Who’s Getting Left in the Dust? By HM

For our second project as action in Policy, we investigated an issue we feel strongly about and how it either is or can be seen as a monopoly.  Once we had chosen our issue, we had the large and quite honestly, daunting task of creating an infographic to effectively display the information we had found and “prove a point”.  Before creating this infographic, we did a lot of work on deciding what makes an infographic in comparison to a map and finally came to the understanding that most often infographics are made to prove a point.  Although this project was definitely challenging at times and was full of trial and error, I hope you see the point I am trying to make.

Beyond that, I chose to reach out to a local organization, Erika’s Lighthouse, that focuses on educating people about mental health disorders so that they are able to recognize the signs in themselves and others to help prevent it from being such a major issue.  Below is a copy of the email I sent:

“Erika’s Lighthouse,

I’m reaching out to you today because I have always been very interested in understanding, educating, and helping those with mental illness since I realized how large of an impact it can have on peoples lives. I am inspired by what you are doing to educate and hopefully prevent this major issue from being so major in the future.
For a school project, I made an infographic displaying the amount of adults in America that struggle with a mental health disorder and who of those don’t get the adequate care they need. Please feel free to check it out, I’ve attached a link below.
Thanks so much,
HM”

For my infographic, I chose to focus on a topic that has had a personal effect on my life and in the lives of many people who are close to me.  Until the last couple of years, I did not realize how large of an issue mental illness, such as depression, anxiety, OCD, bipolar disorder, etc.  Once it became something I was so aware of in my own life, I was immediately interested in understanding and learning as much as I could about it.  Some of these things being: how large of an issue it really is, why, if it is so large, is it so rarely talked about, and how could I help.  Quickly, I learned that out of the thousands that are struggling, most are not getting the help and adequate care that they need.  Since then, I have done several projects to educate my peers and donated money to organizations all over in trying to educate so not as many people struggle so horrifically and are able to get the care they need, no matter what.  Although this is not a man made or necessarily conscious monopoly, in a strange way it is it’s own natural one.  When you are diagnosed with any of these disorders and are not getting the help that is necessary to be able to function in your day-to-day life, there is no other option.  You are trapped in your disease and it is incredibly hard to find a way out.  No one should be trapped the way several people so unfortunately are.