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The National Alliance on Mental Illness at the University is sponsoring a series of activities that began Saturday and will run through Oct. 7. The series is part of Mental Illness Awareness Week, whose organizers aim to influence the lives of students with mental illnesses and those close to them.
To reach students and faculty on campus who suffer from various forms of mental illness, NAMI needs also to reach the people they come in contact with on a regular basis, said Stacy Hollingsworth - president of the University chapter of NAMI and a Rutgers College junior. This includes friends, family members, professors, mental health care providers and students considering careers in the mental health field. NAMI shoots for the goal of reaching everyone.
Mental illness is commonplace in Rutgers and other college campuses, and assistance is needed on a community-wide basis, Hollingsworth said.
NAMI decided to hold mental illness awareness programs this week to synchronize with many other college campuses and programs that are putting out the same effort this week - all of them aiming to eliminate barriers to treatment, reducing stigmas attached to psychiatric disorders and reaching out to lives affected by mental illness, Hollingsworth said.
"Many people who have mental illness feel they must conceal their disorders from the world due to misconceptions, fears of being labeled 'crazy,' etc.," Hollingsworth said. "Simply by hosting these events and establishing a presence on campus, we're sending the message that, 'Hey! You're not the only one out there who is dealing with mental illness. We don't need to hide anymore.'"
One program, called "In Our Own Voice," provides students an opportunity to learn about mental illness from people who have struggled with it themselves. The program - featuring interactive presentation such as video, personal testimony and discussion - will take place today at 8 p.m. in the Raritan River Lounge in the Student Activities Center on the College Avenue campus.
"This program gives participants a chance to hear about dealing with mental illnesses straight from those who have experienced it," said Lindsay Plaza, a Douglass College junior and participant in NAMI.
The participants will be given a chance to hear their individual stories and interact with them during a question and answer period.
A performance piece co-sponsored by NAMI that deals with men and body image - called "Muscle Bound" - will take place on Thursday at 8:30 p.m. in the Cook Campus Center's Multipurpose Room. The program is a one-person presentation - accompanied with a movie and a question and answer session. Body image is an issue that Plaza believes many students don't think of as mental illness.
NAMI will run an information booth on Thursday that will provide information about the organization itself, mental illness and other local programs.
"I am interested in participating in NAMI-Rutgers, because I believe that there is so much stigma surrounding the issue of mental illness in present-day society, and I would really like to see that change," Plaza said.
Plaza said the programs running during Mental Illness Awareness Week would help to raise awareness, because they give their participants information through differing points of view.
"If each person that attends this week's programs is able to learn even one or two new facts about mental illness, then the goal of Mental Illness Awareness Week will have been reached," Plaza said.
According to Rutgers College senior Lindsay Montgomery, stigmas of mental illness result from ignorance about mental health issues.
"Mental Illness Awareness Week is an outlet for us to get the word out about mental health," Montgomery said.
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