A message from John Fecteau, LCSW, Director of Mental Health
May 31, 2025
This month, our President and CEO, Maria Coutant Skinner, LCSW, is joyfully celebrating her daughter’s marriage with family and friends. In her absence, we are honored to share a message from our Director of Mental Health, John Fecteau, LCSW, in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month. We hope you enjoy his thoughtful reflections.
Dear friends;
As May marks Mental Health Awareness Month—and as I personally embrace this season of my life—I’ve taken a moment to reflect on how our collective understanding of mental health has evolved over the 32 years I’ve spent working in the field.
In 1993, I began working as a Counselor at McCall’s Glenlunan House, a group home for people healing from mental health disorders, which was opened by CNV Help, Inc. decades ago. I later worked in a variety of community mental health settings during Connecticut’s period of deinstitutionalization. This was a time marked by the closure of long-term institutions, followed by a community integration effort that, while well-intentioned, was often underfunded and insufficiently planned.
Stigma was rampant, and today, it is still a major obstacle to recovery and full community integration for many, but let’s take a moment here. Compared to the 1990s, we have come a long way, especially in more progressive attitudes related to depression, anxiety, and the effects of trauma. A study published in JAMA Network Open reported survey results in 1996, 2006, and 2018. From 1996 to 2006, “Americans reported increasing beliefs that mental health problems are caused by genetics or disruptions in the brain”, although “while these findings reflected a greater belief in scientific causes, they were not accompanied by any decrease in the public rejection of those with mental illness.” Then, in 2018, they “revealed a statistically significant drop in social rejection for people described as having major depression.”
I know, this doesn’t exactly sound like a cause for a parade, but when I first started, I met someone whose spouse was told by inpatient doctors to divorce them because they would likely never make it out of the institution. They had Major Depression. Can you imagine if someone said that today? It would be met with outrage—and rightfully so. That, my friends, is real change.
Now, the key seems to be, in part, due to increased education about the causes of mental health conditions and available treatment options, along with more opportunities to witness recovery firsthand. We see this in the lives of those we serve—individuals achieving independent living, meaningful employment, reconnection with family and friends, and engagement in social and recreational activities—you know, living a full and fulfilling life.
We seem to be witnessing positive change. Now we need to redouble efforts and use that momentum to increase the public’s knowledge about Schizophrenia, and other conditions where certain symptoms create barriers to really seeing those afflicted as the wonderful and endearing people they are. Recovery is possible, even if certain symptoms persist. We need to both embrace the science behind mental health disorders, as well as the people living with them.
And, by the way, the individual referenced above remarried their spouse, moved back in together, and took up their old career. Funny what some hope can do.
As we honor Mental Health Awareness Month, let’s continue to challenge outdated assumptions, celebrate the progress we’ve made, and remain steadfast in our belief that recovery from mental health disorders is not only possible—it’s happening every day.
With gratitude and hope,
John Fecteau, LCSW
Director of Mental Health
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