talk about something that all of you are going to be seeing i hope it's at the science museum in boston and it's a phenomenal exhibit it was  a labor of love linda has a mental illness and a family just like i do and linda has been trying to get rid of stigma just like i have but she used doing it in a different way linda is an artist and she's putting art and science together so this lovely girl here is the director of lind at the end of may and it will be open until january first twenty teen and basically it involves a few different pieces one of the biggest parts of these and it is the ninety nine faces  project which is a photo project a portrait photography project that features thirty three people with who experience schizophrenia thirty three people who experience bipolar disorder and thirty three people who love them  all the photos are labeled and the premise is you don't know who had you don't know yet so that's one piece of the exhibit and then it also incorporates a few sculptures and they do you know pieces sharing individuals narratives the sculptures and paintings look at the science behind mental illness  the videos are few individuals sharing their narratives i have not yet seen it but i've seen posters of it and i know glenn close is part of it maybe in the in the background but she is a part of it and if you all remember ladies and gentlemen glenn close was the one that had i don't know how many hundreds of people with teachers and someone the people that loved them all right beside them and it was glenda phenomenal job and linda has sent a phenomenal job on this i was here one day when she was  filming or photographing or doing something in the studio and they were twins used certainly couldn't tell which one had a mental illness  she had a regular photographer and she she was just in her element she knew exactly what you will and she is a really good artist and i hope some things were there in the engage the boss in community in the exhibit reaching out to schools different types of programs to get people access to the exhibit whether that's as a group or individually the museum of science does put a lot in place to make the exhibits accessible for many different individuals and you know i'm just trying to be the middleman and connect the community with those resources and and i also do some participated in the ninety nine thesis project came they had a little ribbon on their name tags that i kind of created a nice dialogue between you know providers advocates and people with experience bipolar and you don't know if they have schizophrenia i mean my daughter has schizophrenia and if she were put in a room with psychiatry she wouldn't be able to tell and i learned  hairdresser has bipolar and i've only learned that recently two other people in her a sample three and have bipolar so and depression forget about it people with depression they put on this happy face and you can't tell that they are majorly depressed if they're on antidepressants they might feel better but anyway it's to go on to the science museum all you people that are there out there it's something to see it's something that you should take your kids to see something that you should tell their teachers about and maybe the teachers could do a you know a whole classroom to go there and just to see that mental illness is is not you can put a label on these people and you have to get rid of the stigma because these people are just like you were sent and daughters and maybe they are your sons and daughters and  you need to understand that they're just like you they didn't ask for this so these labels that we have put on them got to come  on and just touching on that in terms of state and the relationship between stigma and labels you know now we see in the health care system a big move towards person centered care and you know putting the person first before just assuming a diagnosis and i think in the same way linda's exhibit really lines up with that where she really creates a humanizing lens of mental health experience and just how wide a range of sendai and experiences people really do have so it's a really special way to approach this topic and she uses both art science and data to really reach different types of thinkers different types of learners you know more scientifically minded more artistically inclined individuals maybe people who are good with numbers that kind of reaches a lot of different audiences and i think that's the biggest piece that really sets her work apart from a lot of work being done she really covered the bases yeah yeah dr bruce who have contributed and halt another interesting thing about this exhibit is you know when when you go to of museum you go to an exhibit sometimes you're kind of a spectator looking at picture are whatever it might be but what's special about this exhibit is that linda worked with people with lived experience she worked with professionals she made informed pieces of art that really make it such a collaborative effort and just create i guess it just expands the perspectives that are shared it makes it makes a greater perspective yeah it's a great story it's a great here it is own front of you and you can you could the and i've been in the prison and i've tried a lot of police officers and i really don't want to tell you what some of those police officers said but that was before i taught them why don't you just don't talk science and we did and hopefully i changed your mind and because science is is huge so it's a biologically based brain disorder it's part of the body and you can't separate the brain from the body and without the brain the body would be no use in a home are cats is hard to change everything but the heart is not pump it's a brain that pushes you on that makes you love makes you what you are and so the idea of stigma aids was stigmatized until stars came out and said you know let's fundraise against aids in collect oldest money and try to change ideas and that's the whole idea of linda's exhibit change ideas let people know that these mentally ill people are sick there are vulnerable but you can't tell that from her exhibit that there are people into the emergency rooms they have a hard time and i do know that the sometimes the nurses sometimes the doctor very much aware that they're mentally ill and let's put them aside put them in the in the lobby for wherever and just let them sit for a while and i have a friend they did that to her daughter and she went into the ladies room one hun you do know yes sorry so i just recently started i had an organization called advocates as a mobile clinician basically the individuals i will be working with are individuals who experience so very mental illness who don't need a group home setting but could use additional support in their independent living situations and advocates also really promotes person centered care  and a lot of collaboration between clinician and client which is just a really big move in the health field just in terms of addressing stake my i'm treating these experiences and illnesses as just like you would of physical illness with you know respect and compassion and care so yeah that's that's really ago i lost a friend to suicide and i have many loved ones who experience mental illness and so that kind of is what sparked my interest in you know mental health advocacy and just understanding where these resources are for people and ever since then i kind of have dedicated my life to work to turning stigma around and kind of i've done the work and paul like health policy related to mental health research and clinical work and i'm just really trying to understand the experience all encompassing i the way i got in touch with linda was through actually i worked for the cedar clinic the center for early detection assessment and response to risk for early psychosis it's a clinic and they have some research studies going on through beth israel deaconess medical center so i worked there for a period of time and one of my supervisors dr michelle friedman q b and put me in touch with linda because she knew i was interested in creative expression and how that might relate to mental health experience and kind of coping with kind of reinventing the self in different ways so nationally got connected with linda and then everything just kind of spiraled from there and it's been incredible to work with and kind of be able to contribute this much such a great gallery so you have the photo ninety i photos you have the paintings you have some of the sculptures and then there's like three videos that run throughout so i would say going through the exhibit iraq around taking isn't all the information and i would say probably take her about like thirty minutes forty five minutes to really experience it it sounds like a good afternoon yeah yeah and it's also great because it's not a special exhibit so basically you can get access to the entire museum if you go yeah so you can really spend your whole day so i went to the shins on the second floor and yes it's on the second it's going to be special and so what else have you been doing as far as advocacy is farmers do you have any special thoughts on the people that you see so i just started that position so i'm not only seeing clients yet but in other clinical work i've done you know i've i've really it's just so important that people see these humanizing side of everyone to see has it's just if you don't know you like if you're not told there is no way you would know and it's just so important to not go into meeting someone assuming things or judging even if you do now and so just kind of i think it's just so important as a clinician as a loved one to kind of just check with your assaults and make sure you know you're not making assumptions that you might have you know grown up with learning these things  and it makes sense that maybe you would think that if you've been growing up learning it but it's important to then take a sack and try to deconstruct it right i do know and it even from childhood the cartoons were out there you know  many things there and i think as far as television is concerned that is getting a little bit worse because everything that they show i noticed because i've been working in this for twenty five years  and the people who are homeless and mentally ill i had lindy a downy who is the chief of pine street in and she told me that in the winter  one hundred people on the floor seventy five of them are mentally ill so i mean that goes to show you how many people are out there on the streets they are dying on the streets and medications out there that can help these people but these medications are always you know there's always side effects from things like this and the medication my daughter  sleep yeah and i think it's important as a clinician and to recognize you know everyone's trajectory of recovery looks very different and it could include medication could include different types of therapies it could include really such a range of things that work for people and that's also really important in terms of you know so we're not lumping people into one category of like this will work person because they have this diagnosis right now yeah so would my daughter they tried just about everything until they came across this one drug and i won't say what to  do the department mental health or that and i'm grateful to them and will be for the rest will look and but i have a very good friend who was a veteran and he ended up homeless she ended up i think in california for the hills somewhere homeless and finally when he came down he got a little dog and he used to s if my dog barks at them the voices a real it doesn't fire and no they're not he says when they're when they're not there then i go into my apartment and just stay there until everything goes  h different things work for different people yeah yeah and linda has done a phenomenal job of of showing the with there is stigma there shouldn't be because these are people and even the twins you know you can't you can't just put a label on one of these girls you know they're have biologically based brain disorder or a physical illness you can't do it but they do it anyways you have any any other thoughts  think i would say what i'm most just was saying to people stories if people are willing to share you know it's really a brave act when people do share their stories and i think it's just talk and i'm not that well known for talking if i if i do talk i talk in front of the thousand people in albany for through their parody bill but i talk and  sometimes i will read what i've written because you know i've been experiencing this stuff twenty five years yeah and the the two shows that gain the most interest with are two shows that i had girls that had a mental illness and they told their story and i got comments on that one i love you kaitlyn i which pat laurence would adopt me there was another one i forget what it was but it's because they told a story and if more people would do th d we have to close and honest thank you so much for every and i'm a show i want to thank you for talking about science museum ninety nine faces i want to ask you people to please go and see it it's an experience and you won't forget it ok thank you again thank you for having me and i hope i meet you again i hope maybe you will meet at the science museum that you never know oh we'll be back in other time and bring you another mental health story thank you for watching