'These kids have a voice': 99 Faces mental health exhibit comes to Dover

DOVER — A bright yellow mural of the words “You are not alone” now hangs prominently in the front foyer of the city's high school. Those words are now the first and last thing students see as they walk through the front doors — a subtle reminder that despite whatever mental health challenge they faced that day, they are supported.

Students of Dover High School's Mental Health Initiative are sharing mental health awareness through art, having partnered with local artists to paint the mural and local organizations to bring a mental health art exhibit titled The 99 Faces Project to the halls of their school.

The 99 Faces Project, by artist Lynda Cutrell, is a series of canvas artwork and portraits of people suffering with mental illnesses. The 99 portraits include “33 people with bi-polar disorder, 33 people with schizophrenia and 33 people who love them.” It starts in the main hallway that leads to and beyond the library.

The exhibit was made possible by collaboration between the Dover School District, Dover High School, DHS Student Mental Health Initiative, the Rotary Club of Dover and the Dover Mental Health Alliance.

Students formed a Mental Health Initiative this school year, sparked by student leaders eager to change the culture at DHS regarding mental health and suicide awareness. Members of the DHS senior class were motivated to act after they lost three classmates to suicide. Many of these students have completed mental health first aid training, and have started to train more students spanning all grade levels.

DHS junior Ashley Holt Caron, 16, is a member of the Mental Health Initiative at the school and was trained through NAMI-NH’s mental health first aid training.

Caron said students added their own personal touches to the mural, including words that bring positivity and add to the message of “you are not alone.”

“The community faced the large loss of Andre Shaeffer at the end of last year,” Holt Caron said. “I'm not a part of the senior class, but the senior class has experienced so much loss.”

Suzanne Weete, one of the founders of the Dover Mental Health Alliance, said the missions of DMHA and the student’s initiative align in promoting mental health education, awareness, stigma elimination and suicide prevention.

“We're striving to create a culture that understands, embraces and addresses the complexities of mental health,” Weete said. “The schools can't help these kids alone. It takes a community. We need to start involving the youth in these conversations because they have a voice, they know what needs to change.”

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A reception was held for the opening night of the exhibit of 99 Faces Wednesday evening. Cutrell and John Broderick, former New Hampshire Supreme Court chief justice and current senior director of community affairs for Dartmouth Health, spoke to the community about having family members receive a mental illness diagnosis. The journey led both to become advocates for mental health education.

Broderick travels around New England talking to school groups about mental health. He recalled a talk he gave where he had an unexpected encounter with a student. A football player confided in Broderick after hearing his speech that he was struggling. Broderick asked him if he had told his parents, and the student said he felt that he couldn’t. He recalled asking the student if he’d tell them about a broken ankle that kept him from playing. Broderick said the student replied, "Yes," and he made it clear that a mental health challenge keeping you from your life is no different than a physical injury.

“In the world I grew up in, nobody ever talked about mental health,” Broderick said. “We can all do more.”

When Cutrell's family member was diagnosed with a mental illness, the 99 Faces artist found herself navigating uncharted waters as she struggled to get him the help he needed. She has spent 15 years creating work that shows both the science and psychology of mental health, as her way to change the dialogue.

“When someone's suffering from bipolar illness, there's nothing you can do behaviorally to change what's happening in the cells,” Cutrell said. "The science aspect of mental health brings us to a different understanding of where everyone fits in the spectrum of things. The student initiatives I see happening here now that discuss mental health are leaps and bounds compared to where we were 15 years ago when I started this project.”

Students leading the charge

Besides the mental health awareness training, the Mental Health Initiative students are also working on a curriculum to bring to the middle school and elementary schools. The curriculum would differ to be age-appropriate. Middle school students would learn more about the signs of depression and mental health struggles, but both curricula would ultimately center on understanding emotions and how they can impact students.

“If you learn from a young age how to regulate your emotions better, and how to identify them, it leads to healthier coping skills,” Holt Caron said.

Steve Pappajohn, the youth services coordinator for Dover Police Department and steering member of Dover Mental Health Alliance, helped the students secure the funding for the mural. As director of the teen center, he had been trying to find a way to connect with Dover’s teens about mental health, but didn’t know what the best avenue was to reach them. When the Mental Health Initiative came online, he was eager to be a part of it.

“A group of students went to the administration and were asking for a voice and they got it,” Pappajohn said. “This isn’t just a mental health initiative, this is a mental health movement. These kids have a voice. Too long the adults have been dictating how things should be. They have plenty of ideas on how things should be done, and how to change the culture around mental health in the schools and in their lives.”

This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat: Dover NH High School explores mental health through 99 Faces exhibit