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Jean Arnold and Nora Weinerth have created the National Stigma Clearinghouse to track stigmatizing stereotypes of mental illness and to provide information to activists concerned about stigma. From 1990 until the Fall of 1996, the all-volunteer Clearinghouse issued 64 monthly reports containing 640 examples of stigma submitted by media watchers, plus articles, letters, and other items of interest to the national stigmabusters' network.

The Clearinghouse's focus on inaccurate images of mental illness in news, advertising, and entertainment media has broadened since 1990 to include a clippings and articles file on stigma and related topics. It furnishes this information on request to psychiatric survivors, mental health organizations, educators, students, lawyers, researchers, families, and professionals in the mental health field.

The Clearinghouse issues Stigma Alerts when appropriate. These Alerts are faxed and mailed to a network of organizations and individuals, many of them not connected to the Internet.

Nora Weinerth, a communications consultant, and Jean Arnold, a community activist, see stigma as a tidal wave overwhelming token positive images of people with mental illnesses. Their "smoking gun" approach to confronting stereotypes in the media is simple, it often works, and it opens doors to key figures in the media industry.

For further information and to report incidences of stigma in news, advertising, and entertainment, visit their website at: community-2.webtv.net/stigmanet/STIGMAHOMEPAGE/

The National Stigma Clearinghouse phone number is (212) 255-4411. Mailing address: 245 Eighth Avenue, #213, New York, NY, 10011. E-mail: stigmanet@webtv.net