ink; 20×16”
“I chose this topic to help spread awareness on how people suffering with mental health conditions don’t always get the proper help that they need. Mental health has turned into a very common topic, yet people are still not able to get proper treatment for this. Through my research I learned that one in every 8 people suffer with a mental illness and close two thirds of those diagnosed go untreated. Those who are undiagnosed or untreated either do so because they cannot afford proper treatment, or they are worried about what others will think of them. There is a certain stigma around mental illness saying that those who suffer with them are abnormal or dangerous causing those suffering to feel alone which could make the problem worse. Those who get help aren’t always treated properly. Some who reach out to get help get treated poorly. Psychiatric facilities now are much different than 100 years when those emitted would endure things that would be deemed as torture to rid them of the “disease” known as mental illness. Although there has been progress made, there are still certain facilities that get by with performing these awful and cruel things.”
ARTIST BIO: Hannah Kinch is a grade 12 student at Butler Tech School of Art studying art under art teacher Mary Catherine Ruby.