SC.GOV: The Official Web site of the State of South Carolina

Columbia, SC – In March, the South Carolina Arts Commission announced that the South Carolina Department of Mental Health’s Art of Recovery program won the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Award for the Arts, government category.

The awards were presented during a special State House ceremony Wednesday, May 3, 2006, followed by an awards luncheon at the Columbia Marriott Hotel.  These awards are considered the most prestigious in South Carolina’s art community.

The South Carolina Department of Mental Health's Art of Recovery is a program designed to give individuals living with mental illness an opportunity to exhibit and sell their work. Administered by SCDMH staff volunteers, the program was created to help eradicate the stigma often associated with mental illness.  Open to all individuals who receive care from the SCDMH, the program has assisted more than 350 artists from around the state during the past five years. Art of Recovery has received grants from the Cultural Council of Richland/Lexington Counties and the Aurora Foundation, and has been recognized by WIS, WOLO, WLTX, The Beaufort Gazette and The Charleston Post and Courier.

In 2005, the Department of Mental Health served about 100,000 citizens including 33,000 children and adolescents with mental illnesses. The Department provides outpatient services through a network of seventeen community mental health centers and numerous clinics. It also operates Harris Psychiatric Hospital in Anderson, SC, the Columbia Behavioral Health System in Columbia, SC, as well as three nursing centers, including two for veterans. 

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