The Send Silence Packing traveling exhibit returned to Penn on Sept. 10 to catalyze conversations about mental health.
Send Silence Packing — run by the organization Active Minds — displays exhibits at schools and communities across the country to raise awareness on mental illness and suicide, while encouraging people to seek help and resources. Active Minds displayed backpacks all day on College Green to represent the lives of people who have struggled with mental health.
The event also featured a series of displays from various University and student groups focused on mental health, such as Wellness at Penn, the Penn Wellness Student Coalition, CogWell, and Active Minds.
Active Minds is a national organization with more than 600 chapters. It was founded at Penn by 2003 College graduate Alison Malmon after her older brother died by suicide.
Each backpack in the exhibit told either a story of hope or a story of loss surrounding depression and death by suicide.
“I think [these two types of stories] are two sides of the same coin. … It is very important to know that there is hope and there are places you can go and seek help, so you can go from one side of the coin to the other,” first-year master's student Shreyas Raorane, who is pursuing an MSE in robotics and attended the event, said.
Mellisa Hopely-Rice, CogWell at Penn's program director, said of these stories that "[w]e remember you, and we know that your story is so powerful enough that it can inspire our campus and our students.”
“Their families are continuing their story and [have] a goal to help others. I think if we can proactively talk about this and [normalize getting help], the better things can be,” Hopely-Rice added.
According to Hopely-Rice, the exhibit's main entrance faced inwards toward College Green last year. This year, they decided to face outwards to make the discussion more public and foster more engagement from passing students — a decision which she said was a success.
The exhibit also displayed a "wall of hope" with positive mental health-related messages written by Penn community members who decided to contribute as they passed by. Raorane praised the wall as a "really great idea," adding that he had read all of the messages.
“Especially as a master's student, I have noticed that there is so much to do at all times that you don’t realize what you’re going through at the moment. … It keeps piling up until a point where you don’t know if what you’re doing is right or wrong," Raorane said. "Reading messages like this lets us know that we are not alone in feeling all of this."
Batsirai Bvunzawabaya, Wellness at Penn's director of integrated care initiatives, said that the exhibit was about making sure students who may be struggling with their mental health know what resources are available to them and how Penn is here to support them.
This can come in the form of utilizing Wellness at Penn resources and student-led groups like the Reach-A-Peer Helpline and Penn Benjamins, or learning how to be a supportive friend when one sees a peer struggling with their mental health, she said.
Bvunzawabaya also referenced a time in which a cluster of Penn students died by suicide, saying that she feels Penn’s obligation to address mental health crises is especially important because this is something that the campus has experienced firsthand.
“It also says something to have an administrative team that recognizes that this is important," Bvunzawabaya said. "For us to be across from College Hall says a lot. We’re in the heart of campus, and we’re taking about suicide prevention and mental illness."
Bvunzawabaya also encouraged students to seek help through resources like i care Training, Lets Talk drop-in counseling, and group therapy.
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