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David Pereira
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 Like countless others who became mentally ill but lived to tell the tale I have been left with a readier compassion and a reinforced willingness to be of service to others. So it is great to have the opportunity to make a positive contribution to our society's manifold responses to mental illness via my role as a patron of the Mental Health Foundation. o
The responses to which I've referred are like a complex tapestry or a great symphony whose title easily could be - 'Songs of Joy and Sorrow' - and whose fine details include shades and sounds of tragedy and despair, as well as of triumph and hope. As elsewhere in our lives, there may be evident (in our concepts and feelings about mental health) the tendency for fear and superstition to give way to acceptance and understanding, and so people yet to fall ill, living with illness, or recovered to good health may benefit from improving attitudes, treatments and pathways.
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Such, I think, is an appropriate 'realistic optimism'. It also is the recognition of the many good and great works being done by mental health professionals and institutions, families/friends/carers/volunteers, NGO's, charities, and etc. As yet, of course, there is no reason for complacency: our combined responses to mild and terrible mental illness must rapidly grow in effectiveness if we may consider ourselves members of a truly humane society.
I salute the good and great works of this Mental Health Foundation and highly recommend its motivations and strategies to any others who would like to make a still more humane society.
David Pereira
13/March/09
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