Paramus Woman Seeks To Break Apart Mental Health Stigma

PARAMUS, NJ — Nearly a decade ago, a Paramus woman founded an initiative to eliminate the stigma around mental health issues. Now in its 10th year, the Stigma-Free Zone initiative has been adopted by all 70 towns in Bergen County and by all 21 counties in New Jersey.

In celebrating the decennial, Stigma Free — a partnership with Bergen New Bridge Medical Center — raised a "Proud To Be Stigma Free" flag on Tuesday in honor of the initiative's anniversary and in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month.

The grassroots initiative, which was embraced in Paramus in 2013 (according to founder Mary Ann Uzzi), quickly spread to the county level, resulting in Bergen County purportedly being the first county in the country to declare itself "stigma free."

"I embarked on this initiative with the goal that people would seek treatment in a timely fashion and feel supported," Uzzi said. "(We) look forward to continuing to work with (New Bridge Medical Center)."

Uzzi was joined on Tuesday in raising the Stigma-Free flag by County Executive Jim Tedesco, county commissioners and New Bridge president and CEO Deborah Visconi.

“In some cases, even today, people are challenged to talk about mental health because they are not sure how people are going to react,” County Executive Tedesco said. “We have to break apart the stigma and say it doesn’t matter what people think because everyone is entitled to get the treatment and the care that they deserve.”

New Bridge Medical Center thanked Uzzi, Tedesco and the commissioners in a social media post for their support in breaking down the mental health stigma.

“There is nothing wrong with saying you need help and that you need people to come and stand by you,” Board of Commissioners chair Tom Sullivan said. “We are all together on this common goal of eliminating the stigma."

New Bridge CEO Visconi spoke on what she described as a child/adolescent mental health crisis and the services the medical center provides.

"(The medical center) knows there is no health without mental health which is why every day is about mental health awareness for us,” Visconi said. “It is also the driving reason Bergen New Bridge became the first hospital to be declared a stigma-free zone and (why) we were an early supporter of the stigma-free initiative."