By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS
Joshua Tanguay, a lecturer of psychology at Fort Hays State University, was recently awarded a Midwest Energy Community Fund grant to provide training from Dr. Pat Deegan’s “Hearing Distressing Voices” simulation.
Deegan’s organization works to help people understand and work with those who struggle with mental illness. She developed “Hearing Distressing Voices” in 1996 to help people understand her world as a sufferer of schizophrenia with auditory hallucinations.
“The training has impacted tens of thousands of people and, for many, forever changed their paradigm of a misunderstood and sometimes neglected population,” said Tanguay.
Tanguay received Deegan’s training at a recent conference in Seattle with several law enforcement officers and mental health representatives from the Ellis County community as part of the local Crisis Intervention Team council.
“Midwest Energy has a long history of giving back to its customers by supporting sustainable projects that help build and enhance community improvements in areas such as economic growth and development, education, community renewal and healthcare,” said James Wright, key account manager at Midwest Energy.
Tanguay’s $810 grant was one of 32 Midwest Energy Community Fund grants awarded in Hays this fall.
Deegan’s simulation helps group participants experience what it is like to attempt to function as someone who is severely mentally ill and to process the experience as a means to increase empathy and understanding.
The simulation cites 13 peer-reviewed studies that support its efficacy for increased empathy toward those afflicted with severe mental illness.
Tanguay said the training will be offered to Fort Hays State faculty, staff and students as well as community organizations such as local school districts, law enforcement and hospital staff.
In addition to his work at Fort Hays State, Tanguay is a mental health therapist with Clinical Associates P.A.