Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Commissioner Connie Hubbell will join with Commissioner of Insurance Kathleen Sebelius and executive directors of several Topeka agencies that work with persons with mental illness to "Walk the Walk for Lives Touched by Mental Illness." The walk will take place Saturday, May 2, on the grounds of the State Capital.

The agency heads will join with consumers and advocates in the event, which will begin at 10 a.m. on the south steps of the State Capital.

These Kansans will join thousands of others who plan a similar walk down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. in support of a common cause -- dispelling myths about people with mental illness through education. Commissioner Hubbell had originally planned to attend the walk in Washington, but because of the need to be here as the Legislative session nears an end, she chose to walk in Topeka.

Attending the event in Washington from Kansas will be consumers and advocates along with members of the Governor's Mental Health Services Planning Council. The national walk is being led by Tipper Gore, former first lady Rosalyn Carter, and Donna Shalala, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The Topeka event will feature speakers and a walk on the statehouse grounds and in downtown Topeka. Judy Thompson, executive director of Sunshine Connection, a consumer-run organization working with people with mental illness, and Mike Horan, executive director of Breakthrough House, a provider organization offering support services to people with mental illness, will join Hubbell and Sebelius in leading the walk.

Commissioner Hubbell said there are a number of reasons the Washington D.C. and Topeka walks are taking place.

"We are taking part because of the 50 million Americans who experience a mental health disorder in any given year, only about one-fourth of them receive treatment," she said. "We are taking part because there are 14 million American children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbances. We are walking to counter stigma and discrimination which surrounds mental illness. We are walking because mental disorders affect all ages, classes, ethnic groups, and social strata. And we are walking to demonstrate that recovery is possible."

Page Last Updated: May 29, 2001