Student Assembly will be holding events over the next several weeks as part of its “I’m Here For You” initiative, which aims to remove the stigma from mental health.
Student Assembly president Frank Cunningham ’16 said that this year the Assembly is taking its mental health campaign further with “Stop Hiding, Start Talking,” a series of events for the rest of the term.
Following last year’s “I’m Here For You” panel, which launched the campaign, Student Assembly’s Wellness Committee will hold a similar student panel on Nov. 5. At the panel, students will share personal stories regarding mental health.
In a campus-wide email, Student Assembly encouraged students to submit experiences.
Student Assembly head of health and wellness Speight Carr ’16 said last year the Assembly began campus dialogue about mental health, and this year they want to continue this conversation.
Carr said it is difficult to measure the success of Assembly campaigns. While he said 1,600 students visited counselors at Dick’s House last year -— and there are still students who are nervous about seeking help — it is a challenge to estimate the number of students the Assembly reached with its campaign.
Student Assembly prefers not to send out surveys, he said.
The Assembly will also compile a book of students’ stories that will be available to campus. During the same week as the panel, the Assembly will host a relaxation “fest” for students. Last year, the Assembly held a similar event to relieve stress during finals period.
Cunningham, who has shared his own experiences with anxiety and depression, said his friends supported him when he opened up about his struggles, and he sought out other forms of support afterward.
Cunningham said the words “I’m here” conveyed to him that he should be proud of his identity and that he had a network of support
“‘I’m here for you’ is really my way of saying, if I’m going through this, a ton of other students must be as well,” he said.
Cunningham said he thinks there is a stigma attached to mental illnesses, and students may not want to share their struggles because they think it will affect how others perceive them.
There will be three discussions held this term about mental health and sexuality, social and academic pressures and how substance abuse is linked to mental health, Cunningham said.
Cunningham said the campaign will conclude with a day when students are encouraged to publicly wear their problems on their chests.
Cunningham said that Student Assembly has reached out to a number of other college campuses through the Ivy Plus Society to coordinate joint initiatives with schools.
Carr said the Assembly hopes to increase the resources that students have available to them when seeking help. For example, Carr said Student Assembly hopes to streamline the process of receiving guidance from Dick’s House.
“We want to see if we can enact a policy that will make it easier for students to be seen, and be seen quicker and more effectively,” he said.
Geisel School of Medicine psychiatry professor Robert Brady said that the risk of mental illness among college students is the same or higher than for the general population.
He said that initiatives like “I’m Here for You” provide an opportunity to make issues surrounding mental health more visible.
“It may increase students’ willingness to seek help when needed,” he said.
Brady said that these sorts of initiatives can change the way people discuss mental health. Society as a whole, he said, often discusses mental health only in cases of shocking events.
“It encourages the recognition of mental health as something that can occur in every moment, rather than just being a topic that comes up when crisis hits,” he said.
Hanover Psychiatry director Dominic Candido said addressing mental health on college campuses is not just important, it is critical.
He said the initiative could have an impact on the College’s mission, as there are many instances in which mental health is interwoven with problems relevant to campus populations, such as substance abuse.
“Resources have to be dedicated to a widespread net that detects these issues early on, and too often it’s after the fact,” Candido said.
