Blog Posts by Laura Horne
Supporting a Healthy Campus Community during COVID-19
Insights from Healthy Campus Awardees Last month, COVID-19 left campuses scrambling to move operations online, including efforts to support the health and wellbeing of students. We recently spoke with five campuses that have earned the Active Minds Healthy Campus Award distinction to learn about how their campus teams are addressing student mental health in the…
Coping and Staying Emotionally Well During COVID-19-related School Closures
Students at more than one hundred US colleges and universities are preparing to transition to online learning following notices from their schools that in-person courses are ending – either temporarily or for the foreseeable future – due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact of a school closure on campuses and students often goes beyond academics:…
Why We Push On: Addressing Fall 2019 Campus Suicides
Content Warning: This piece contains mentions of suicide. As we head toward the end of 2019, we mark the end of another semester that, sadly, brought many stories of students lost to suicide this year. CNN and other news outlets reported in recent weeks that several college campuses have experienced multiple suicides this semester, as…
Active Minds’ Recommendations: Shaping Positive Mental Health Climates through a Peer-to-Peer Approach
Content Warning: This piece contains mentions of suicide. One of the most important factors in terms of a student’s decision to seek help is campus climate. Students are uniquely positioned to have direct and immediate effects on their peers’ perceptions of mental health issues and their likelihood to access mental health services. In the year…
More to the Story: Our Take on 13 Reasons Why S2
Disclaimer: This post provides information regarding Netflix’s popular series 13 Reasons Why. Due to triggering and graphic content, Active Minds recommends that those who choose to watch do so with a friend or family member. We also recommend avoiding S1E13 (TW: suicide) and S2E13 (TW: sexual assault). Often, we hear about mental health only after…
Active Minds Students Spark a Statewide Policy Movement in California
Content Warning: This piece contains mentions of suicide statistics. Beginning July 1, 2019, all public, charter, and private schools in California will be required to print a crisis number for suicide prevention on student identification cards for grades seven through college thanks to California Senate Bill 972, passed earlier this month. This achievement is truly…
Mental Health is Just as Important as Physical Health
Recommendations from the healthiest campuses in the country. Over the past three years, Active Minds students around the country have successfully advocated for mental health to be given equal priority as physical health by impacting leave of absence policies and insurance plans, adding mental health services to course syllabi and other initiatives. Additionally, through the…
What We Would Have Told Maddy
Content Warning: This piece contains mentions of suicide. One night, after a difficult first semester at the University of Pennsylvania, Madison Holleran sat down at her computer and researched a few clubs to get involved in at school. One of them was Active Minds. Sadly, Maddy never made it there. Just weeks into her second…
5 Reasons to Join the Student Advisory Committee
Active Minds is accepting applications for the 2015-2016 term of the Student Advisory Committee (SAC) through January 10. Thinking about applying? Here are 5 reasons to join the SAC: 1. Represent your peers and engage in the national conversation about mental health. As a student-serving organization, the Active Minds national staff and Board of Directors rely…
Active Minds is the nation’s leading nonprofit organization promoting mental health awareness and education for young adults.