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You Mean More is a student run organization that promotes Mental Health Awareness and Suicide Prevention on campus. Though the club was initially centered around the annual, AFSP-sponsored Suicide Prevention Walk on campus, the club has grown to embody Mental Health Awareness in other ways: hosting the Mental Health Monologues, to provide a humanizing and de-stigmatized voice to mental health, facilitating workshops on the intersectionality of mental health, to foster conversation on how mental health interacts with many facets of one’s identity, and organizing mental health trainings, taught by trained professionals, to equip people to identify others who are potentially suicidal and get them to help.
Under the umbrella of “promoting mental health awareness,” one of the club’s main focuses is “breaking the stigma” surrounding mental health. Mental Health is often not treated with the same validation as other aspects of one’s health and is treated as a weakness or personal failing. This attitude towards Mental Health marginalizes those who suffer from Mental Illness by making their pain worse and making them even less likely to reach out for support. By holding events and activities relating to Mental Health, speaking about its reality openly, You Mean More hopes to chip away at this stigma. |