One in four adults have experienced mental illness, and one in 10 children lives with a mental or emotional disorder. Despite growing rates of mental illness, there’s still a stigma around mental health, resulting in people facing discrimination, feeling shame, and believing they must suffer in silence.

Southwest Health has provided mental health services since 1998. Southwest Health Behavioral Services (SBS) of Platteville, the behavioral health department of Southwest Health, is working to break the silence in their Say It Out Loud campaign to dispel the stigma and connect people with the help they need.

The Say It Out Loud theme is a research-based slogan, dispelling the common misperceptions about mental illness and creating opportunities for meaningful dialogue. “The best way to chase old myths away is to share experiences. Mental health issues are very real and can happen to absolutely anyone. The right help can truly change lives. Each time any of us is courageous enough to share our stories through our art or other ways, we make our communities a little stronger,” says Behavioral Health Director Jennifer Barraza.

Say It Out Loud is an annual art competition open to the public starting April 1, 2025. Artwork is
accepted from April 1 through May 16, 2025.

• The competition theme, Say It Out Loud, must appear somewhere on the work
• Participants must live in Grant, Iowa, or Lafayette County
• We will have two 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners in each age category: 0-14 years of age, and
• ages 15 and up. Winners will receive a gift basket or cash prizes.
• Accepted art media includes original posters (pencil, oil, pastel, canvas, computer-generated, or other medium), original photography, sculpture, video, short essay, or poetry. Ai generated art will not be accepted. You must submit and drop off original artwork. Photos of completed artwork will not be accepted.
• Entry form and artwork deadline is Friday, May 16, 2025, at 4:30 pm, delivered to Southwest
• Health Behavioral Services (SBS) at 1450 Eastside Road in Platteville, Wisconsin.

Entry forms can be picked up at SBS in Platteville at the above address and are available to download.

All art will be retained and used by Southwest Health and not returned to the artist
All entries will go through a two-step process: 1) Internal committee judging will narrow entries in each
age category; 2) Public voting will take place in the Southwest Health Bistro in May. Winners will be
announced the first week in June.

Winning artwork and selected entries may be displayed in the SBS lobby gallery, or selected for the Say
It Out load art exhibit with the Rountree Gallery, at the Platteville public Library in the fall.