Active Minds

A new club with a cause

March 4, 2008

Active Minds members, front row, from left, are: Jessica Hassinger '11, Melissa Henry '10, Amy Conner '10, Adam Quatrini '09; top row, from left: Leanne Simington '08, Melanie Gade '10 and Kristy Gaff '08.

For students dealing with the everyday stress of college life, peer help is available.

Active-minded Dickinson College students are part of a new group designed to help fellow students juggle their academic and social stresses. They also hope their group, Active Minds, will help dispel myths about mental illness.

Psychology major Leanne Simington '08 and Maury Joseph '09, a psychology and sociology double major, founded the group last year after meeting with Linda Chalk, associate director of Dickinson's Counseling Center.

The club, which has eight core members, is one of 112 chapters in the United States. The purpose of the club is to educate students about mental health and illness and to serve as a liaison between students and the resources they need.

The group meets once a week to plan events and find solutions for students struggling with a variety of mental-health issues.

"We address problems students have faced on campus and how we can help to remedy those issues," Simington said. "One of our current goals is to meet with the Counseling Center to understand how they help students."

Davis Tracy, director of the Counseling Center, said Active Minds has "an important role to play." Additionally, students with concerns about themselves or other students should not hesitate to seek professional service at the Counseling Center, Tracy said, adding that he and his colleagues are available to help.

Active Minds encourages students to understand that they are susceptible to mental-health issues.

"We're not just a club about mental illness; we're a club about mental health," Simington said. "Mental health is a topic which affects every student not just students with mental illness. For example, every student experiences stress to some degree. There are more advantageous ways to handle stress than others. How people choose to handle their stress can affect their mental health, and their mental health can affect how they are able to handle stress."

Club member Adam Quatrini '09, a political-science major, said, "I think Active Minds is so unique because unlike a special-interest club, Active Minds' mission permeates all aspects of campus life and affects everyone."

Spreading the word

Simington would like to see Active Minds become a resource for everyday discussions about mental health issues.

"It is unfortunate that it takes events like the school shootings in Virginia and Illinois to draw our attention to mental-health issues," she said. "The majority of the time the attention that is given is quite negative. Especially since whenever events like these happen, news media sources immediately scramble to find out if the person had a mental illness. This creates a situation in which people assume that mental health always has a negative connotation or is dangerous."

Information about the national Active Minds organizations is available at www.activemindsoncampus.org. For information about the Dickinson College chapter of Active Minds, e-mail minds@dickinson.edu. For information about the Dickinson College Counseling Center, visit www.dickinson.edu/departments/couns/ or call 717-245-1485.

- Andrew Williams '08