With a home game coming up against Denver this weekend, I’ve been thinking about mental health resources here in Philly, and I just learned about something that happened here in 2000. A student named Alison Malmon was finishing her first year at the University of Pennsylvania when the unthinkable took place: Her older, and only, sibling, Brian, died by suicide.
Turns out, Brian had started having mental health issues while he was a freshman at Columbia University in New York – but he never told anyone. Maybe he thought he’d be judged, or viewed as anything other than the hardworking, high-achieving, involved young man he was always known as.
Believe it or not, back in 2000 – just 25 years ago – people didn’t talk as openly about mental health. If you went to therapy or were on medicine? You likely only talked about it in secrecy. But Alison was determined to change that. She felt strongly that Brian’s death, and the death by suicide of so many other young people, could be prevented, if only people talked more openly about mental health.
My own journey to mental health began when I was a college student, at the University of Oklahoma.
So Alison started a group at Penn. It was small at first — mostly friends who’d meet in her dorm room. But word got out, not only around Penn, but to students at other colleges, and the administrators at still more colleges, who started reaching out to Alison. By 2003, Alison had seen proof that her hunch was correct: Young people around the country craved taking mental health out of the shadows and into the mainstream. So she formed an official nonprofit, calling it Active Minds.
Today, Active Minds has more than 500 chapters – at colleges and at the high school level, too. Last year alone, Active Minds supported more than 13,000 student members, who reached more than 400,000 of their peers.
The work Active Minds does varies based on the needs of each campus. At some schools, they help distribute information and resources about mental health support on campus. Others hold open mic nights, for people to come talk about their mental health journeys. Active Minds chapters have hosted workshops around mental health, advocated for policy change on their campus and even at the federal level. Sometimes they do things as simple as writing positive messages in chalk around campus.
Laura Horne, the Chief of Programs at Active Minds, explained to The Citizen that Active Minds provides programming suggestions, funding, and opportunities to hear from other chapters around the country about what they’re doing – but gives students the opportunity to do what they want to do in their own school, depending on what the need is among their peers. Horne also offered reassurance that when an issue is too big for peer counseling, professional support is available: Each chapter has a relationship with their on-campus mental health center (when one exists), and all of them have a faculty advisor — who, 90 percent of the time, is someone who works at the mental health center.
Alison felt strongly that Brian’s death, and the death by suicide of so many other young people, could be prevented, if only people talked more openly about mental health.
You might be thinking, Why does a 35-year-old professional athlete care about mental health support for students? Well, it’s actually something really near to my heart. As I mentioned in a previous column, my own journey to mental health began when I was a college student, at the University of Oklahoma. With the encouragement of my close friend and roommate, I went to the student mental health center, and began the work I had to do to understand my anxiety disorder, and how to cope with it. That experience on campus changed my life. I’m grateful, and so impressed, to see students today taking the initiative to be a force for strong mental health on their campuses.
My heart feels heavy when I think about Alison losing her beloved brother, Brian. It also feels full when I think about how Alison turned a horrific tragedy into a way to do her part to try to make sure it wouldn’t happen again.
So if you’re a student, find out if your school has a chapter of Active Minds; if it doesn’t, reach out to find out how to start one. (I see that my alma mater does not have one – yet…) The folks at Active Minds are always looking to grow their network – because the more students they reach, the louder the message becomes that none of us are alone, that everyone struggles with something, and that help is out there.
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
LANE JOHNSON’S SEASON OF STRONG MENTAL HEALTH