Brushes With Life: Art, Artists and Mental Illness

The UNC Department of Psychiatry and the UNC Schizophrenia Treatment & Evaluation Program will host the 2009 fall opening of “Brushes With Life: Art, Artists and Mental Illness,” from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 15, on the third floor of the N.C. Neurosciences Hospital at 101 Manning Drive on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. For additional information, contact Tana Hartmann at (919) 843-7971 or thartman@med.unc.edu.

Brushes With Life: Art, Artists and Mental Illness is an award-winning patient art gallery located on the third floor of the NC Neurosciences Hospital in the halls approaching the psychotic disorders inpatient unit. The psychotic disorders inpatient unit is a part of the UNC Schizophrenia Treatment and Evaluation Program (STEP), which provides inpatient and outpatient care for patients dealing with psychotic symptoms or illnesses such as schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. The gallery features the artwork of former STEP inpatients, current STEP clinic and the new Community Mental Health clinic outpatients, as well as clients from Club Nova, a local (Carrboro) clubhouse for the mentally ill.

The Schizophrenia Treatment and Evaluation Program is a specialty clinical program in the Department of Psychiatry in the UNC School of Medicine. It consists of a specialized inpatient unit in the Neurosciences Hospital, an outpatient clinic, and the Brushes with Life art gallery.

Media contact: Tom Hughes, (919) 966-6047, tahughes@unch.unc.edu. This post is from the UNC School of Medicine web site.