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            May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and on Saturday there will be a workshop that will allow people to experience what it’s like to hear voices. If you are interested in participating in the training, call Marita Kaplan at 486-2203 to sign up. Space is limited to 30 participants.

            It is extremely difficult for people who do not hear voices to understand what it’s like for those who do. They struggle every day with the distractions, while trying to cope with the everyday challenges we all face.

            Lisa Cauble (cobble) is a trainer from the University of Alaska Anchorage Center for Human Development. She’ll be in Kodiak Saturday to conduct training to help people understand what “voice hearers” go through.

--            (Voices 1                   24 sec                          “… by people who do hear voices.”)

            The workshop is not only for mental health professionals, but for family and friends of those affected, and even the general public, though there is a limit of 30 participants.

--            (Voices 2                   33 sec                          “… realize that people to recover and get better.”)

            Cauble’s training is based on a program developed by Patricia Deegan of the National Empowerment Center. In it, she explains that hearing voices is not the same as the internal dialog all of us have playing in our heads every day. For those who experience it, it’s real voices coming from outside them, inside them, or even from inanimate objects.

--            (Voices 3                   47 sec                          “… sort of our own self-talk.”)

            Cauble provided a short sample of what it may be like for those who hear voices. Hearing the sample could be distressing to some – enough so that she requires attendees to sign a waiver before listening to them:

--            (Voices 4                   54 sec                          “… Stop it! Stop it now!”)

            During the training, people will be played the simulated voices and be asked to cope with them. A group discussion will follow. The program will also present some coping skills for those who deal with people who are hearing voices. Cauble will be joined in Kodiak by a trainer from the Alaska Geriatric Education Center as well.

            I’m Jay Barrett.

HOST TAG:               If you are interested in participating in the training, call Marita Kaplan at 486-2203 to sign up. Space is limited to 30 participants.

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