Welcome Back Awards Honors Unsung Heroes in the Depression Community

Welcome Back Awards Honors Unsung Heroes in the Depression
Community
-- Emmy Winner and Mental Health Advocate, Linda Dano, Will be Keynote Speaker
-- 


ATLANTA, May 16  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Six individuals from across the
nation will be honored for their extraordinary efforts on behalf of those
living with depression at the seventh annual Welcome Back Awards on Saturday,
May 21.  Emmy-award winning actress, Linda Dano, also will be on-hand to share
her story about how she's using a support network to help overcome her
depression.  The Welcome Back Awards is a program sponsored by Eli Lilly and
Company.

This year's winners will share a total of $60,000 to be divided among not-
for-profit organizations of their choosing, which will help ensure that their
important work continues.  The ceremony will take place in Atlanta at the
Georgian Terrace Hotel, at noon.

Event keynote speaker, Dano, one of television's most beloved personalities,
recently announced that she is battling clinical depression. She became vocal
about her story in hopes of touching others whose isolation from, or
embarrassment about, depression may be unnecessarily prolonging or deepening
the illness' grip on their lives.

"As I have come to learn, depression is a debilitating illness, but what's
worse is that so many people are afraid to talk about it and reach out for the
help they need," says Dano.  "I feel privileged to be a part of the Welcome
Back Awards and am proud to stand along side our six amazing winners who have
done so much to shine a light on this condition."

  The 2005 Welcome Back Awards honorees are:

  Psychiatry:  Jorge Petit, M.D., New York


Associate Commissioner for Program Services, New York City Department of Health
and Mental Hygiene

  Primary Care:  Ana Lazu, Connecticut
  Founder, Latinos Unidos Siempre

  Community Service: R Drake Ewbank, Oregon
  Care Coordinator, SAFE, Inc.

  Destigmatization: Terry L. Wise, J.D., Massachusetts


International Public Speaker and Author, "Waking Up; Climbing Through The
Darkness"

For the first time in its history, the Welcome Back Awards selection committee
honored two people this year with the Lifetime Achievement award:

Lifetime Achievement: Linda Marie DiCianni, Arizona

Board President, NAZCARE (Northern Arizona Consumers Advancing Recovery and
Empowerment)

  Lifetime Achievement: Sally Shepherd, R.N., M.N., California
  Board President, NAMI (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill) San Diego



"Each one of these honorees has overcome adversity to challenge the status quo
and create new programs that teach the rest of us in the depression community
about the never-ending limits to innovation that can heal," said Steven M.
Paul, M.D., executive vice president, science and technology president, Lilly
Research Laboratories.  "They are an inspiration for the many lives they have
touched and forever changed through their work."

About the Welcome Back Awards

The Welcome Back Awards was established in 1998 by Lilly to fight the stigma
associated with depression and to promote the understanding that depression is
treatable.  Each year, an independent panel of national mental health leaders
recognizes five individuals for their outstanding achievements, and Lilly
awards a donation of between $10,000 and $15,000 to the not-for- profit
organization of each winner's choice.

Nominations for the 2006 Welcome Back Awards may be submitted by anyone wishing
to recognize an individual for outstanding achievements within the depression
community.  For more information, call 800-463-6440 or visit
http://www.welcomebackawards.com/ .

About Lilly

Lilly, a leading innovation-driven corporation, is developing a growing
portfolio of first-in-class and best-in-class pharmaceutical products by
applying the latest research from its own worldwide laboratories and from
collaborations with eminent scientific organizations.  Headquartered in
Indianapolis, Ind., Lilly provides answers -- through medicines and information
-- for some of the world's most urgent medical needs.  Additional information
about Lilly is available at http://www.lilly.com/ . P-LLY

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DATASOURCE: Eli Lilly and Company



CONTACT:  Helen DelleCave of Chamberlain Communications Group,

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