'CONRADIE HOSPITAL'
It is no secret that mental health is treated very differently to physical health in our society. Reasons for this range from negative societal views to discrimination in the coverage of health. The way we view health in general has caused this dispersion. When we think of what it means to be healthy we often only think of the physical aspects of being healthy such as exercising and eating the right food. Mental illness is a very uncomfortable topic which causes people to ignore it rather than try to understand it. This inspired us to create the Conradie Hospital project to highlight mental Illness.
Finding the concept for our public intervention took longer than anticipated but once we were able to find a location, our ideas all seemed to fall into place. Due to our location being the Conradie hospital, we decided to focus on mental illness, as it seems to be a taboo in this day and age with the ever-evolving world people doesn’t want to be burdened with others with mental illnesses. Mental illness is seen as a problem that can “easily” be fixed with a pill or for the person to be put away in a home or an institution.
Our project outcome was intended to raise awareness about Mental Illness and how sufferers are still members of society and we, as members of society should start accepting them, because they are no different from us. We as a group felt that this isn’t something that people want to talk about and that is wrong, we wanted to change the narrative and start the conversation. “Mental illnesses are a thing. They’re real and they are very present. And we need to talk about them” – Jack Harries.
