According to the American Mental Wellness Association, the definition is simple; "a risk factor is something that helps to create problems." However, the impact goes so much further. Our campaign focused on patterns of experience we noticed in our school and larger peer community that led to conversations about mental health being mocked, ignored, misunderstood, or not started at all. The following five were identified:
Lack of knowledge/misinformation
Discriminatory language/word choice
Societal and cultural beliefs discouraging mental health discussions
Lack of social support
Inaccurate media portrayals
According to a study from the University of Reading in the UK, when people feel that they cannot talk about their mental health due to stigma (referred to as "nondisclosure"), symptoms increase in severity, treatment is sought out less, and they become more isolated.
Protective factors are the other side of the coin, defined as "something that helps to prevent problems" by the American Mental Wellness Association. Our campaign identified five ways that we could address these perpetrators of stigma by creating more diverse educational resources on our social media, providing opportunities for our community to connect with each other around mental health, and challenging commonly held misconceptions about mental health.
Mental health education in schools
Encouraging respectful language
Multicultural outreach
Building strong connections and relationships with others
Consulting individuals with lived experience when creating media
The APA finds that open conversations can help make us more resilient to struggles in our own lives, strengthen our brain's processing capabilities, and create more tight-knit support systems that create a feedback loop, opening doors to even more conversations in the future. Join us, and let's get people talking!