Welcome to Sheeper Assisted. I'm your host Sadie Sutton, a 19
year old from the Bay Area studying psychology at the
University of Pennsylvania. Sheeper Assisted is the teen
mental health podcast made for teenagers by a teen.
In each episode I'll bring you authentic, accessible and
relatable conversations about every aspect of mental Wellness
you can expect. Evidence based teen approved
resources, coping skills including lots of DBT insights
and education, and each piece of content you consume.
She Persisted offers you a safe space to feel validated and
understood in your struggle while encouraging you to take
ownership of your journey and build your life worth living.
So let's dive in. This week on She Persisted.
We'll wake up in the morning with our throat hurting and
you'll tell somebody how my throat hurts, right?
Like that rolls off our tongue in a way that is totally
appropriate. Wait for whatever reason, feel
like we need to wait until we have hit rock bottom before we
say that about our mental health.
Next time you're thinking that next time you're having that
little struggle actually answering the question, when
somebody says how are you can open up for you the ability to
be vulnerable and you'll find that almost everybody around you
is also struggling in some other way.
Hello, hello, you guys, and welcome back to another episode
of She Persisted. I am really, really excited for
this episode because this is hitting very close to home.
We have Allison Mallam on the podcast today.
She went to the University of Pennsylvania and that's where
she founded Active Minds. And I have been a member of the
Active Minds chapter at Penn. And I'm sure you guys are aware
of this, but my mental health journey and she persisted, is
really, really synonymous with advocacy and activism in the
mental health world. And so this was a really
incredible cool conversation to have about what large scale
mental health advocacy looks like, how we can create
communities where people feel heard and included and seen, and
also bring change to the mental health industry.
So like I said, Allison Mallam is on the podcast and joining
her is Lauren Sakara. They are both team members at
Active Minds. Allison is the founder and
executive director and Lauren is the VP of School Mental Health.
So we have two really interesting perspectives here.
If you aren't familiar with Active Minds, it is the nation's
leading nonprofit organization that promotes mental health
awareness and education for young adults.
They have a huge network of chapters and award-winning
programs at over 1000 colleges, including Penn K through 12
schools, workplaces and communities.
And this is a really powerful episode.
We talked about the loss in Allison's personal life that led
her to start Active Minds. We talked about why there is
such a challenge and struggle with talking about mental health
and being vulnerable and being open and what causes that
disconnect between knowing that it's good to get support, it's
good to lean on others, and then actually taking that step to be
vulnerable. We talked about how you can
actually open up and connect with others regarding mental
health, common struggles that occur on college campuses, how
to support a teen who's struggling with their mental
health, how you can get involved or join a chapter of Active
Minds. And then Big Picture policies
that schools and government should implement so that we can
really bring global change to mental health, which is a really
important part of the activism conversation.
So I'm really excited for you guys to listen to this one.
I hope you leave this feeling inspired and empowered on your
journey of being a mental health advocate, or at least feel more
equipped to support others who are being vulnerable and
speaking out about their own experiences.
So with that, let's dive in. Well, I'm so excited to have
both of you guys here today. I was part of one of the Active
Minds chapters at Penn, and it's just such an incredible
organization. I see the Sands Islands packing
set up every year, and it's just such a powerful community that
you guys have built. And so I'm so excited to have
you on the podcast today. Well, really appreciate that.
It's a, it's an honor for us to be here and always really fun to
talk with folks about what Active Minds has meant for them
and to them and what Active Minds is doing out in the world.
So just really happy to be able to to have this conversation
with you and with Lauren from our team.
Yeah. OK.
Well, to start, I would love to hear why you started Active
Minds. A little bit of background
there. I know you have a really
powerful story and so I'd love to touch on that.
And then we'll of course, touch in to how people can get
involved with mental health advocacy because I think so many
people have this experience where they've gone through
mental health challenges, they feel so compelled or they know
someone and they feel so compelled to get involved, to
speak out, offer support. And unfortunately, it's not
always that easy. Like there are ways that are
really effective and amazing and inspiring when it comes to
mental health advocacy. And sometimes when we talk about
things that can be less effective and empowering for
people. And so I think having specific
ways you can get involved and really be part of a community,
which is one of the other amazing parts of mental health
advocacy that sometimes gets missed is super important.
So I'm excited to dive into that.
But to start, can we hear a little bit about your own story
and why you started Active Mind? Sure, I'd be happy to share.
So the the short of my really kind of personal and life
changing story is that I was a student at Penn.
Actually, also in my freshman year at Penn, I lost my brother
Brian to suicide. Brian himself had been a college
student and he started struggling with his mental
health in his freshman year of college, but didn't tell anybody
until his senior year. We come from a really supportive
family. My mom is a clinical social
worker. We came from the environment
where he had the support at home if it were something that he had
felt comfortable talking to people about, But but he didn't
and hid his symptoms for the entirety of his college career,
both from me and my mom, but also from his friends and the
folks around him. And he ultimately went and got
help from his school's counseling services, came home,
took a voluntary leave of absence from his college, but
ended up taking his life in March of my freshman year of
college. So that's what kind of got me
into this world of of understanding learning being
thrown into mental health, mental illness, suicide, suicide
prevention. I happened to be taking an
abnormal psychology class this semester that Brian died.
And so it was taking what I was learning in school and really
applying it to home. And, and I think the thing that
really struck me the most was learning the age of onset of
most mental health issues, learning the fact that suicide
is the second leading cause of death for youth and young
adults. Finding all of that out only
because my brother had taken his life and only because I was in
an abnormal psychology class and wondering why we weren't talking
about it more openly. So that people like Brian knew
that they weren't alone, knew it wasn't their fault, and felt
comfortable reaching out for help earlier.
And, and people like his friends who saw changes in him but
didn't know what to say. I wanted them to know what to
say and how to support him and help him get into the, the care
that he needed. And so I launched a student
group at Penn in my junior year. And upon graduating, a year and
a half later, I started the nonprofit in order to develop
and support other chapters of that student group at other
schools. And, and really more than
anything, bring about kind of a generational shift in mental
health and mobilize and engage youth and young adult as a whole
to talk about mental health differently.
Because I saw just how quickly my generation and people who are
younger than me were wanting to talk about mental health.
We're lobbing on to this idea of having a mental health group.
And it just wasn't something that we had been taught about as
we were growing up. And so it was going to create
need for some change and some generational shift in mental
health. And so that's how Active Minds
was was launched with the idea that we have the opportunity to
mobilize the generation, the Active Minds generation, to
think and talk about mental health differently.
And to create a space where everybody gets the help they
need as soon as they need it. Because we're talking about
mental health every day and recognizing that we may not all
have mental illness, but we all have mental health.
And so this is part of our everyday life, and we have an
opportunity to make sure that policies are supportive of
mental health, individuals know what to say to each other, and
people feel comfortable talking about both their struggles and
their triumphs and recognizing it's part of their everyday
work. I want to talk about the.
That phenomena where people, we have really universal
experiences when it comes to mental health.
I think a lot of us can relate to that feeling of like, no one
gets it. I'm so alone.
I don't feel supported, I don't feel seen.
And yet so many people are feeling that way at the same
time. We're just not talking about it.
And I'm sure you guys have had so, so, so many people come to
you and express that and explain that.
Like I just didn't feel seen. I didn't feel hurt.
I didn't know how to articulate what I was going through.
And I was wondering if we could speak a little bit to that
experience, potentially why people don't feel comfortable
being vulnerable. And I think that that's
something that when you haven't struggled with your mental
health, it's really confusing, whether it's parents or peers or
friends. It's like, why didn't they say
anything? Why didn't they ask for help?
I would have responded well. So I was wondering if you guys
had any thoughts there and why people struggle to put words to
those things or or hide and and put on this like different more
edited version of themselves to the outside world.
Even when you know that you would have responded well, or
that you would have been there with open arms wanting to offer
support and invalidation. Yeah.
Lauren, do you want to take that?
I want to introduce Lauren Takara, who is our VP of school
Mental Health and and would love for you to be able to take that.
Lauren. Yeah, happy to to do that.
Thanks for having us, Sadie. So I think you're right.
I think that, you know, our our health and Wellness journey is
personal, right. So there's this layer of like,
yeah, I don't want to burden somebody.
I'm, I'm going through this myself.
But I think one of the things that I want to point out is that
this generation, I think Allison has really been a trailblazer in
this mental health moment. Because when, you know, Brian
died and she started Active Minds, she was probably 1 of
very, very few people, let alone undergraduate students that was
really talking about mental health and really trying to like
normalize that conversation and combat some of that stigma that
you're talking about. And so we've seen a huge shift
in 20 years. So yes, there's still a layer
all of this. I don't want to burden people.
And it's like, it's, it's this personal, but on the outside of
that, people are very interested in advocating for mental health
as a movement as a whole, right? So there's this like dilemma in
some ways. Like I want to advocate for it
as a whole, but I don't want to say anything personally.
So, so I think a lot of our young adults are sort of
experiencing that. They really care about their
peers. They really care about how
mental health is valued and prioritized in their schools and
in their communities, but they don't know what to do in that
individual space. So one of the cool things that
Active Mind recently launched, we worked with Showtime and MTV
and we rolled out sort of like an everyday conversation tool
that can really help provide youth and young adults the tool
to have those individual conversations with their peers.
And it's called ask. So it's ASK and it's acknowledge
support and keep in touch. And so folks can go through a
self-guided sort of YouTube video, their series, and it kind
of gives them the step by step of really how to think about
asking people, you know, hey, how's it going and sort of
validating what somebody else is sharing with them.
You might not have all the answers and that's OK.
You don't need to have a clinical background to help
somebody. You don't have to have a
clinical background to have a conversation about mental
health. Just like Allison said, we all
have mental health, like we have physical health, right?
So this tool really helps you acknowledge that, hey, somebody
might be struggling or you might be like, you're acting like
yourself. I just want to check in and see
how you're doing. How are you doing?
Oh, you're, I hear you're having a bad day.
Have you eaten today? Have you seen the sun?
Have you gone outside for some fresh air?
Like even those little pieces, right?
Help and if something is larger than that, that somebody is
experiencing a mental health crisis, that is where the
support comes in, right? How can you support that person
in, say, finding the tools and resources or other people to
maybe help them if things are are feeling a lot stickier or
harder for you to just navigate on a general conversation level,
right? And so being able to be there
and support somebody through that, being able to say, Hey,
I'd, I'm not a counselor, but I know that our campus has a
counseling center. Let's go and see what they have
and really advocating for getting an appointment or hey,
have you called 988? You might just need to talk to
somebody that has that clinical experience that I don't have,
right? That support piece.
And then the last step is really keeping in touch.
This is probably the most important, right?
In the sense that it's not just this one and done and you don't
have to keep in touch in sort of this robotic way.
Hey, so you came to me to have this conversation.
How are you doing? It's like, hey, how's it going?
How is that psychology test? Like, hey, I saw that you are
volunteering, you know, at the local animal shelter.
I saw from your Instagram. How's that?
That must be really a lot of fun, right?
It's just these Nuggets that you can sort of ensure that you're
staying in touch with somebody that you are checking in and not
this robotic way, but seeing sort of the whole person being
there fully for them. It's not just like, thanks for
having the conversation. I'm out of here.
That, that consistent sort of checking in.
Hey, let's grab a meal. That makes a huge difference.
So we, we share those tools as very, very simple everyday ways
to kind of ensure that we are staying in touch with people
that we're checking in in a way, because our world is our world
right now. And a lot of our students are,
are navigating not only school things, but just life in
general. And so how can we ensure that we
are genuinely and intentionally connecting with people that in a
way that matters, right? And the the smallest
conversation can make the world of difference to somebody. 100%
And I also think Allison, what you mentioned about your brother
about like having this facade that you put on for friends and
family and school and all of that.
I, I remember that experience and I also remember that it was
like a very precariously put together facade.
And I think if I'd actually been asked like, how are you doing or
tried to be vulnerable about that, I would have just been
emotions and not something that would have been able to, to stay
established. But I also remember that because
I was really struggling and really emotional about my mental
health, I would present went fine for small questions like
how is your week going? How did the test goes?
Like those little freebies that people ask you like, how are you
doing today? And then all the way up to like,
how is your mental health? How are you doing?
How do you feel about yourself? How do you feel about your life?
And so if you're listening and you're like, that's me.
I'm completely putting up this facade where I'm letting no one
in and someone else how my day is.
And I'm saying great, but I'm really struggling on the inside.
I'm not even remotely having those vulnerable conversations
being like, I'm not doing well and I might need support
starting at those smaller ones like how was your day today?
Been like, you know what? It was really overwhelming and I
missed my alarm and I have this crazy test coming up and having
that vulnerability about those smaller things that feels more
manageable can be helpful and kind of doing a little exposure
therapy up to that big vulnerability of like, I, I'm
not OK. And I think I need support
because unfortunately, like you're building that skill set
and you're building that routine and pattern of just not being
vulnerable and not asking for help and not sitting with how
you're feeling and suppressing that, which can be even more
painful as well. Yeah, I think it's so right,
Sadie. And I think about it often
because, you know, we'll wake up in the morning with our throat
hurting and you'll tell somebody how my throat hurts or like, I
didn't sleep well last night, right?
Like that rolled off our tongue in a way that is totally
appropriate because we're vocalizing our struggle.
We're saying, OK, this might be a tough day or I got to watch
myself. But wait for whatever reason,
feel like we need to wait until we have hit rock bottom before
we say that about our mental health.
And so next time you're thinking that next time you're having
that little struggle, I so wholeheartedly agree with what
you said, Sadie, actually answering the question.
When somebody says, how are you can open up for you the ability
to be vulnerable in micro doses, which can then build up on each
other. And you'll find that almost
everybody around you is also struggling in some other way.
And so you're also opening up the conversation for them to say
the same thing. And then everybody wins, right?
Like you've shared, they've shared.
You don't feel alone because so much of this field alone, so
much of this field like it's our fault that we're the only ones
that everybody else has all their stuff together.
But it's because we all are keeping up this facade.
And what's so interesting about how we talk about mental health,
as Lauren was saying earlier, there's actually a lot more
conversation about mental health going on.
And, and research is showing that people are saying, no, I
wouldn't judge somebody who tells me they have a mental
health disorder. I wouldn't judge somebody who
tells me that they're going to therapy.
But I judge myself. And so if you think about it in
that way, nobody is judging you and nobody would judge you if
you shared what you're going through.
The most judgement that's happening is yourself to
yourself. And so if you give yourself a
little bit of permission to say, I know that I have people in my
life who love me and care about me and this is the whole of me
that gives you the opportunity to be your whole self and to get
the support. Not only that you need, but you
deserve, right? You deserve support when you're
struggling in the same way that you do if you didn't sleep well,
in the same way if your throat is hurting and, and just
recognize that that's what it means to take care of your
mental health. Yes, it's cucumbers on your
eyes. Yes, it's massive, these stress
activities, if that's something that helps you during a
stressful time. But sometimes it's as simple as
I didn't have a good night or I'm not having a good day.
That is also self-care. That is also taking care of your
mental health. And in many ways is what we need
in order to be able to be that the totality of our
vulnerability to get the support that we really deserve.
Allison, I'm curious when you were at Penn if Penn Face was a
thing, because whenever we have a pen grad on the podcast, I
have to ask because it's such a hot topic.
I think that's what most mental health conversations revolve
around at Penn. And there was a study, I'm doing
quotations because it was not an actual study.
But you see this floating around in the Penn community that like
Penn is the most depressed university and the students are
more depressed than any other college.
And I've I've heard a lot of different schools of thought.
Subjectively, I haven't found that to be the case.
And I'm also curious what your thoughts are there, because it
really exemplifies what you spoke about at the beginning
with your brother, where it's like you're putting on this
facade that everything's OK and everyone's doing it and no one's
talking about this internal struggle.
And it's really interesting for a community to embrace and
accept that, like, that's what we're all doing and that's
what's happening, and it's ineffective, but we're not
really shifting anything about it.
So I was wondering if that was a thing when you were there and if
you had thoughts. Yeah, I so I was a pen before
the term pen face was a thing. Like that's how old I am, I was
saying. And also absolutely, but I would
say that it's not, it wasn't and continues to not be unique to
Penn. And this is one of the things
that I've really come to understand and appreciate.
My brother was at a school that was similar to Penn.
And so I could equate his experience and my experience and
say, well, you know, we're at similar types of school, then I
can see this is happening and this is happening at schools
that are not penned right. And, and we are all facing
different stressors. For some folks, they are non
traditional students who have families and also in school.
For some folks, they are working a full time job and also in
school. For some folks, they are, you
know, a student athlete or in Greek life and also dealing like
every What I have seen over the years in doing this work is
that. Everyone is facing stresses and
stressors in their own ways, in ways that we could never
understand if we're not them. And it's all relevant and it all
matters. And so, yes, penface existed,
though the term wasn't even known yet.
It hadn't been coined yet, but it existed.
And that was what I was trying to breakthrough, was I wanted my
peers to know. You don't.
Have to be perfect. And actually, the vast majority
of the people here are struggling, and you're not alone
if you are not having the time of your life right now.
And if we can break that open and we can have this everyday
conversation about mental health, it opens up this idea
that, oh, I can struggle, struggle and also be successful,
right? That was the message that my
brother had never gotten in his mind once he got his diagnosis
of his mental health disorder. To him, that was a life
sentence. He could never be the, you know,
Dean's list graduate, superstar person that he had seen himself
being because he had this mental health disorder.
And what he needed was a role model to say, yes, I also have
schizoaffective disorder or I've also struggled with depression.
And I'm going to graduate and I'm going to be a really
successful at whatever I want to be.
Those messages didn't get out there.
And I think what we see often in environment like Penn is this
idea of perfect or nothing. And the whole idea of active
minds of mobilizing around mental health is to say you are
still somebody even when you struggle with your mental health
because we all struggle with our mental health.
We all just don't all talk about it.
And these struggles happen across socioeconomics said It's
across demographics, across gender identity, with different
groups of people who research is showing are impacted even more
than others. But it's not just one type of
school and it's not just one type of student who struggles
with their mental health. And that that's what this is
about is whatever it is, it is impacting you.
Let's talk about it and let's get you whatever the support
that you need in that moment in order to be able to be that
successful person that you desire to be for yourself and to
be able to thrive. And that looks different for
everybody. Yeah, I think that was one of my
biggest realizations going home the first couple of times from
college. It's like everyone is having
really similar experiences. Everyone is missing home.
Everyone is trying to build that new friend group and meet new
people and it's overwhelming and stressful.
Everyone stressed about their midterm coming up.
Everyone's like slightly sleep deprived.
Unfortunately, like all of those are the same.
And maybe there's some big things, like maybe your school
is a big a sports school and a lot of your social interactions
revolve around that. Maybe you're in Greek life,
maybe you're not. There's those types of things,
but generally the subjective experience is really similar
across the board, which is very important to remember.
I think also what you mentioned is so interesting.
We have such a gap between psychology research and what we
know about mental health, and then what the general population
is actually aware of and internalizes.
And the fact that we know the majority of adults will be
diagnosed with a mental illness at some point in their life.
Not just that they have mental health or that they'll struggle,
but they'll be diagnosed. And that's believed to be an
underestimation. So if you're not diagnosed or
you're not struggling, you're you're the minority.
You're not in that majority of people that at some point have
that that tough spot or have this thing that they're dealing
with it in their day-to-day lives.
And most people just aren't aware of that and they still
internalize it. Like you're saying that like
this is going to affect the trajectory of my life and this
is going to have a really big impact on my future.
I want to talk about some of these like, I don't know,
warning signs would be the right term.
But I think to implement the ASK framework, it's really important
to be aware of people acting different and what to keep an
eye out for. I think especially for parents
who have never had a teen before and they're like, what is
happening? I don't know what to look for.
And I think also as a teen and as a young adult, when you've
never had friends struggle before, you don't know what to
look for. It's very confusing and
overwhelming. And you're like, are they just
in a a different period of time? Maybe their personality is a
little bit different or is something actually wrong?
So I'd love to get your guys this thoughts on what people can
be aware of and when they then should go and implement the ASK
framework. And if they're younger, if
they're in middle school or high school, potentially loop in a
trusted adult. Yeah, that's a a really great
question. Middle school is hard already,
right? And so you add in just like what
middle school is puberty, right? It's just, it's weird, it's
wonderful, it's awkward, it's fun.
It's it's all those things, right?
And so from like a developmental side of, of things, we go
through a lot at that age and we're trying to figure ourselves
out. And I was recently talking to a
parent who sort of asked the same question.
And you know, I think for for parents and caregivers is you
can use Oscar as an everyday tool.
You don't have to use that. Just when you see something
happening or you kind of think something is happening, you can
use those same steps just to check in.
So kind of like how Allison said, when somebody asks you how
you are, answer how you are. We have to learn how to be
honest in answering that question because I think as a
society, we've gotten away from that.
Right? And so for parents and
caregivers, it is that checking in, Like, hey, how's it going?
Hey, I saw that you just chucked your school bag down at the door
and didn't open it. Did you have any homework?
You know, like, is there anything in me?
What's happening? Right.
And and I get it, there is this dynamic between parents and
children and especially when you are of that age, you're like,
stop bothering me. But I think for parents and
caregivers, it's like not to stop, right?
To continue. And maybe you learn how to ask
the questions a different way and how to check in different
ways. But, you know, it's like if you
did just Chuck the backpack at the back door and then just take
off. OK, What there's more to this?
Giving them a minute to kind of like, you know, collect
themselves and then going up to them a little bit later and be
like, hey, I just, you know, kind of chucked that a little
hard. You know, like, how was your
day? Did you have lunch?
Who did you sit with? And and being able to ask those
kinds of questions to kind of unpack, not in a sneaky way, but
in a different way. That doesn't just be like,
what's going on, right. That's the thing that I think
you have to do. And then you have to keep that
going. You, you have to consistently do
that. So again, it's just not this one
and done. And I think for parents and peer
groups, they do this, but it does get maybe a little more
challenging as their children grow up because they are far
more independent. They're leaning on their peer
groups a lot more. And I think that's where having
an active Minds chapter really helps sort of also come at it
from a different level because you have that peer-to-peer
opportunity where you can have a student group that you are part
of that you are talking about mental health and really
thinking about like, what are the warning signs?
You know, like, OK, hey, Allison stopped coming to the active
Minds chapter meeting on a consistent basis.
Maybe I should call Allison and see what's what's going on,
right? You know, it's just paying
attention to like these little cues that somebody is starting
to just sort of slowly withdraw, right?
So it's not showing up to an active Minds chapter meeting,
not doing their homework on a consistent basis or opening up
their backpack when they come home, you know, cuz there's
homework, right? There's always some sort of
homework, but it's like paying attention to those little pieces
you to talk about sleep, right? We also know that you need sleep
to grow as teenagers. You need sleep.
So it's it's understanding like teenagers need a lot of sleep to
grow, but where is the too much sleep coming in to play?
And like how do we check in on that?
So I think you always have to sort of be aware that you have
to like ebb and flow. You have to move through and not
feel so rigid when you're asking the question, when you're just
checking in, right? It's paying attention to some of
those everyday behaviors that are just small indicators that
could increase into something larger.
And you want to be able to pay attention to them before they
get into that larger piece. So I think that's probably the
advice that I would give most folks and that doesn't feel too
hard to like really conceptualize and utilize on the
day-to-day. So hopefully that feels
manageable for most folks. And, and we've gotten feedback
that it does, right? Like that consistency and, you
know, lighten it up, like bring in humor, go do something.
You don't have to feel so robotic and rigid just to check
in and to pay attention. I especially think that it is a
lot easier to like disclose things to your peers than it is
to your family. I think it's just our nature,
right? Because it just feels like we're
not burdening our families at that degree.
And so it's a lot easier. So as friends, we do take a lot
of that on our shoulders and that could impact what we're
also going through. So it's also being able to
ensure that you're available for folks, but then you're also
taking care of yourself because sometimes that can be very
overwhelming as well. And that could impact your own
mental health if you're the one that everybody comes to and
like, oh, Lauren, you're so strong.
You're the strong friend. You hear all the OK, great.
But can you check in on me every once in a while because yeah, it
is a lot, right. So also I think being aware of
like who in your friend group do you go to and also checking on
that personally consistent basis because it it's a two way St.
for sure. You mentioned chapter meetings,
if people don't have an active Minds chapter at their school
and they'd like to learn a little bit more, can you guys
give us kind of an overview of what it looks like to get
involved and also opportunities if there isn't a local chapter?
All the things related to advocacy and active minds
specifically. Yeah, so the chapters are what
we call our student LED mental health groups and that's what
Allison really started when she was at Penn and then really how
she started Active Minds. And so we have about 600 Active
Minds chapters across the country and they're student LED
mental health clubs essentially. And all you need is at least
three students and an advisor to start the chapter.
That really follows a lot of high school and college club
requirements. If you want to start a student
club in your school, you need to register at your school.
So you need to ensure that the charter is an officially
recognized student organization and then you just fill out a
registration form on the Active Minds web page and our chapters
team will send you sort of an onboarding kit for high schools.
We have a free student facilitated curriculum that they
can use as their program guide. So instead of being like, Hey,
we, we just started this club. Now what do we do?
We have this, this discussion guide that students can use
that's peer-to-peer. They have subtopic areas like
social media and mental health. And then it's all discussion
based where they can use that as their chapter meeting.
And then, you know, they can create events, they can bring in
speakers. Active Minds has a number of of
speakers that actually share their own mental health stories.
So you can bring in an active mind speaker as part of your
chapter work. But it's really easy to start.
So there is a list of all of the chapters on our web page.
So if you're not sure if your school has one or not, you can
check that out. So you can kind of see, oh,
well, I didn't know that Penn had a had a chapter.
Great, then you can kind of see find out where their meetings
are. But if you don't have a chapter,
it's really easy to start and then you're part of our network.
And so once you register, we host sort of workshops and we
have a lot of resources for our chapter members and our leaders.
We have a newsletter that we send out to all of our students
in our network and it's every other week.
Through that newsletter, we're always highlighting new
resources or or opportunities to get involved in active minds and
beyond, right? It's not just about like what
Active Minds is doing, but in the field of mental health, we
partner with a number of organizations across the country
at the at the national level and at the state level.
So say you're really are are interested in say telling your
story and advocating for state policy.
We can probably connect you with a lot of those state policy
leaders who are trying to affect change at the local level where
you could go and testify or or tell your story to some elected
official. So those are the types of things
that our chapters do. So it's not only about this
education and awareness, but also this advocacy piece and
wanting to really change policies or advocate for
resources or funding even that Go chapters can actually do a
little bit more at your school campus.
I want to touch on policy and schools.
What are you guys hoping to see in the next like 5-10, twenty
years as far as shifts in policy and how we approach mental
health and middle schools, high schools, college, etcetera?
What are you guys working towards?
It's a great question. I think the, the first thing I
always think about is money. So we need a lot more money.
I mean, I think just in healthcare in general, you know,
access to mental health care, there's still a lot of barriers
to somebody accessing care for themselves, right?
And so I think a little bit of that is we need to do a better
job of educating people about what is out there already and
how they actually access the healthcare system because the
healthcare system is scary. It's big, it's complicated,
right? So I think there's an education
piece that we need to be part of.
But then from like the policy and financial side of things, it
how do we actually develop a pipeline on Black, Indigenous
and people of color therapists that actually are going into the
mental health workforce, right? Because we know that a lot of
our communities of color, when they don't see themselves
represented in the healthcare system, that adds a layer of
hesitancy and, and distrust, right?
And so having more of an opportunity to get folks into
the field of mental health from a clinical standpoint, I think
is, is one thing. And then I think with the
funding also comes like, what kinds of programs can schools
actually tap into? You know, it's great that you
can have an active minds chapter, but how is your school
funded? Is the funding actually
supporting increasing the counseling center or increasing
the resources around mental health?
Because again, you don't always have to think about mental
health from the clinical side of things, but it's just, you know,
from a school culture side of things.
Where is that support? So I think those are the first
two things that I really think about and where we really need
to head over the next five years.
And I think we're starting to incrementally see some of that
shift. I think the White House and the
Biden administration has put a lot of effort and funding into
mental health, which has been lovely, which is great.
It's never enough, right? So like, we constantly have to
be advocating for more, but it's a huge, huge step in the right
direction. Allison, what would you add?
Yeah. I think what you've said,
Lauren, is great. And I think one of the things
that's been really interesting for me to see and and to learn
is when we think about mental health and especially when we
think about policy change, folks often just think about clinical
care. We need to increase the number
of counselors and it that is critically important.
We need to increase, we need to diversify.
We need to make sure counselors are available to folks in the
modality that they are able to reach them.
So not everybody can drive to a therapist.
Not everybody has insurance to cover a major therapy
appointment. So what are the ways that people
can access care? But also, if we only think of it
in terms of the treating those who have either hit rock bottom
because we know folks aren't getting help until too late,
then we are missing a whole opportunity to kind of take this
public health approach to mental health.
And those are the pieces, as Lauren was saying, that I think
is so important. That data shows that when a
youth or young adult feels as though the environment around
them cares about their mental health.
So if their school cares in mental health or college does
whatever it may be, they are actually more likely to reach
out for help. They are more likely to have
positive mental health. And so as we look at policy
changes, we need to continue to look at policy change as it
relates to a public health approach to mental health and
not just a clinical intervention treatment for people with severe
mental illness. And and again, I, you know, as
somebody whose brother had severe mental illness, I hear
and I feel it deeply. And also there were three or
four years where he could have been getting a different level
of support before we got to that point.
And we are going to reduce the burden on our clinical care, we
are going to reduce the burden on our counseling centers if we
can continue to take this public health approach.
So everything from, you know, there was the introduction of
988 last year, which is a public health shift in how we used to
have to think about a 10 digit number to call mental health
number. No, now it's just 988, just like
you call 911 because you know what, your mental health is just
as important as your physical health and safety, and we're
going to make this number just as easy to remember.
So now with the introduction of 988, let's make sure the 988IS
printed on the back of student ID card alongside the blue light
phone number and other crisis. You know that the police,
because you know what, at a school, your mental health
matters just as much as your physical health and your safety
does. What other kind of public health
approaches, which is to mental health, where is this
programming? Where are we ensuring that there
is mental health programming in health education classes?
Where are we ensuring that there's mental health in first
year orientation in college? Where are we ensuring that
there's a mental health parity within the workplace?
So new employees, young employees understand where to go
to get mental health support in addition to how to, you know,
get the support for their physical health.
So really looking at the policies that bring mental
health to the same level, bring parity to mental health, the
same level of health and safety issues, I think is a really key
important part of this conversation that we can and
we'll be pursuing over the next few years.
Can I add something? Yeah, I think the other piece to
that, I think Allison, you're spot on.
But the other piece to that is how would mental health being
embedded in other policy issues as well?
So when you think about gun control, we know that this
generation of students has all been affected by gun violence,
right? So when we think about gun
control, when we think about climate change, right, how is
mental health also being woven into that narrative as well?
Because we know that like all of those things really affect our
mental health. So I think it's, yes, it needs
to be like part of a stand alone policy priority, but there are
other priorities where mental health can actually be embedded
into that framework as well. And I think that's the piece
that is sometimes missing that we talk about it in these
separate boxes where actually it's very intersectional in some
ways, right? And we can't talk about gun
control without talking about all the other layers to that.
And mental health is a big piece of that.
I love that so so so important. If people want to learn more
about Active Minds and follow along with the work you guys are
doing, where can they do that? Yeah.
So they can go on to activeminds.org.
That is our web page. You can sign up for our
newsletter. Even if you don't have an Active
Minds chapter where you haven't started working with us or
participating in our program. Anybody can sign up for our
newsletters. That's probably the first place.
As well as following us on all the social media because our
newsletters, like I said, are always updated and highlighting
new ways to join us and be part of our programs.
So that's probably the first place to start.
And then our programs are all listed there.
So you can actually kind of dig in and see what our full menu of
offerings are. And then if you have particular
question, say about chapters, you can actually fill out an
inquiry form and then connect with our team and we'd be happy
to connect with you and kind of do a a deeper dive as needed.
Incredible. Well, thank you guys so, so much
for this conversation. I know so many people are going
to be so impacted by it and really motivated to get
involved. So thank you guys for taking the
time. Such a pleasure, thanks for
having us.