Intervention 2 KA

“Mental health is health.”

“Nearly one in five U.S. adults live
with a mental illness (52.9 million in 2020).” - NIMH 

“Young adults aged 18-25 years had the
highest prevalence of serious mental illness (9.7%)
compared to adults aged 26-49 years (6.9%)
and aged 50 and older (3.4%).” - NIMH

                                                                         

For this intervention, I chose to bring awareness to the impact of mental health issues on the lives of millions of people living in the United States. While experiences with mental health vary from person to person, mental health affects all aspects of an individual’s life, from their well-being, to their behavior, to their physical health. I used the quote “Mental health is health,” to highlight the importance of being mindful of one’s own mental health and to address the enduring stigma rooted in discussions surrounding mental health, specifically those mocking or completely disregarding the serious nature of mental health issues. The simplicity of this statement parallels the strategies employed by the NAACP and workers during the Memphis sanitation strike in 1968, who created protest materials displaying concise messages. This straightforward delivery helped to amplify their messages and draw others’ attention, “[The NAACP] had only a moment to capture the attention of drivers or walkers, so the design needed to be as big, bold, and simple as possible,” (Siegler, Chapter 5: Civil Rights). Additionally, I decided to incorporate recent staggering statistics from the National Institute of Mental Health in my intervention. I was inspired by how many of the artists in Chapter 3 of The Interventionists, “Ready to Wear,” such as The Yes Men and Lucy Orta created distinctive, eye-catching pieces to bring awareness to key issues. The photos taken from the Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter movements also use powerful and jarring imagery to bring light to ongoing issues, as well as to inform others about the truth behind current events and the unfortunate reality of life for many minority groups in the U.S., especially for Black Americans. The use of signs and wearables, like in the examples mentioned above, can be used to inspire advocacy in others because they bring important issues into public spaces and can provide people with the facts of situations they may have no prior knowledge or awareness of. This can inspire these people to learn more on their own or to participate in similar protests using signs and wearables to help continue to spread awareness and foster change, “But the amount of change that the protests have been able to produce in such a short period of time is significant,” (Buchanan, Bui, Patel, 2020). Signs and wearables can further encourage others to engage in advocacy by showing how they can personally make an impact and create positive change for the betterment of others, especially for those within their own or neighboring communities, “Our activism, like any other part of ourselves, develops into something bigger than a singular experience. Activism is a collective action and an investment in the lives of other people,” (Drew, 61).