Schizophrenia Daily News Blog

College/University Support Groups

Dartmouth Student Creates On-Campus Support Group for People with Mental Illnesses like Schizophrenia

This is an idea that we think is a great one - in fact we'd like to see a major push for college mental illness support groups in colleges and Universities around the world - because of the importance of early treatment in positive outcomes for schizophrenia, and because the first signs of schizophrenia usually show up during college years or shortly afterward.

It seems like this should be a major area of focus for support groups (like Schizophrenia Society of Canada, and NAMI in the US) over the coming years - groups for both the mentally ill, and their siblings. Or perhaps these groups should simply share a lot of information and resources so that they can help each other help people.

The article states:

"A new chapter of the national student mental health group, Active Minds, may soon be meeting at Dartmouth.
Having met with the Harvard chapter of the organization, Joanne Kim '05 now intends to bring Active Minds to Hanover.

Kim was already volunteering as a Sexual Abuse Peer Advisor and a volunteer at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock psychiatric ward when she attended a meeting of the Harvard chapter over Winter break.

When she returned to campus and witnessed some peers dealing with mental health issues, Kim decided an advocacy group would provide beneficial support network, complementing the services already provided at Dartmouth, she said.

"Many disorders like schizophrenia and depression emerge around college age," she added. "With the formation of Active Minds, people who haven't been introduced to psychology yet can get a safe place to be open about their experiences and form alliances."

The group is even considering hosting events on campus to raise awareness. One possiblity cited is bringing Andy Berman to campus to speak about his best-selling "Electro Boy," a memoir on bipolar disorder that will be turned into a movie starring Tobey Maguire.

It seems that these groups are already starting to spring up around the US - here are some of their web pages:

Oregon: http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~dandre/am/

University of Pennsylvania: http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~actminds/

And another Recent Story on Active Minds in U. Pennsylvania

The Main Organization or Focal point for these groups seems to be:

http://www.activemindsoncampus.org/

The Full List of Chapters can be seen at:
http://www.activemindsoncampus.org/chapters.htm

Be Sure to Check out there Annual Conference on March 27 & 28, 2004