When Students for Mental Health Help Active Minds Will Be There to Answer

Last year, Duke's student-run EMS responded to more than 300 calls on campus.

A small number of those calls - approximately 1 percent - were related to mental health issues. But they concerned Dave Strauss, a Duke junior and Duke EMS member, to the point where he and two public policy classmates, Logan Leinster and Cole Wright, decided to form an Active Minds chapter on campus.

The chapter's goal is to raise awareness about mental health issues at Duke and to encourage open discussion about the typically taboo subject.

"With the development of more effective and tolerable anti-depressants in the past 15 years, depression is an entirely curable disease," said Wright, a sophomore. "And people's attitudes need to catch up with this technology."

Active Minds Inc. was started by University of Pennsylvania student Alison Malmon in 2001. The organization has spread to Georgetown University and Duke, with a number of additional universities pursuing chapters.

"We are going to be able to collaborate with students around the country to pool our resources," said Leinster, a sophomore. "We want to be a leader among the greater universities in the country in this mental health movement."

This Saturday, the group is sponsoring a 5K race and a 1-mile fun run on Duke's East Campus. The day's events will feature speeches by Malmon and Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs. The first run begins at noon.

For more information, and to register for the run, visit the group's Web site at www.duke.edu/web/activeminds.

Active Minds began taking shape early this semester in Professor Anthony Brown's public policy class, "Enterprising Leadership." In his class, Brown teaches students how to become efficient social entrepreneurs.

"My vision for Active Minds is for it to be one of the stronger groups on campus, with the resources to bring in any number of speakers, start any number of events and take any initiatives so that the mental health atmosphere on campus improves," Wright said.

The group has a charter through Duke Student Government and is affiliated with the Graduate and Professional Student Council. The founders also are working with Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) and the Student Health Center.

Jim Clack, the director of CAPS, said that in the last 10 years, the number of students using CAPS has risen about 5 percent each year.

"There are some indications that the problems presented are becoming more severe and of longer duration than they were in the past," he said. "This is not simply a Duke phenomena, but rather a nationwide college happening."

He said that CAPS staff will be on hand for Saturday's run, to hand out Frisbees and candy and help raise funds to support Active Minds.

In addition to the 5K run, the co-founders are working on a publication that features personal stories of mental illness, told through prose, poetry and artwork. The publication also will offer mental health information and suggest resources for students.

"The whole point is to start up dialogue on campus in regards to mental health," Leinster said.

Leinster has already shared her own story by writing a column that appeared in the Feb. 20 issue of The Chronicle.

"I remember how tiring it was to be so depressed, so unhappy," Leinster wrote. "Had there been open dialogue about mental illnesses, had there been common topics of discussion, I might have been better able to share and connect with others, and therefore better understand my own situation."

Clack said he wholeheartedly supports Active Minds, calling the group's goal admirable.

"Would we scoff at those who have cancer, heart disease or pneumonia? I think not," he said. "It is only the ignorant or uninformed who will make fun of those having psychological problems."

Shadee Malaklou is a first-year student from Irvine, Calif.