Youth Mental Health Awareness Through Photography

Among the prevention projects dedicated to young people, aimed at intervening early on the various forms of increasingly widespread discomfort, the Mental Health Department of the Asl of Caserta, directed by Dr. Gaetano De Mattia, has recently promoted a photo contest titled “Low Health Point”, inspired by the well-known song by Mr.Rain “Superheroes”, on the theme of adolescent psychological malaise. The young people of Caserta and its province participated in the contest, also with the collaboration of the higher institutes of the territory, sending numerous their photos, testifying to how much the problem is felt and current. Using the photographic image as a means of expressing their inner world, they represented the world as they see it through their eyes, opening up in a way to communication with adults and, through a snapshot, they managed to communicate much more effectively what they often cannot say with words: the request for help. According to the organizers, it was difficult to make a selection, because many and significant were the photos sent by the participants, some of remarkable technical quality. For this reason, they decided to exhibit them all within the photo exhibition “Low health point” which will be inaugurated tomorrow at 4:30 PM at the headquarters of Uosm 12 and Dsm on Via Roma. Given the interest aroused by the contest, a photographic catalog of the exhibition will also be printed, as a tangible testimony of the experience. “Photography helps us to observe the way in which we approach not only the world and relationships, but also the awareness of ourselves - says Dr. Gaetano De Mattia - The image represents a call to what is, to what we are, but also a beacon focused on what we could become in our becoming. It captures for a moment the path taken and simultaneously moves into motion, as a vital element that, in full harmony with what characterizes existence, maintains the propensity to change”. Furthermore, since the exhibition, visitable until May 18, was conceived as a traveling exhibition, it will be proposed in the coming months within the territory of the Asl of Caserta, at schools, entities, associations that will request it, offering a further opportunity to “focus” on the youth universe and to share impressions on the theme of education to the psychological well-being of the new generations.