In a unique collaboration with the Arkansas Museum of Discovery, Partners in Behavioral Health Sciences (PIBHS) is sponsoring an exhibit titled "Mysteries Of The Mind: Pathways Into Hope."

This exhibit consists of several interactive components designed to enhance visitors' awareness and understanding of behavioral health issues. An animated video featuring Nikki Neuron^© and neuroscientist Professor I.M. Wise^© will educate visitors about the biology of mental disorders. A timeline presenting information and artifacts related to trephination, phrenology, neurotransmitters, and other models and theories of mental health and illness will illustrate changing perspectives from prehistoric to modern times, in which scientific research and technology offer new hope for people with mental disorders. Visitors can hone their spelling skills and vocabulary knowledge with a word puzzle, and a video maze game will allow them to experience what it might be like to have problems in attention, perception, or learning. 

Science educators at the museum, in consultation with PIBHS faculty, developed the "Pathways Into Hope" program as a complement to the museum exhibit. This program consists of tools designed to assist teachers in grades 3 through 8 in developing a unit of study on mental health. It focuses on the biopsychosocial model of mental health, and includes lesson plans for activities to be completed prior to and following a visit to the museum exhibit. Funding for this program was provided by the UAMS Department of Psychiatry Foundation Board.

See a recent article on the UAMS website.

The museum exhibit opened in fall of 2002, and will will remain on display in the museum's health hall.