Peter’s psychiatrist told his parents; “Your son is suffering from schizophenia and you will have to walk on eggs for the rest of your life. I advise you not to tell anyone about this.”
So, for many years, this was the skeleton in their closet and they never uttered a single word about their son’s mental illness. The stigma was simply too much for them to handle.
But, one day they realized that there were many other people in the same situation as their son and that they were actually contributing to what I have named in previous blogs The Deafening Silence which surrounds this subject, and that it was the wrong thing to do. So, Peter’s parents became vocal advocates and even co-created the program called Breaking the Deafening Silence which is designed to teach that mental illness is a treatable brain disease and the lesson plans are aimed at developing greater tolerance for children suffering from a mental illness. There are two programs. One for the lower grades and another for older students. I found this program which is being used in the USA and would like to introduce it to education departments all over the world.
