3 men use chicken car to start discussion on mental illness

You may have seen it driving around town. It’s a red and white striped car with a giant plastic chicken on its roof. While it may look like an advertisement for poultry, three men from Illinois driving the car are using it for a completely different reason.

“We plan to diminish the stigma surrounding mental illness by hosting outreach events,” said Patrick Taylor, who owns the chicken car. “We scheduled over 40 outreach events nationwide, where we share personal stories about how mental illness has affected our lives.”

Taylor and his two traveling buddies have traveled nearly 10 thousand miles and hosted dozens of rallies to help people learn more about mental illness. They say the idea for the trip happened after they started talking with each other about their own experiences with mental illness, and realized that a lot of people are still reluctant to talk about it.

“It was the first time any of us had spoken about how mental illness affected us in our everyday lives. Not necessarily just our mental illness, but family, friends,” said Nate Perez, one of Taylor’s traveling partners. “If three random guys working at a resident hall have similar stories, what are the chances that there are going to be other people out there that are facing similar situations?”

The chicken car became a valuable tool as the three guys started planning the trip and realized it was a fantastic conversation starter. “So it’s really absurd looking. It brings a lot of attention to what we’re doing. Instead of us soliciting out there what we’re doing, it has people coming to us asking ‘hey what’s the deal with the chicken car,’ and then we get to share our stories, share what we’re doing,” said Perez.

The group stopped at EIRMC to host a small event for the Idaho Falls region. They say they hope more people will realize that mental illness should be treated and taken just as seriously as a physical disease.

Psychiatrists at the Behavioral Health Center in Idaho Falls say parents can help their kids learn to break the stigma, by changing a few conversation habits.

“One is easy to remember, it’s label things not people. Instead of saying they’re bipolar, say my sister has bipolar disorder or my brother has bipolar disorder,” said Dr. Matt Larsen, a Child/Adolescent Psychiatrist at BHC. “The second way is to be open and talk about emotions. If emotions and sadness and anger, and hate and all emotions are willing to be discussed, then its easier to discuss mental illness.”