Sarah Berg Capstone

My capstone was centered around the prevalence of a stigma along with general discomfort and misunderstandings surrounding the discussion of mental illness in the SLA community. To address this, I held a Mental Health Visibility and Education Day. For the educational aspect, I researched numerous disorders using the DSM-5 and created posters that provided simple definitions of each one. For the visibility aspect, I made pins and stickers that were color-coded to represent different illnesses and encouraged people to wear them on the day. The idea behind this visual identification was that mental illnesses are usually hard to see, but on that day, suffering people would feel less alone and others will see the reach of the illnesses. My ultimate goal, however, was to spark conversations about the topic. I believe that my capstone was successful. While I cannot definitively say that people are now more educated, I did see many kids stopping and looking at the posters, and there was a larger amount of participation in the Visibility Day than I anticipated, as I gave out 73 pins and more stickers. In fact, I had to stop halfway through the day and print more of the white stickers, which signified general support of the cause. Most importantly, I witnessed and took part in several conversations about mental health that I normally do not see happening.

Posters: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1sICQrBXYCY35o0QVPHxMCVKSelCG25bf?usp=sharing

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