The Resiliency Collective

The Need

People across Illinois are hurting. It’s 2023, and according to the federal government, our families, and our friends, the pandemic emergency is over. While the acute stage of physical disease may have passed, one thing that remains is the mental health crisis Covid left in its wake. What many experienced over the last three years, as people distanced themselves from others in grocery store lines and spoke to their colleagues and relatives over Zoom, was a level of isolation, helplessness and fear they had never encountered before. For many people, the pandemic opened their eyes to the visceral pain of mental crises and trauma, and for others, it heightened their existing agonies. As a collective convulsion rippled through nation, and well-resourced individuals sought treatment, those less connected became further away from care in a system overburdened by the sudden influx of participants.

What the US experienced during the pandemic was both a crisis and a wake-up call. With people’s attention turned inward, the focus on what was in and out of their control dominated the news and daily life. Those with access needed support. Those without it needed support. Those who provided support needed support, and those in supportive roles felt the weight of their loved one’s burden. The tremendous need was reflected across states and racial and economic breakdowns. People were hurting everywhere, and there was not enough care to go around.

In Illinois, this was no different. In a 2023 CDC PULSE study, 32-35% of adult Illinois residents experience symptom of anxiety and depression. Broken down by age group, the highest numbers are in individuals between the ages of 18 and 29. What isn’t included in the index is the mental health crisis among children nationwide, with over 40% reporting symptoms of depression or suicidal thoughts.

In a March 2023 NAMI Illinois article, Executive Director Andrew Wade explains that 81 out of 102 Illinois counties lacked child psychiatrists. In addition, mental health practitioner Mary Garrison, who works with rural communities, describes obstacles to care on both the providers and patients’ ends, including the “four As,” availability, affordability, accessibility, and acceptability. Within rural communities throughout the US, stigma remains a significant hurdle in connecting people with care.

And while the tragedies and isolation of COVID heightened public awareness, it is likely to take years before the medical and behavioral infrastructure catches up to the actual need. Garrison also provides insight into some of the systemic barriers of integrating practitioners and services into rural communities, with the primary reason attributed to providers hesitancy to establish services in areas where pay lower and professional support connections are scarce.

Within the largest urban and suburban Illinois county, 70% of residents cited Mental Health as a top concern over the last year. Within the statistics, over half of the healthcare and essential workforces—much of which are centered around large metropolitan urban areas, like Chicago—count the pandemic as having impacted them mentally and physically. Within the city alone, 44% of Chicagoans responded that COVID harmed their mental health, according to recent Crain’s Chicago Business article.

While urban populations have more available care within a measurable distance, large gaps persist among who receives support and where gaps remain. Consistent with national findings, disparities remain the highest among minority populations and coincide with income level, access to quality care and resources, and cultural stigmas preventing people from seeking treatment. A 2022 article from Harvard Kennedy School offers a nuanced picture of how and why certain populations remain disconnected from care, citing one mental health researcher’s assessment of a convergence of factors like variations in cultural definitions of mental health, provider biases and perceptions, and ability to pay for services through insurance.

Additionally, the impact of the pandemic on children is still being studied, and from what is known so far is that it compounded the already increasing levels of depression and anxiety experienced by kids from kindergarten through high school. A recent review of studies from the American Psychological Association included the results of survey findings that indicated 71% of parents indicating the pandemic had taken a toll on their child’s mental health. Similarly, the Kaiser Family Foundation analysis described the pre-pandemic rise of mental health challenges on children as having “increased by one-third between 2016 and 2020.” Children with existing mental health challenges felt the compounded effects of the pandemic and the immediate reliance on digital communications for all social, physical, and operational functions to manage daily living. Suddenly, school was remote, friends and family were remote, doctors were remote, and children, like adults, had to navigate primarily through devices and on structural connections.

If there is a silver lining to the many negative effects of the pandemic, it is that many people became acutely aware of the importance of their and others’ mental health. This is a wake-up call moment for organizations and institutions to act on behalf of themselves and the people they serve to connect in a new way, one that cuts through the lingering superficial transactions that occur through digital engagement. This is a moment for agencies and sectors not previously practiced in mental health discourse to reach audiences at a deeper level, acknowledging their internal burdens, and serving them in a purposeful way.

One sector uniquely poised to take up this mantel is the humanities sector. For centuries, museums, cultural, and arts organizations have been reaching communities through visual and interactive programming that fulfilled a humanistic need for understanding and comfort. History museums have long documented the trials and traumas experienced by various peoples. Arts organizations often host exhibits featuring artists’ renderings of personal mental heath challenges and host programming walking audiences through the lives of these creators. Cultural organizations connect their communities to services like mental health support and run groups for subsets of their constituents to lean on one another during times of hardship.

Now is the moment for this sector to collectively say the quiet parts out loud and give explicit voice to the universal experience of mental distress. The Resiliency Collective provides an avenue to start this conversation. The Resiliency Collective seizes on this unique moment of collective health awareness in a way that destigmatizes mental health topics and fosters engagement in community healing through art, culture, and the humanities. Led by Illinois Association of Museums, The Resiliency Collective joins our state’s museum and mental health communities to advance participation in cultural experiences exploring mental health issues and resilience. This initiative, the only one in the state, seeks to reunite the public with humanities and the arts in a novel way, supporting both individuals and the institutions serving them. The Illinois Association of Museums supports museums across the state regardless of size and staff through education and resources. As an initiative of IAM, The Resiliency Collective steps in to join organizations throughout the state to reach and individuals who are on the sidelines of care due to location, access, or stigma, and welcome them into a healing environment that requires nothing of them and presents no barriers.