Art and Design Commons^™

Animal Heads: Exploring Christian Themed Solutions And Mental Health Through Comics, Mariannette Oyola-Perez

Masters Theses

The second leading cause of death for the ages of 10-24 is suicide, a statistic that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows has steadily risen since 1999. Although it is seldom spoken about in mental health circles, an enmity seems to exist between Christianity and modern psychology in regards to mental illness and how it should be treated; this enmity could be preventing helpful Christian-based principles from being shared with the at-risk population while simultaneously excluding Christians from a conversation they need to be a part of.

Interestingly, further research shows that the at-risk demographic overlaps significantly with …

De-Stigmatizing Mental Illness Through Graphic Medicine, Megumi Tsuda

Phase 1

Graphic medicine - or the communication of health-related narratives through images and texts, such as comics - has been increasingly recognized as a powerful educational tool. My project investigates the value of integrating graphic medicine to medical education, specifically to improve mental health literacy and de-stigmatize mental illness. As a medical student, I have encountered several instances where fellow medical students and even doctors casually throw around diagnostic terminology, especially those used to describe mental health disorders, in a colloquial and insensitive manner that seem to indicate that they do not take mental illness seriously, or even ignorant of what …