Student Health Promotion creates a weeklong discussion about mental health from Oct. 6 to Oct. 10
Leading up to World Mental Health Day, Dalhousie’s Student Health Promotion (SHP) department will host its own Mental Health Awareness Week from Oct. 6. To Oct. 10.
This is the second Mental Health Awareness Week that SHP community leader Zoe Bourdeleau- Cass will run.
“There’s this huge stigma around it, and what was amazing about the project was that it really became this safe space [last year],” says Bourdeleau-Cass.
“It was a really excellent outcome that we hadn’t necessarily planned, and we’re hoping in some ways to bring that back.”
Bourdeleau-Cass says that last year, students responded well to SHP’s banners with mental health-related questions. Students could paint and draw whatever they wanted on the banners, which contained questions like, “What does mental health mean to you?” and “What are some mental health issues on campus?”
The banners will be out again, but in an indoor location so they won’t be damaged by weather.
Although Mental Health Awareness Week is only five days, SHP can help students find resources to deal with mental health issues all year round. Bourdeleau- Cass says the SHP staff often discuss ways to deal with stress and depression, as they’ve noticed these are the two major mental health issues on campus.
Mental Health Awareness Week kicks off on Monday with a panel discussion about mental health issues amongst different populations. The discussion will feature representatives from Dal as well as community organisations, such as DalOut and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
SHP will be setting up a booth, likely in the Student Union Building (SUB), where there will be cards that say, “My mental health story is…” Anyone can write whatever they want on the card anonymously. The cards, collectively called the mental health stories campaign, will be displayed beside the SHP office in the new building on LeMarchant Street.
“I think you really have to have these safe spaces and safe areas, where people feel comfortable talking openly about these things,” says Bourdeleau-Cass, “or, like we’re doing with the stories campaign, keeping it anonymous.”
There will also be the opportunity to make paper cranes to show support for mental health. SHP offers three different colours of paper to represent different things: green means “I know someone living with a mental health issue”, purple means “I have a mental health issue” and yellow means “I support the cause”. The cranes will hang in the SUB during Mental Health Awareness Week, as well as the following week.
“It’s just an awareness campaign to show that this is an issue that exists,” says Bourdeleau-Cass. “And people make a conscious choice of what colour they want to choose.”
On Friday, to celebrate World Mental Health Day, SHP will be hosting a relaxation room in the SUB.
“Students have such a busy, fast-paced life that they sometimes forget to just have fun and just hang out with other students,” says Bourdeleau-Cass. “I think a really big thing is creating community and creating things that are fun that people can do together – and healthy things that are fun that people can do together.”
Bourdeleau-Cass recommends board games and sports rather than partying and drinking a lot. The SHP staff will soon be trained in mental health first-aid response. This means they can help a student in crisis find the proper place for support, such as the emergency room or a psychologist.
“Why would we not have a week where we have the opportunity to do these things and talk about these things openly,” says Bordeleau- Cass, “and really digress where this is coming from?”
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