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2014-11-10-Counseling-Services-2

Marilyn Downs is the head of the Interactive Screening Program and Director of Outreach for Tufts' Counseling and Mental Health Services.

CMHS implements new screening program for suicide prevention

Clubs in health scene strive to give students hands-on experience

Tufts MC to conduct follow-up study on bipolar disorder

To feel like laughing

Students Take Back the Night in Goddard Chapel

Why rally?

‘We Are Tufts’ campaign aims to dispel myths about drinking

TCU Senate Update

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate began its weekly meeting last night by briefly discussing problems students face when they remain on campus for Thanksgiving break, including closed dining halls and general “misery” on campus. Senate, along with Dean of Student Affairs Mary Pat McMahon, wants to begin to think about ways to bring students who stay on campus over this break together.

Mad in America International Film Festival: New perspectives on mental health

The Gold Standard

Tufts ranks high for producing Peace Corps volunteers

Mental health issues enter gun control debate, rhetoric

This article is the third and last in a series about issues surrounding gun control. 

Weekender | Get unjunked: Boston locals remix the world of candy

Startups are a dime a dozen in Boston, which has a selfperpetuated reputation as the Silicon Valley of the East Coast.

Theater Review | Poe is brought to life on stage

“Red-Eye to Havre de Grace” (2012), an action-opera brought to Boston as part of ArtsEmerson’s “Pioneers” series, details the last days of Edgar Allan Poe’s life. More shocking than conventional, the show contains a little history -- as told through Poe’s letters to his mother -- and a lot of artistic interpretation, especially of the author’s deteriorating mental health. Before the curtain rises, a man walks on stage and introduces himself as Ranger Steve (Jeremy Wilhelm), a representative from the Edgar Allan Poe House in Philadelphia. He takes the audience through a short -- if unexpectedly casual -- description of the historical context of the play. As he concludes, Ranger Steve pulls out a crumpled sheet of paper to recite one of his favorite poems by Poe while the lights dim and a piano builds slowly in the background. A few lines into his reading, Ranger Steve goes from open-mic-night-at-the-local-library mode to a full-blown operatic rendering of Poe’s “Ligeia” (1838).

Combat Paper' exhibit showcases veterans' art as expressive outlet

After a decade marked by two prolonged wars in Afghanistan and Iraq involving thousands of U.S. Armed Forces members, mental health issues among veterans have become an increasing problem — even though this topic is rarely at the forefront of public conversation. When returning from service, military veterans can experience a host of mental health issues, including survivor’s guilt or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder , which seriously impact their ability to reintegrate into society. The scope of this issue is evident in veteran suicide rates, which a 2012 report from the Department of Veterans Affairs estimated to be around 22 veterans a day in 2010. While there are a variety of therapies that have been utilized to help remedy these issues, the Tufts chapter of Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services has partnered with the Tufts Art Gallery to display a somewhat unconventional therapy: artwork.

Awareness of time-management tools

As the fourth week of classes begins, students are becoming progressively busier. Professors expect students to have obtained their required books and materials by this point in the semester and are looking to hold more meaningful classes than the introductory lectures of the past few weeks — a shift reflected in the larger homework load many students are already experiencing. The sheer number of students in the reading room at Tisch Library on Sunday nights is a testament to that.

'We Are Tufts' campaign aims to dispel myths about drinking

Blaring headlines from popular media outlets like The Boston Globe and My Fox Boston of Fox News that came out last spring with scathing titles such as, Tufts students reprimanded over behavior at Boston hotel" and, "Tufts students accused of trashing hotel," have served as an impetus for change here at Tufts.Sophomore Raasika Gaugler said that there was room for improvement in the way Tufts runs its events that are commonly associated with drinking."Unless they change the format, I don't think anything will change," Gaugler said.This year has already seen the introduction of Fall Gala following the cancellation of Fall Ball. In addition to restructured school events, the creation of the "We Are Tufts" campaign that features posters around campus has embodied an evolving mentality on campus in regards to alcohol and drugs.Last year, Health Education and Prevention Specialist Beth Farrow, Director of Alcohol and Health Education Ian Wong and a group of students affiliated with Tufts Community Union Senate started the campaign with the hopes of disproving the commonly held notion that alcohol is an essential part of college culture.While surveying students, Wong said he noticed an interesting paradox between what students believed and what actually held true based on survey findings."We ask students what percentage of students do not drink on campus and they'll say one percent, but when asked do you drink they'll say, 'Yeah, I don't drink,'" Wong said. "People who don't drink think they're the only ones who don't. That's what we are trying to change with these campaigns, saying around 20 to 30 percent of students don't drink at all." The campaign posters around campus tote statistics that 93 percent of students do not let alcohol affect their academics, as well as that the majority of Tufts students limit their alcohol intake or choose not to drink. Wong said the data comes from the social norms survey taken by students online every other year - most recently in 2013. The norms survey is sent out to a random selection of about 1,000 students.According to Wong, the survey uses what the Boston University School of Public Health presents as the Social Norms Theory - how misconceptions of peers' thoughts and actions compel one's own behavior. Social norms campaigns are a prevention strategy implemented to influence interpersonal processes, according to a study entitled, "A Typology for Campus-Based Alcohol Prevention: Moving toward Environmental Management Strategies," conducted in part by the BU School of Public Health. One of the hypotheses presented therein is that misperceptions guide normative expectations of alcohol use, which in turn drive actual use.Though the "We Are Tufts" campaign uses gripping facts and powerful posters to act as a prevention strategy for students, its effectiveness is still being determined on campus.Gaugler, however, is not optimistic about the "We Are Tufts" campaign's influence, especially for those students who already choose not to drink."I don't think necessarily seeing a poster will change how students feel about drugs and alcohol," she said. "It depends if they just feel comfortable not drinking. But if you are fine with not drinking, then seeing the poster won't matter."Tufts Emergency Medical Services Director of Training Ayal Pierce, however, believes that the "We Are Tufts" campaign is promising."Having facts that make people not feel like outsiders is really important, especially people who just came to college," Pierce, a junior, said.Gaugler thought that some students may feel uncomfortable no matter what an ad campaign exposes."I don't know if [the posters] make people feel better," she said. "Just because you know the facts, it may not make you feel more comfortable if your friends still drink anyway."According to Pierce, though, seeing the posters around campus will help students, especially first years, realize that it's okay and even normal to not drink."They're not one of the one percent," he said. "There's around a third of [students] who don't like drinking, who don't enjoy it [and] who don't want to binge drink until they're throwing up in the bathroom."A little over a month into the semester, both students and faculty have looked back on the transformed Fall Ball with mostly positive reactions."I really liked [Fall Gala], personally," Gaugler said. "Fall Ball was usually just a bunch of sweaty people in a room, but Fall Gala was nice because it had good music, fireworks and a photobooth."Wong agreed and thought that the event was innovative."I think the Fall Gala was a success in many ways," he said. "If we look at the numbers, there were less transports and alcohol problems at night than the year before ... [and] it seemed more like a welcome back for the whole campus. It had a different feel with the inclusion of the fireworks and the president's attendance."Echoing Wong's remarks, TEMS Executive Director Paul Pemberton sees the changes around campus as constructive ones."As far as total call numbers go, we did better," Pemberton, a senior, said. "Whether it is actually less people drinking or less people calling us when they end up drinking too much, it's very difficult to gauge, but I can for sure say that the call numbers at the event itself were significantly lower. We got one call at the event itself

Two students receive Truman Scholarship

Juniors Safiya Subegdjo and Amber Rose Johnson were recently chosen by the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation to become two of the nation's 59 2014 Truman Scholars. According to the foundation's website, the Truman Scholar title is awarded to college juniors on the basis of their academic achievement, leadership and the likelihood they will pursue careers in government or the non-profit sector. Students were chosen from 655 candidates nationwide to receive this scholarship, which provides $30,000 for graduate school, along with priority admission to leading graduate schools and access to internships with the federal government. Dean of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service Alan Solomont expressed excitement for the selections of Subegdjo and Johnson. "We're very proud to have two students, both of whom have really not just excelled, but been exemplars of active citizenship and civic engagement," Solomont said. Johnson could not be reached for comment prior to publication; however, Subegdjo explained that she first heard about the scholarship over the summer and began the application process at the beginning of the school year. "The application was really extensive and time consuming," she said. "There were eight to 10 little essays ranging from talking about your leadership experience to your public service experience and what you wanted to do in the next three years, what you want to do in the next seven years. You really had to know every detail about your future." The last part of the application was a policy proposal in which applicants crafted a solution for a problem they saw in the world, Subegdjo said. "I wanted to do something that I was already interested in and had already done work in, and I do a lot of work with TU-RAP [Tufts University Refugee Assistance Program]," she said. "So in my proposal I talked about implementing mental health screenings for resettled refugees." Subegdjo explained that refugees often come to the United States from war-torn countries where they have fled persecution and violence. Upon arrival, they lack treatment and access to beneficial physical and mental health care. "One of the ways I [sought] to fix this was implementing a 15-minute questionnaire survey for refugees once they come into the U.S. to kind of assess where they are in terms of their mental health status and see ... whether they had any kind of condition that could be treated earlier on, rather than later," she said. "Because when you have a mental health condition, that's obviously going to be a huge barrier to achieving independence in a completely new foreign country." Once screened, patients would be paired with the right services to receive treatment, Subegdjo added. The Truman Scholarship emphasizes choosing people who are confident that they will spend their futures in public service, Subegdjo said. "The Truman Foundation only wanted to pick people who they thought would actually carry out the mission and their passion they had written about in the application," she said. "So for me, I ultimately want to work on health issues within refugee and immigrant communities. I'd like to get my medical degree, so that's where I'm probably going to be using the resources." Subegdjo stressed the importance of not only picking a problem that was personally relevant, but also one for which she could realistically provide a solution. According to Subegdjo, the most valuable aspect of the reward, beside the $30,000 for graduate school, is the connections to those in public service. "In the first few hours after being notified that I'd won, my inbox was flooded with dozens of emails from Truman Scholars just congratulating me and welcoming me to the community," she said. "I was just blown away by the warmth and in an instant I was immediately connected to some of the most prominent public service people in the country, so I was really excited about that." "[Subegdjo] is a great example of everything we wish for in the Tisch Scholars Program, and we're just delighted that she [has] been recognized this way," Solomont said.

Mental commitment drives Tufts Marathon Team

For coach Don Megerle and the Tufts Marathon Team, the Boston Marathon has neither a beginning nor an ending. Megerle, who's gentle and disarming affect betray a legacy of unparalleled achievement, is the leader in not just name, but also in spirit, of a team that has been pounding the pavement down Boylston Street for 12 years.