Former first lady lauds brain research at Kennedy Center

by Ann Marie Deer Owens

The overwhelming majority of people with mental illnesses are able now to live normal, productive lives, thanks to ongoing brain research and dramatic advances in medical treatments, former First Lady Rosalynn Carter told those attending the April 25 John F. Kennedy Center Leadership Dinner.

Photo by Rick Diamond
Rosalynn Carter

"When I began working in the mental health field in 1971, no one would admit to having a mentally ill family member," Carter said. "The difference today is that we have new knowledge about the brain and a bright future to which the Kennedy Center has greatly contributed." She noted that much work still remains to be done to erase the stigma of mental illness for patients and their families.

Carter addressed approximately 200 supporters and friends of the Kennedy Center during a dinner in the rotunda of Peabody's Social Religious Building. She spoke passionately about her longstanding advocacy in the mental health field, particularly for at-risk children, through her work at The Carter Center in Atlanta. The center is a private, nonprofit institution founded by Rosalynn Carter and former President Jimmy Carter in 1982. It strives to improve the quality of life for people in the United States and in developing countries through programs in health, democracy and development, and urban revitalization.

One of the center's partnering organizations, the Child Survival Task Force, is developing a protocol for providing children a good start in life, she said. In addition, Carter was instrumental in the passage of the Mental Health Act of 1980. She said that many of the recommendations of the President's Commission on Mental Health two decades ago remain relevant today. They include prevention services such as Head Start and developmental day care programs for all families, the development of a network of services organized along a continuum of care, and the involvement of parents when services are delivered.

Carter has been working to pass a law in Georgia to require school registration of all children in Georgia by the age of 2. This would broaden efforts to screen children who are at risk for any mental or physical disability and ensure that all children receive necessary immunizations. She praised the efforts of a single individual -- pediatrician Robert Sanders -- which resulted in a law making automobile child-restraint-seats mandatory in Tennessee. This law has become a model for the nation. Carter hopes her efforts to register children earlier for school will meet with similar results.

Carter also spoke about her work on behalf of all caregivers through her leadership role at the Rosalynn Carter Institute of Georgia Southwestern State University. The institute was established in her honor at her alma mater in Americus, Ga. Travis Thompson, director of the Kennedy Center and a professor of psychology, psychiatry and special education; and Robert Newbrough, professor of psychology, education and special education, serve on the institute's board of directors.

Research at the institute into the needs of caregivers has led to Carter and Susan Golant co-authoring the book, Helping Yourself Help Others: A Book for Caregivers. The first thing they did was a survey of needs assessment of caregivers.

"We found people in our small communities isolated, lonely, frustrated with the bureaucracy, frustrated with professionals with whom sometimes there was no interaction, frustrated with the one they were caring for," Carter said. "They didn't know where to go for help. Burnout was common."

She noted that one of the surprises from the needs assessment was that many caregivers did not think faith communities were providing enough practical assistance.

Carter herself experienced the challenges of caregiving at the age of 13 when her father died of leukemia. She helped care for her three younger siblings and later assisted her grandfather, who lived with the family for many years.

She said that almost all caregivers feel guilty at some point. "When I went on my book tour, I came home one day and said, 'Jimmy, I think I've become Dear Abby' because I would say during interviews that everybody felt guilty, and I wanted people to know that it was natural and normal to be very upset with the one you're caring for, the one you love sometimes."

Carter said the institute is working on the concept of care managers for caregivers. Similar to the concept of case managers for very sick patients, care managers can assist caregivers by linking them to support groups and other community resources and improving the relationship between the professional caregiver and the family caregiver.