About Us
MHAES is a student-led, experience focused program designed to provide education staff with a better understanding of various mental health issues from the perspective of previous students. Each curriculum is designed by students with personal experience with that specific mental health topic, and all material is reviewed and approved by a relevant psychology professional. Student support staff are often some of the first individuals to be notified when a student is struggling with some sort of emotional/psychological issue. While they are not directly responsible for providing mental health care, they are at the front lines of protecting students’ mental health. Our mission is to provide accurate education on the unique symptoms, struggles, and treatments that various psychological conditions receive in order to allow staff to facilitate conversations with students in a productive and empathetic manner, as well as to direct students to appropriate resources and/or professionals. Furthermore, many mental health conditions are surrounded by stigma, stereotypes, and shame in today’s society. This has led to a widespread fundamental misunderstanding of many mental health conditions, which inhibit many individuals’ ability to accurately recognize signs, facilitate conversations, and refer appropriate help to students suffering with these conditions. By having students with personal experience design the curriculum, we tear down these stereotypes and allow insight into what these conditions can really look like for students and the impacts they can have. Through this method, we hope to provide accurate and accessible education on what these conditions can look like and what education staff can do to help.
