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By: Crystal Lobo
Jan. 18 marked the start of MSU Diversity Services’ annual “Diversity Week.” This year, the theme of the week was “Constructing Our Stories,” a theme meant to emphasize the importance of sharing stories and narratives as a method of personal and societal growth. The service collaborated with many organizations such as Perspectives on Peace, Soul Foods, and external speakers, to present workshops relating to Diversity Services’ four pillars of diversity: multiculturalism, interfaith, abilities, and Indigenous affairs.
“We tried our best to reflect our pillars … Each of the workshops were sort of reflective of one of those topics in a nuanced way,” said Ryan Deshpande, Assistant Director of MSU Diversity Services.
“One thing we really tried to get away from is the idea of having a day for a pillar … That's not how people work and that was something that was definitely one of our major objectives, because being truly intersectional isn't going ‘these two things exist,’ but going ‘oh these all exist and they're all part of the same narrative,’” said Sophie Geffros, Abilities Coordinator.
On Jan. 20, one of the week’s primary events took place at TwelvEighty when keynote speaker and notable activist Kim Katrin Milan hosted a workshop.
“She built her talk around the theme [of the week] but talked specifically about issues of marginalization, identity, intersectionality and how we can own our narrative,” said Deshpande.
“She really captivated the audience. We had a full house in TwelvEighty. I got multiple messages afterwards of people being like, ‘That was so amazing. I'm so happy I came to see that.’”
Both Deshpande and Geffros stated that they viewed Diversity Week as a success. “I think everything went according to plan. The week was very successful and I don't think anything happened that I wasn't anticipating,” said Deshpande. Geffros was enthusiastic as well, “Events like this week are a really great opportunity to recharge your batteries because you get people who are both educated and not educated in these issues but who want to learn and talk and genuinely believe in these things, and it’s amazing,” she said.
While the event was successful, Deshpande and Geffros both cited ways that Diversity Week could improve for next year. Deshpande cited promotional strategies as an area that could grow. He believes that promotions have improved from last year, but is hoping to continue to promote the event to a wider audience. Geffros explained her hopes for a more ambitious Diversity Week in the future. “I think we should go bigger,” she said.
“Going forward I would like to have more complex conversations.”
Overall, MSU Diversity Week created multiple workshops and events for the McMaster community pertaining to its theme. “We want people to own their narratives and take charge of their identities in a way that empowers them,” said Deshpande.
“There is a great Junot Díaz quote, which is, ‘The only people who don't see reflections of themselves are monsters,’” Geffros said. “That is what taking diverse people out of the narrative does. It makes us monstrous because if you don't see yourself then you're almost dehumanized. So allowing us to come together and build those stories for ourselves I think is important.”
Photo Credit: Mike Beattie
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By: Gabi Herman
This election, there has been a lot of thinking about mental health. Why is it such a huge issue, and what does each candidate have to say about it?
The problem:
According to the Canadian Association of Colleges and University Student Services, more students with mental health issues are pursuing post-secondary education than ever before. In addition, students say mental health issues have the greatest impact on their academic success. 57.9 percent of students feel overwhelming anxiety, and 40 percent have felt too depressed to function.
MSU initiatives, clubs and the university all have services in place to address mental health issues. The MSU has a number of peer support services, where student volunteers go through training to actively listen, provide advice and sometimes refer students to applicable professionals. A number of clubs also advocate for mental health. COPE, a student mental health initiative club, held their annual “Elephant in the Room” campaign last week, in efforts to reduce mental health stigma. Finally, the University’s Student Wellness Centre has one psychiatrist and a psychiatry resident, a number of counsellors and social workers and group counselling resources.
However, these services still do not meet students’ needs on campus. Many peer support services are notoriously underutilized. Some are difficult to find, and no directory exists with a listing of all peer support services. Student clubs can work to create community, but do not have the ability to directly help those who need trained professionals. The Student Wellness Centre has extremely long wait times for appointments, and students who cannot afford to see a private counsellor are often left without options.
Candidates have different ideas of how to address these problems.
Devante Mowatt
Mowatt hopes to address mental health issues by discussing them with students first. His Campus Chats initiative will bring presidential office hours to discuss issues like mental health and accessibility. He will also use MacTV, an MSU television initiative, to advertise mental health services.
Jonathon Tonietto:
Tonietto hopes to strengthen current initiatives by consulting with managers of peer support services, and says that talking about mental health is important. He wants to give peer support volunteers more training, give peer support more funding, and create a McMaster community that is a safe space for those with mental health issues. He has consulted with Student Accessibility Services.
Justin Monaco-Barnes
Monaco-Barnes hopes to reduce wait times at the student centre by hiring another psychiatrist. He also wants to build a McMaster community that is supportive of those with mental health issues through awareness initiatives and training. He consulted with SAS.
Mike Gill
Gill wants to be a part of re-writing the SAS policy. He hopes to allow students the option not to disclose a mental health diagnosis. He wants SAS to be responsible for communicating with students’ professors, and he would like to get rid of yearly intake appointments for those registered with SAS. He has discussed this point with multiple people, including MSU Maccess coordinator Alex Wilson and Tim Nolan, the SAS director. He wants to introduce a formal policy on academic leave for mental health concerns, create a minimum counsellor-to-student ratio, and put all peer support services in one location, a point he has consulted with several parties on, including Associate Vice-President and Dean of Students Sean Van Koughnett.
Sarah Jama
Jama has a short term and a long-term plan. Short term, she hopes to hire one counsellor for the North Quad, and one for the West Quad. She would like them to interact with students in residence. Long term, she hopes to hire counsellors for each faculty, a system she says is already in place at Waterloo. She also wants to create a peer support centre with centralized training and services. She has consulted with SAS, the Student Wellness Centre, and a number of initiatives.
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Brittany Marlatt
The Silhouette
Tragedy struck many on the evening of Aug. 25, as millions of people in North America caught sight, even mere glimpses, of twerking, grinding and other feigned sexual acts.
Within minutes, social media outlets began to blow up as appalled viewers criticized Miley Cyrus’ controversial performance with Robin Thicke. Both millionaires took the stage with what was judged to be obscene gestures and questionable attire. For weeks this performance outshone headlines such as “Obama weighs possible military response,” “Hurricane Irene heads toward land,” and “Random shooting spree in New York.” All of these issues seemed to slip past us as we stressed and wondered about the pop princess’s downward spiral.
Why are we so numb to the issues impacting not only ourselves, but millions of people fighting every day for survival? Pop culture has worked its way into newspapers, news stations, radio, magazines, film and television. It can be found in curriculums, where educators lead discussions on current events and issues. It can be found on billboards, buses and social networks. Our lives are being consumed with “who wore it best?” “fashion don’ts,” and many more pointless discussions. It seems that people are shying away from what is really important.
I ask that you pull yourself out of pop culture and dive into the social and economical crises across the globe. Issues like militia invasions, poor labour conditions and the stripping of human rights need your awareness and engagement. Take a look around you and see what many have fought for you to have. Take a minute to think about the innocent people of Syria who may surely perish at the U.S.’s “humanitarian” bombs. I ask that you take a minute to think about the people of Guatemala who have had land stolen from them so the Canadian and US mining companies may collect their gold. I ask that you take a minute and ask yourself, who is fighting for them?
It is great that we have privileges such as forms of entertainment and great that we may enjoy them, but it also important that we acknowledge the individuals who fought for such freedom. Many of us essentially have all our needs at our fingertips and maybe even more, but for every extra we have, someone out there lacks a basic need. They lack shelter, food, water and equality.
Around us are many opportunities to get involved and simply become educated about the situations occurring around the globe. Most importantly, being educated is a necessary start. We play an important part in most of these issues and can become an even larger part if we actively participate. So let us unplug from pop culture and get plugged into the world around us.
By: Paulina Prazmo
“Stomp out Stigma,” “Move for Mental Health” and “SOS Rally” are some phrases you might be hearing and seeing around campus this week. Mental Illness Awareness Week – running September 30 to October 4 is the reason why.
Whether it’s a topic that you have personally dealt with, something you have helped a friend go through or simply a topic you are genuinely interested in, mental illness is something that quietly surrounds us every day, and this week we’re talking about it.
What if you’re the type of person that can recognize that something is wrong in your life but feels anxious just thinking about it? You can’t figure out if it is in fact a mental illness, let alone take action, if you can’t think about it. Depression? Anxiety? Multiple Personality Disorder? Bipolar Disorder? Just a few terms that might have been creeping around the back of your mind. During our interview, Mariette Lee, president of COPE McMaster, and Debra Earl, the Mental Health Team nurse at the Student Wellness Centre, set the record straight about mental health and mental illness. Further still, they provide information about what “getting help” and “stomping out the stigma” really consist of.
COPE is a student mental health initiative club focused on awareness of mental illnesses. Lee begins by saying that the top mental illnesses experienced by university students are depression, anxiety and academic stress. Though these mental illnesses can flare up in university, one in ten Canadians will experience an episode of major depressive disorder, according to a 2009 study by the Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatment. Earl gave some 2011 statistics - straight from McMaster students - saying that 40% of Mac students experience depression, 30% experience anxiety and 30% experience other diagnosable mental illnesses.
The most common symptoms of mental illnesses begin with “withdrawing and isolating from activities, friends and struggling with emotions,” said Mariette Lee. “If I see someone I know from COPE or from class, and suddenly I don’t see them for a while, that would start to worry me about the possibility of them going through a hard time,” she added. Another important gradual symptom to look out for has to do with sleeping patterns. “You might be sleeping less because you’re lying awake and worrying, or you may be sleeping more because that’s how you are dealing with the parts of your body getting tired and you lose energy staying in bed all day,” said Debra Earl. Eating patterns might also be affected: “Usually people lose their appetite, but sometimes people find that they eat more because they find comfort in food; it gives them something to do,” Earl said.
A big and very important symptom for students is when they experience a loss of interest in academic life. Earl explained, “A student might not be performing as well as they want to be. They might have just failed their first exam, or they didn’t bother doing their first assignment. It bothers them, but at the same time they don’t really care. They lost that caring factor.” That scenario is a very common indicator that something is definitely wrong. Students suffering from a mental illness typically do not notice the changes because they are gradual. “They try to blame it on another reason as to why they are feeling they way they are. We need students to be aware of what the signs and symptoms are so they can recognize it and know when to seek help before falling apart,” Earl continued.
The Student Wellness Centre, along with other professional services here at McMaster, has both counselling and medical services. This is one of many resources that students may go to and receive help on campus. Student groups, online communities, specialized books and other off-campus services are also readily available.
“Unfortunately it’s usually the stigma of coming in and asking for a mental health appointment that stops students from coming in for that first appointment,” said Earl. The way mental health and mental illness are perceived can make it hard for someone to reach out. Even if you are a person that is not necessarily suffering from a mental health illness, there are things you can do to help those around you. “What we can do socially, starting from the littlest things, can help with another person’s mental health. I wish more students, faculty members and staff at McMaster [would] be more aware and more cautious of the social and educational spaces that they occupy because they are not the only ones in it. We also share a space with people who are living with mental illnesses and you might not even be aware of it,” Lee said.
For many students living with a mental illness, it takes weeks, months or even years to finally open up to a person about how they have been feeling. They become masters at hiding their struggles and have a hard time making any steps to becoming healthier. Earl said, “I think ignorance creates stigma. We need to break down the stigma and educate people about mental illness. People need to be asking ‘how do I know myself if I have a mental illness?’ ‘When do I go for help?’ ‘How do I go for help?’ Those are the questions people need to be asking themselves.” She also stated that 20-25% people will be affected by mental illness.
Awareness about this severe prevalence, as well as available help to those in need, is not as widely advertised as it should be. Earl added, “The campaign [Stomp Our Stigma] is about the elephant in the room. Mental illness is in the room, but we don’t talk about it. It’s a large proportion; 25% of people suffering is a big percentage. If you think about 25% of people having cancer it would be outrageous. We don’t have that same kind of outrage about mental illness.”
So take the time to really move for your mental health. Take the time to stomp out depression, anxiety and mood disorders. Take the time to learn the 101 of mental health. And most importantly, take the time to realize that you are not alone, not as a sufferer, and not as a supporter.
On September 5, Maclean’s magazine released an article entitled “The Broken Generation,” giving an in-depth look into what they called a “crisis” affecting students across North America.
In this age of high-stress schooling, coupled with high unemployment after graduation, more and more university students are struggling with mental illness, the report claimed. McMaster is no exception to this trend.
Dr. Debbie Nifakis, Associate Director of Counselling at the Student Wellness Centre, says there is definitely a trend of more mental health issues coming to light.
“I’ve been working in the field for a very long time and definitely the number of people coming in to access services has increased over the years,” she said.
This can be attributed both to the increase in the number of post-secondary students, and increased awareness of mental health conditions, she explained.
“A lot of people are coming with a lot of awareness and less sense of stigma… I think there’s a lot of talk about mental health issues now.”
One person keen to promote the talk about mental health issues is Huzaifa Saeed, Vice President of Education for the MSU.
“Mental health was something that when I came to McMaster, in 2008, wasn’t a big deal on campus. But in the last year or two… things have ramped up a bit.”
As MSU External Affairs Commissioner last year, Saeed worked with other student leaders from the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) to write a paper on student health issues, with a focus on mental health.
This project, combined with his experience as a Welcome Week rep, inspired his “pink elephant in the room” campaign, which offered mental health training to all 1100 of this year’s reps. The response, he says, has been very positive.
“I’ve done a lot of campaigns for the MSU, and I don’t think any particular one of them has been this successful.”
The goal of the initiative is to make Mac a “stigma-free campus,” and to increase awareness of the much-needed support the university offers to its students.
And students need that kind of support more and more, as it’s not always something that they find on their own.
“People are losing the small school connection,” he said of McMaster. “If you’re sitting in a 600-person, MDCL 1305 lecture, you’re not really going to have anyone to lean on if you run into problems.”
Reports have shown that students are generally more stressed and more prone to mental health issues than before. According to the campaign’s website, about 5700 of McMaster’s undergraduate and graduate students will have “a mental health concern.”
A National College Health Assessment done at McMaster in 2009 reported that half of students surveyed “felt overwhelming anxiety,” while 56 percent “felt things were hopeless.”
But although mental health issues may present themselves to a significant portion of students, only about ten percent of the student body takes advantage of the Student Wellness Centre’s counseling services, Dr. Nifakis says.
With nine full-time counselors during the academic year, the Wellness Centre is comfortable with its availability of service.
“There is sometimes a wait time,” Dr. Nifakis said, noting that most complaints come when students may have to wait a few weeks for follow-up appointments. But this wouldn’t necessarily be remedied by increasing the number of counselors.
“I think that you could increase your number of counselors to the nth degree and you would still not meet the demand in the way people sometimes come to expect counseling to be.”
The Student Wellness Centre and the MSU have teamed up to continue promoting the “pink elephant in the room” campaign and further increase awareness about available services for students.
“We’re not counselors,” Saeed said of the MSU, “but what we can do is let people know that these [counselors at the Student Wellness Centre] exist.”
Both organizations will benefit from this partnership as they plan to offer recommendations to the university in a Mental Health Strategy Document later this year.
