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BY DYLON CHOW

In print | Published October 9, 2008

Boxes labeled “We’re All Mad Here” have appeared throughout the Swarthmore campus in the past week as part of an effort to help Swarthmore students open up to any mental health issues that may afflict them. Students are instructed to write their mental health issues on cards and to deposit the cards in the supplied boxes. The cards will be displayed in Parrish after Fall Break.

The project is intended to address student stigmatization of the mentally ill and to encourage those in need of help to seek it. Organizers hope to encourage students who may not be sure whether their particular issues are classified as illnesses or not to seek help regardless.

According to Will Hopkins ’11, peer counselor for Speak 2 Swatties, the student-run peer counseling group that is hosting the event on campus, the definition of mental illness “is up to the students to define for themselves…We want to have as many perspectives about mental health as we can.”

For Fletcher Wortmann ’09, also a counselor for Speak 2 Swatties, mental health issues are extremely personal, but in the Swarthmore community, any discussion is “completely ignored.”
Melissa Cruz ’10, one of the founders of Speak 2 Swatties, said, “Mental health issues are about the only issues that aren’t discussed on campus.”

Hopkins agreed. “The Swarthmore experience for many students involves activism,” he said, but issues of mental health are still highly stigmatized. “Many people have misconceptions about mental health issues.”

The organization’s members are concerned that students on campus tend to keep personal issues to themselves. Wortmann worries that “people are encouraged to handle [these issues] on their own,” and that, in Swarthmore’s competitive academic environment, there is “pressure to be functioning at your best 100 percent of the time.”

The event hopes to address the worry that students may not know where to go for help. Although students have access to a variety of different types of peer counselors, including RAs, CAPS, and Speak 2 Swatties, some student concerns are so personal that they may not be willing to speak with anyone about them.

“We’re All Mad Here” hopes to address this issue by giving students an anonymous forum to address their mental health issues.

Hopkins believes the anonymous nature of the event will make the students feel “more comfortable and safe.” The display will be unveiled immediately following Fall Break, at which point Speak 2 Swatties plans to hold a meeting addressing mental health issues. “We hope that people will treat the project respectfully and will treat the people who participate respectfully,” Hopkins said.

Speak 2 Swatties hopes to provide an outlet for students to share their feelings comfortably and to encourage students to discuss such issues. “We hope to get a dialogue going about this huge issue that affects a good proportion of people here, including staff and students,” said Cruz. “It’s something very personal that we want to bring to the surface.”

Breaking the silence about struggles with mental health may not be easy. Many students at Swarthmore seem unaware that this project is going on. Tomorrow is the last day for students to submit cards, and some members of Speak 2 Swatties worry that there will be few completed cards.

This is the first year that the event is being held, and signals Speak 2 Swatties’ goal to have a more prominent role on campus in advocating for mental health awareness. This is the “first year anyone has done anything like this,” Wortmann said.

Students can still fill out the cards for “We’re All Mad Here“ at designated boxes in Parrish, Kohlberg, McCabe, the Science Center, Tarble and the peer counseling center located in Upper Tarble in rooms 308 and 312.

Disclosure note: Fletcher Wortmann is a columnist for The Phoenix but had no role in the production of this article.

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