News

Speak 2 Swatties advocates mental health awareness

In print | February 26, 2009

Last Thursday, Feb. 19, peer counseling group Speak 2 Swatties organized an open forum discussion for students to voice concerns about mental health awareness on campus. The forum was only one of many events planned by the group to shed light on mental health problems affecting the community and to hear what students would like to see done about such issues.

“I think it was certainly beneficial just to have 20 or so students in a room talking about common concerns, sources of stress — just so they can admit these to one another and really get that out in the open,” said Jenny Akchin ’10, a participant in the forum. Akchin, who has attended previous Speak 2 Swatties events, added that this forum in particular attempted to address rather than simply discuss the issues of concern. “There was interaction; there was fluidity in talking about things and really hashing them out,” she said.

Megan Jeffreys ’10, a co-director of Speak 2 Swatties, made a similar comparison to events the group has hosted in the past. “What we wanted to do for this event was get into smaller groups and focus on more specific issues. [We wanted to] get a little deeper into the issues and also talk about possible things that we can be doing to help, both Speak 2 Swatties and as a campus,” she said.

Some of the issues discussed at the forum included the high-stress environment of Swarthmore and the often negative results of that stress in the context of mental health. “We talked a lot about negativity on campus, especially this sense of misery-poker playing, and about strategies for dealing with that so that it doesn’t affect you,” Akchin said.

Speak 2 Swatties counselor Joel Swanson ’10 said, “A lot of people seem to be on the same page in terms of Swarthmore culture sort of encouraging people to work themselves unhealthily hard and then respond in unhealthy ways to that.” Swanson said he felt the forum yielded some helpful ideas for addressing this type of behavior.

Another issue the group hopes to combat is the social stigma attached to discussing mental health issues, explained Fletcher Wortmann ’09, Speak 2 Swatties Chief Mental Health Advocate. Both students and members of the administration agree that Speak 2 Swatties is in a great position to do just that.

Counseling and Psychological Services Director David Ramirez said he’s recently noticed more students helping to heighten awareness of mental health issues. “Students can do something that the administration can’t do; they can speak with authority about their own experience — there’s nothing more genuine than that,” Ramirez said.

“I think it’s great that they’re out there bringing these things up because otherwise I think [the issues] definitely tend to get swept under the rug or into the CAPS office, and I don’t think that’s necessarily a good thing,” Akchin said.

One idea that was discussed at the forum and which promises to be a working project for the group involves incorporating a mental health workshop into first-year orientation week. Melissa Cruz ’10, a co-director of the group, said that while many of the orientation workshops currently in place address “hot topics” like alcohol use or diversity issues, “mental health is a hot topic for every college campus.”

“We’re hoping to start working with the deans and people who are in charge of orientation planning to maybe get some sort of similar workshop going — just to let students know what resources we have,” Cruz said. Emphasizing the group’s potential role as an intermediary between students and the campus’s other mental health services, Cruz added, “Speak 2 Swatties is just the icing on the cake because there are already so many other resources here.”

For the moment, though, the group has events planned and underway for the rest of this semester, according to Wortmann. On Tuesday the group hosted a panel on eating disorders, featuring two former Swarthmore students who discussed both their personal experiences and eating disorders more generally. In addition, the group plans to host similar events addressing specific mental health conditions, with one speaker coming to campus this April to discuss obsessive-compulsive disorder. Jeffreys added that among other smaller-scale events the group is planning to show a film focusing on self-injurious behavior, “Cut,” shortly after the spring break.

In keeping with the open spirit of Thursday’s forum, Speak 2 Swatties encourages students to contact the group with any further concerns or ideas related to mental health at the college. “We’re always open to new suggestions, feedback, input from any students regarding how they think we can further serve the campus,” Cruz said.

Jeffreys echoed this statement, adding that one of the group’s main functions is to make students’ voices heard. “The group’s here to express the concerns people already have on this campus; our agenda is to make public what people are already thinking, so when people have ideas we’re very receptive to them contacting us.”

Students with suggestions or concerns related to mental health advocacy are directed to contact Megan Jeffreys (mjeffre1), Melissa Cruz (mcruz1) or Fletcher Wortmann (fwortma1) with their comments. Speak 2 Swatties holds weekly mental health advocacy meetings Thursdays at 7 p.m. in Kohlberg 202. These meetings are open to the college community, and those interested in starting or participating in projects or even just “pitching ideas” are encouraged to attend, Cruz said.

Disclosure note: Fletcher Wortmann is a member of the Phoenix staff but had no role in the production of this article.