The Intras Foundation calls for visibility for mental health and that dealing with it is not “a passing fad”

With a parade of faces, this is how the Intras Foundation launched its campaign this Tuesday ‘I defend the mental health” simultaneously in Ávila, Benavente, Burgos, Toro, Valladolid, Zamora and Madrid. “These photographs symbolize the fact that we cannot remain passive in the face of mental health problems,” explained the entity’s deputy director, Pablo Sánchez. “We should not hide them, but rather recognize them and support those who are going through them and who are close to us,” he said.

“Mental health does not yet have enough visibility and we believe that dealing with it can be a passing fashion,” commented Sánchez, who faced with this possibility stressed the importance of “not looking away.” Also that of “informing reliably”, in a world where in general “we live quickly”, but especially in institutessince the statistics they use show a slight increase in mental illness among young people.

“Since 2020, we are talking about problems a lot more than before,” says Inés González, one of the workers who participated in the intervention in Valladolid. But there is work to be done. “There is not as much visibility as it seems,” said Santiago Esteban, another worker holding one of the banners. Think that educating is the best way to improve what is present. His colleague Francisco Mayo agrees and insists on talking about it in schools: “Let the children see that these problems exist and that they will find us here to deal with them.”

What a “no shame” to talk about it

Linked to the global initiative Inside Out Project – which encourages civil society to defend a specific cause through images – this “ephemeral artistic intervention” is inspired by a previous Intras project called “Locuras-Corduras” which contained a thousand black and white photographs of people with or without mental health problems. “Because it is not something that you can see on your face and this idea helps to avoid stigmatization,” said Sánchez, who took the opportunity to thank the administrations for their support and highlight the “essential” nature of early detection and that “Don’t be ashamed to talk about depression or schizophrenia, because sometimes even the diagnosis itself can stigmatize those who receive it.

On the occasion of its World Day, celebrated this Thursday, October 10, the campaign continues on social networks with the hashtag #doylacaraporlasaludmental.