople\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 first \u00e2\u20ac\u201d there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s less tendency to judge differences.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nOthers cited examples of Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rich capacity for acceptance and understanding, traits that enhance the possibilities of connecting to each other.<\/p>\n<p><em>Peter Kramer works for the OPC Area Program in Chapel Hill.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Peter Kramer May is Mental Health Month and this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s theme is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Get Connected.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The importance of social connectedness to good mental health has led some of us to consider Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s role as a leader in innovative programs that promote mental health wellness. Carrboro is home to, among other organizations, the Mental Health Association of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2642\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}