The importance of mental health on college campuses has increasingly led students around the country to take action, and Jumbos are no exception. This year a new student group, the Tufts chapter of the Active Minds organization, was created in order to raise awareness of mental health issues.
Active Minds is a national non-profit organization that empowers students to encourage people to talk about mental health and to make it a priority in college communities. The organization gives students an outlet for advocacy on college campuses and provides information and resources for students who need and want help.
Active Minds, which has over 200 university chapters around the country, is primarily student-run; however, students usually work with the support of the mental health services that their institution offers. Tufts recently became the 230th chapter of Active Minds due to the initiative of some inspired Jumbos looking to subvert current views on mental health in the Tufts community.
Junior Patricia Pop, one of the Tufts chapter"s co-founders, explained that as a member of another health organization on campus she noticed recurring problems regarding students" perspective on mental health. From the discourse in other groups, Pop said she noticed how little the Tufts community talked about these issues.
"When we talked about different health issues that could come up, we realized that students don"t realize that everybody else does not have perfect lives," she said. "Other people are struggling, and you look around and it seems as if everybody else is having a good, happy time. It matters to me to help people feel that they are not alone and that it is okay to talk about it."
Senior Rebecca Autenried said that she decided to join Active Minds because she wants to see other people overcome mental health issues like she once did. "I have seen it happen and it is very empowering," she said.
Similarly, sophomore Lindsay Eckhaus said, "I know from others and from personal experience how debilitating mental health issues can be, so I am interested in this group so people know that they are not alone and that there are people out there like counselors and friends that can help."
The Active Minds members are currently developing projects with the support of the Counseling and Mental Health Service and the Tufts Community Union Senate that will advertise their existence and willingness to help to the Tufts community.
Junior John Salvator, a member of Active Minds, explained that, for a long time, he was unaware of the many mental health resources available at Tufts.
"It is important to make the resources at Tufts available for other people who are coming in as freshman that don"t really know about it," he said.
Active Minds has been working in conjunction with the Group of Six to help reach out to students. The Tufts Happiness Club is also collaborating in the organization"s projects.
One of the main projects that the Active Minds group has been working on is the Gatekeepers program. This program is available to all students who are involved with a health group on campus. Its purpose is to train these students how to talk to their peers about dealing with mental health issues.
Through this program, the Active Minds members hope that, over the next few years, people available to help students with mental health issues will be more approachable and knowledgeable.
Pop explained that resident assistants are given this training every year, but that by expanding to include other students, Jumbos will hopefully feel they always have someone to talk to. The group is pushing for the training to be available next year to anyone interested.
Additionally, the Active Minds members have been working to make students" parents aware of the resources available at Tufts. Resource sheets will be mailed to every Tufts parent as an addition to existing mental health publications.
Recently, Active Minds organized a Mental Health Awareness week, during which students created posters with hand paint in the campus center and dining halls to show support for students suffering from mental health problems and encourage people to open up about these issues.
"I joined this group because I would really like to see the day when mental health can be talked about as much as physical health," junior Nerissa Duchin said.
The Active Minds group has organized other activities such as the screening of the movie, "The Truth about Suicide," and encouraged the Tufts community to participate in the National Day without Stigma, which promotes counseling.
"A big part of this group for me is de-stigmatizing counseling in general," senior Christina Rucinski said. "It is important to make the point that you can go to counseling for everything. It does not have to be a diagnosed mental disorder."
This past weekend, the core members of the student group traveled to Washington, D.C. to attend the annual Active Minds National Conference. The purpose of this trip was to see how other schools deal with their chapters and also to meet other members of this national organization.
In the future, the group plans to set up an easel in the campus center on which a new question will be posted every day. All students will be welcome to use post-its and markers to share their responses to the question. The Active Minds members hope to use these answers to gain a perspective on what resources the student population needs the most.
"People with problems should not feel so helpless and lonely," freshman Nicholas Marshall said. "If we can get this group more organized to try to help these people, then [we] can go a long way."
Anyone interested in Active Minds at Tufts can contact the group at activemindsattufts@gmail.com.
