Let’s eliminate prejudices about mental illness
The Compassionate Touch Network, a Santa Fe-based nonprofit since 2011, focuses on the public health challenge of mental illness, suicide and stigma.
Mental illnesses are neurobiological, brain-based illnesses. They are not the result of character flaws or bad parenting. They are not the fault of the people who have them.
Brains can get sick just like other parts of the body. We don’t tell a person who has cancer to just get over it, and we don’t tell a person with diabetes not to seek medical help because it will just pass. But we do tell individuals with mental illness to “just snap out of it.” Because of stigma and discrimination, individuals suffer in silence, which leads to shame and isolation rather than diagnosis.
The Compassionate Touch Network, a Santa Fe-based nonprofit since 2011, focuses on the public health challenge of mental illness, suicide and stigma. Our three core programs incorporate the power of sharing stories to put a human face on individuals living with mental illness. We support youth, teens and adults living with mental illness by “breaking the silence” with open discussion and dialogue because research shows that as stigma is reduced more individuals seek treatment.
Our three programs include: Inside Out Arts, classes culminating in an annual exhibition for individuals living with mental illness; Breaking the Silence New Mexico, the only curriculum in New Mexico schools that educates teens about mental illness and stigma, reaching over 6,500 teens in classrooms in Santa Fe, Pojoaque, Española, Albuquerque, Rio Rancho and Taos since 2013; and Minds Interrupted: Stories of Lives Affected by Mental Illness, monologues written and shared by individuals and family members on a professional stage in 14 unique performances across the country, reaching over 5,500 people.
Inside Out is showcasing its fifth exhibition with work by 40 artists living with mental illness. The show is on display at the Santa Fe Community Gallery through Oct. 14. This program serves New Mexico residents living with diagnoses including schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, clinical depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar and eating disorders. We invite you to visit the gallery and experience the broad spectrum of life reflected in the artwork.
In New Mexico, 1 in 4 teens and 1 in 4 adults has a diagnosable mental illness, but close to 60 percent do not receive mental health services because of stigma and lack of access to appropriate treatment. We believe this exhibition helps to eliminate prejudices surrounding mental illness while connecting the artists to the larger community.
According to the New Mexico Department of Health, 58 percent of New Mexicans in substance abuse treatment also have a mental health disorder that is untreated or undertreated. There are more people with mental illness in New Mexico jails and prisons than in institutions or hospitals, according to the Treatment Advocacy Center. In 2013, 90 percent of those who died by suicide in New Mexico had an underlying mental illness.
Sadly, New Mexico’s youth suicide rate has consistently been at least 1.5 times the U.S. rate, and it is the second leading cause of death among 10- to 24-year-olds. An estimated 70 percent of youth in New Mexico state and local juvenile justice systems have a diagnosable mental health disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
Compassionate Touch Network has created programs and venues in which people can voice their truths and be heard by others. We invite you to join the conversation and lend your support. Visit www. compassionatetouchnetwork.org or www. insideoutsantafe.org.