Southwest Health Behavioral Services, Southwest Health
One in five adults nationwide experiences a mental health condition every year. In addition, one in 10 children lives with a severe mental or emotional disorder. Even before COVID-19, according to Mental Health America, rates of individuals dealing with mental illness and suicide were rising.
Despite such rates of mental illness in families and communities, a persistent stigma around mental health continues to harm people who need the additional support. This stigma results in people facing discrimination, shame, and believe they must suffer in silence too often. Unfortunately, the stigma and the resulting feelings prevent more than half of all children and adults alike from getting the help they need.
Everyone faces challenges from time to time, and unfortunately, helpful services are not always readily available in many communities. The good news is services are easy to find and easy to work with in the Platteville area. Mental Health staff members are experts dedicated to helping others in a completely confidential manner. The most important thing to remember is the first step begins with a simple phone call. You can read more below or talk with your primary care practitioner about taking that next step towards bettering your mental health.
At Southwest Health Behavioral Services (SBS), the staff work one-on-one to make life better for patients, providing people of all ages individualized and professional emotional and mental health care in a warm, supportive environment.
Even if you’re not someone currently dealing with depression, anxiety, loss, or trauma, you can still benefit from seeking and receiving outpatient care. Just a few positive outcomes of regular care are:
- Have a helping hand in managing medications
- Find a healthy balance through wellness activities
- Understand how to change unhealthy thoughts and behaviors
- Learn and practice coping strategies
- Gain strategies to improve your relationships
- Learn to cope with illness and difficulties
- Build confidence in using new life skills
- Start building the foundation for a happier life
Southwest Health Behavioral Services (SBS) of Platteville, the mental health service line of Southwest Health, is working to break the silence and Say It Out Loud! By getting people talking about mental health wellness and by drawing attention to barriers that prevent people from seeking out or offering support, the SBS team is building a larger and more resilient base of engaged community members.
SBS’s Say It Out Loud campaign works to dispel the stigma and connect those in need with the help that makes lives better. Say It Out Loud is an annual art competition open to anyone living in Grant, Iowa, or Lafayette County. The competition is held annually during May, National Mental Health Month. Artwork is accepted now through May 16, and entries may be featured throughout Southwest Health facilities all year long to raise awareness and benefit others. People of all ages are encouraged to submit works in a wide variety of media to help everyone Say It Out Loud and use art therapy as an expression of their emotions!
Art therapy is a form of psychotherapy that uses art to communicate for expressing thoughts, feelings, wishes, fears, and hope. Creating art bridges the gap between the mind while engaging the body, mind, and spirit in a way that verbal expression cannot. Expression through art can enhance self-esteem and self-awareness, aid communication, help people cope with stress, and improve overall well-being.
In art therapy, the process of making art is more important than the product, so no artistic talent is needed to engage in art therapy, and there is no right or wrong way to make art. This type of therapy and expression can help in the treatment of a variety of mental or emotional illnesses, including, but not limited to, depression, anxiety, OCD, psychosis, grief, trauma, and substance use issues. Art therapy is also used to treat physical illnesses such as chronic pain or cancer to reduce the emotional suffering patients often experience.
The Say It Out Loud theme is a research-based best practice slogan that offers a practical path to dispelling the common misperceptions about mental illness and, in doing so, creates opportunities for meaningful dialogue. “The best way to chase old myths away,” says Director of Behavioral Health, Jennifer Barraza, “is to share experiences. Mental health issues are genuine and can happen to absolutely anyone. The right help can change lives. For that reason, 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.”
If you would like to participate the in the Say It Out Loud contest and help dispel the stigma around mental health, you are welcome to find entry forms available online to print at www.southwesthealth.org/say-it-out-loud-art-contest/ or you can pick one up at SBS at Southwest Health, located at 1450 Eastside Rd Platteville, Wisconsin.
