The Ohio Program for Campus Safety and Mental Health celebrated Mental Health Action Day by hosting their 6th Biennial Conference: Reimagining Campus-CommUNITY Partnerships: Breaking Down the Silos on May 18th in Columbus, Ohio.
Mental Health Action Day is a day dedicated to making specific efforts to improve the mental health of yourself, friends, family and the entire community. Further, the aim of Mental Health Action Day is to spread the message that mental health is health and is an integral part of one’s overall wellbeing.
It was wonderful to be back in person this year and the Ohio Program for Campus Safety and Mental Health (OPCSMH) is beyond grateful for the continued support and collaboration from their partners.
Dr. Bernice Pescosolido, Indiana University Bloomington, enlightened the audience with information on Indiana University Bloomington’s initiative, U Bring Change to Mind, which is a program designed reduce the stigma of mental health of college campuses by “starting the conversation” and using a simple, yet effective philosophy: By students, for students.
Dr. Pescosolido also provided attendees advice and effective strategies for stigma reduction on their campuses. Her primary advice: get students involved in the process early and address stigma at the root cause.
At the afternoon plenary, Kelly Davis of Mental Health America and Rei Scott of Students with Psychosis provided details about the history of peer mental health support programs, as well as strategies to effectively develop and implement peer support programs on campuses of institutions of higher education. Both Davis and Scott emphasized elevating student leadership who have had lived experiences with mental illness, ensuring adequate and comprehensive peer support training is provided to leaders, prioritizing trauma-informed and human rights-focused approaches to mental health support, and investing in the future of college peer support.
Davis and Scott also shared their lived experiences with mental health, telling powerful stories that led them to be who they are today.
Finally, presenter Dr. Gavin Luter of UniverCity Alliance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison presented on “Breaking Down Silos” and encouraged the audience to foster the campus-community partnership that this year’s conference aimed to emphasize and celebrate. Dr. Luter spoke about the UniverCity Alliance, which is an organization that creates opportunities for collaboration between the University of Wisconsin-Madison and local county governments. UW-Madison students are given the opportunity to complete a real-world project that helps address the needs of local governments. Examples of projects students have participated in include best practices reports, program evaluations, health impact assessments, among many more.
Additionally, the OPCSMH 6th Biennial Conference hosted a poster presentation for the first time, which included a presentation from Northeast Ohio Medical University’s very own Dr. Natalie Bonfine!
Dr. Bonfine’s presentation, "Behavioral Health Needs and Campus-based Service Utilization among Ohio College and University Students," provided prevalent statistics on the mental health of students attending Ohio’s institutions of higher education, as well as revealing that a study she conducted found that only 18% of college students in Ohio had received behavioral health services through their school in the past 12 months.
Recordings of the presentations from the conference can be found on the Ohio Program for Campus Safety and Mental Health’s YouTube channel!
-- Submitted by Chris Tutino at ctutino@neomed.edu.