Submission: UCLA community must foster awareness of mental health issues

The anticipation of starting a new academic year reminds us of the academic and social stressors that impact our overall well-being during the year. Stressors can be related to academics, financial problems, family and friends or campus climate issues, and they all contribute to anxieties that can affect our mental health.

Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological and social well-being, while mental illness is described as a medical condition that disrupts a person’s thinking, feeling, ability to relate to others and daily function.

According to the American College Health Association, about half of all college students in the United States experience overwhelming stress that makes daily life difficult. Although we don’t all deal with a mental illness, all of us have mental health.

It is essential that our UCLA community and the state of California foster the necessary dialogue to address our needs through advocacy and awareness, destigmatize mental health and mental illness and educate the surrounding community. All of Us is a mental health campaign designed to do just that.

It’s time for all of us to rethink mental health.

Proposition 63, better known as the Mental Health Services Act, was passed in California in 2004 with the intention of using tax money to fund mental health services across the state. However, the provisions of the proposition end this year, meaning it becomes all the more urgent to address the lack of funding for our Counseling and Psychological center. Because of a lack of available counselors in the CAPS center, students can only access the CAPS center six times before being referred to a counselor outside campus, which students will have to pay additionally for. Mental health is not a short-term issue that can be easily treated in six visits; it needs constant care. Students may not receive proper access to care if they can’t afford to pay for the off-campus visits or transportation.

All Of Us was founded by both the Undergraduate Students Association Council Office of the President and the Student Wellness Commission at UCLA to revitalize mental health, but it is now an all USAC campaign to promote a positive attitude surrounding mental health and to support those with mental health issues by directing them to on- and off-campus resources.

Students must be provided with the adequate resources and counselors to ensure that their needs are addressed to foster a healthy learning environment. All of Us aims to partner with the External Vice President’s office to improve mental health services on a statewide level, and to allow more access and care for students on our own campus through CAPS.

Another issue that needs to be addressed is the prevalent stigmatization of mental illness that pervades our rhetoric; words like “crazy” or “insane” trivialize mental health issues. The dangers of using such language effectively silences and erases the experiences of those with mental illness, thus perpetuating the stigma. Furthermore, portrayal of mental health in the media often undermines the narratives of individuals with a mental illness. Those who struggle with a mental illness are more likely to be the survivors of violent incidents than the perpetrators.

All of us can end the stigma and change the culture surrounding mental illness by simply remaining cognizant of implications of the words we choose. The All of Us campaign seeks to educate our community to raise awareness of the agents of stigma and catalyze a shift in culture to discontinue it.

Ultimately, these factors discourage us from formally acknowledging stressors that could manifest into illness if left unaddressed. Ideally, we should be reaching out for help before a mental health concern turns into a mental illness.

All of us can be effective “upstanders.” You, too, can be a leader in this paradigm shift by taking the pledge. When an upstander sees or hears about someone in need, they speak up and offer help. Your classmates, friends, family and community can benefit from your leadership in the movement to rethink mental health.

This week is National Mental Illness Awareness Week. It is vital to the overall well-being of our UCLA community that we educate ourselves and our colleagues to create a safer environment to seek help for all students.

Visit the All of Us site to get more information on the upcoming events of the week, take action against the stigmatization of mental health and explore resources available to you.

Murphy is the USAC president and a fourth-year political science and African American studies student. Badalich is the Student Wellness commissioner and a fourth-year global studies and gender studies student.