Video shows importance of work

By Adam Wilson | The Olympian • Published May 04, 2008

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"One of the first thing they ask you in social circles, or when you go to church, they ask you, you know, 'Where do you work?' What answer can you give them? I didn't want to lie. I could phony and lie, and say 'I'm exploring a career.' But I didn't want to answer those questions," she says in the video.

After landing the job as a dishwasher at the university, she was asked to become a shift leader. She was able to buy new clothes and, more importantly, she gained self-worth.

"That made me a citizen of Washington, not just someone who goes to a facility to get what's left over," she says.

The $40,000 video was directed by Staci Bernstein of Hero Labs, and paid for with a federal grant. In addition to airing on University of Washington Television, which is carried on cable stations throughout the state, the agency plans to show it to groups statewide via DVD.

"What we want to do is really get it out to as many venues as possible, to touch as many people as possible," said Frank Lopez, another division employee involved in the project.

He said the agency has arranged with a researcher at Washington State University to track the change in perception, if any, the presentation sparks in viewers.

And he said just talking about mental illness in the workplace is a step in the right direction.

"I hope people don't underestimate the significance of those three individuals and the other folks on the video being able to talk so publicly about mental illness," Lopez said. "Even though that's improved in our country in terms of just the discrimination against people with mental illness, and the stereotypes, it's still … a big deal for people to come out, so to speak."