Frances Kliensmith, Staff Reporter
Originally published November 27, 2019

The Mental Health Awareness Week occurred Tuesday through Friday of November 12th-15th. The purpose was to provide students and teachers with methods and resources about their personal mental health, as well as diminishing the common stigmas that come with talking about mental health issues. 

As the days progressed, a new activity was set up outside the commons that was easily accessible for student participation. Activities included an interactive poster, true and false activity wheel, coping skills activity and more. 

As mental health awareness is a very important topic to address, this week opened up the discussion with students and teachers accompanied by four educational videos during ABC time on Friday.

 Classes were expected to watch the videos and have a class discussion afterwards to connect with their peers and open the discussion for further interest. 

ASB Community Outreach Advocate and Mental Health Awareness Coordinator, Senior Calvin Johnson explains the purpose of Mental Health Awareness Week, “Our main goal was to provide people with methods to deal with their own mental health and especially to take away damaging stigmas surrounding mental health issues,” he said.

Johnson organized and helped set up the activities throughout the school. 

“With the activities, we hope students and teachers [take] away the information we are trying to communicate,” said Johnson. “We had posters in the commons that you could write down positive affirmations on, which is a really great strategy to improve your mental health and outlook on life. The videos we showed during ABC time Friday were supposed to reinforce all of this.” 

The videos brought up ways to combat mental illness and dealing with a loved one who may be struggling; journaling when stressed, meditating, talking to a trusted adult, and many others. 

In addition to activities and discussions, posters were hung up around the school to bring awareness to mental health with quotes and facts to educate people as they walked through the halls. 

In the girl’s bathroom stalls there are posters stating facts such as, “Half of all chronic mental illness begins by age 14 and three quarters by age 24.” and “Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the US.” 

Senior Class President, Maddy Angelos, explained how she thought the week was impactful, “What I really enjoyed about this week was spreading a little bit of joy either through saying ‘good morning’ with morning greetings, or interactive posters,” said Angelos. “All of those little activities help in some form or another for some students and that it makes it all worth it.”

“A lot of people forget that your mind is part of your body and just taking better care of yourself in general can do a lot to improve your mental state,” said Johnson. 

Getting more sleep, eating healthier, exercising and talking to a trusted adult are just a few ways to help and promote healthy mentality.