Today I want to point out another resource that is available for another group of people – college students. It is called “Starting the Conversation: College and Your Mental Health”, and it can be downloaded for free on NAMI’s website at https://nami.org/collegeguide. NAMI worked with the JED Foundation to create this guide. The JED Foundation is a national nonprofit that helps protect the emotional health of teens and young adults. The JED Foundation also works on suicide prevention in these age groups.
The guidebook is almost 30 pages long, but it can easily be reviewed if you don’t want to read every word. Topics covered include talking about mental health with others, managing stress, common signs of a mental health condition, campus resources for mental health, substance use, mental health care on campus, health information and privacy laws, and general mental health resources.
Like the caregiving resource mentioned in my previous post, I think it is great to have a guide like this available. I assume a lot of college students would appreciate having help in knowing what they can do if a mental health issue affects them or someone they know. I also think it is important that we let college students know that it is ok to talk about their mental health and any struggles they may be having. Everyone needs to know they can get support, and although it might be hard for college students to ask for help, I feel that the more college students hear about it the more they will be willing to get assistance when they need it.
How about you? What are your thoughts on this guide? Does it give you some helpful information? Is it missing important pieces that would be helpful for you to know? I hope you will take some time to download and review the guide to see if it can be helpful to you or someone you know.