To combat mental health stigmas, the College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists Student Chapter will host Stigma Fighters: A Mental Health Awareness Festival on April 2 from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Carl DeSantis Courtyard.
At the festival, participants will be able to talk to different organizations about mental health and anonymously write down their concerns about mental health. The National Alliance on Mental Illness, Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, 211 Broward, Florida Initiative for Suicide Prevention, Henderson Student Counseling Center and the Brief Therapy Institute, among others, will be present. The festival will also feature food and music.
Gabrielle Vaz, graduate student in the College of Pharmacy, said that mental health issues affect 1 in 4 individuals, according to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
“Everyone knows someone who has a mental illness,” Vaz said. “People sometimes forget that it’s not just the ‘crazy people.’ It could be anyone. There are at least 20 different diseases and disorders that affect people.”
Jackie Rosen, executive director/CEO of the Florida Initiative for Suicide Prevention, will speak at the Mental Health Awareness Festival. The Florida Initiative for Suicide Prevention’s goals are to educate people about suicide prevention and support individuals who have lost someone to suicide.
“Students need to know about mental health because, if they’re having problems, and they know that it’s a result of a brain disease and that it’s no different from any other disease, they’ll be more likely to seek help,” Rosen said. “If they understand the realities of brain diseases, they’ll take it seriously.”
According to Rosen, suicide is the second-leading cause of death among college students and the tenth-leading cause of death among people in the U.S.
Rosen said college students’ stress levels are higher than they used to be.
“They don’t know what they’re going into, what they’ll do when they get out, whether they’re living up to their potential, whether they’re living up to what other people expect of them, and whether they meet their own standards,” she said. “You’re giving these stresses to kids who are physically unable to handle them since the brain doesn’t fully mature until age 25.”
Vaz is planning the festival because she has a history of mental illness in her family.
“I grew up around mental illness,” she said. “It inspired me to pursue a career in psychiatric pharmacy. I wanted to bring attention the topic of mental health because people need to talk about it.”
Stephanie Gomez, graduate student in the College of Pharmacy, is assisting with planning and said that she hopes the fair will help pharmacy students learn how to talk to people with mental illnesses.
“No one really wants to talk about mental health because they don’t understand it,” she said. “I hope that participants become more interested in mental illnesses and realize that it’s much bigger than what people talk about.”
Rosen explained that stigmas related to mental health keep individuals from seeking help right away.
“Mental health is due to a physical change in the brain,” she said. “It’s not something you can control. People feel that you can just get over it, but this is a condition that people can get help for and live with if they don’t ignore it. They can have successful lives.”
Rosen said that she prefers the term “brain disease” to “mental illness.”
“The term ‘brain disease’ keeps it part of the body, instead of something separated that people are supposed to control but that they actually can’t control,” she said.
Vaz said that she hopes participants will understand that it’s OK to seek help.
“It’s important to take care of your mind in addition to your body,” she said. “Good mental health is important for all aspects of life.”
For more information about Stigma Fighters: A Mental Health Awareness Festival, contact Vaz at gv178@nova.edu.
Photo Credit: Gabrielle Vaz
