Students and Organizations Promote Mental Health and Suicide Prevention
Post Published On:Thomas University capped off Suicide Awareness Month with the Suicide Prevention Walk and Health Fair at the Magnolia Campus
Over 100 students, faculty, staff, and members of community organizations gathered for a day of educational insight and games.
Students, including members of the women’s basketball, women’s soccer, women’s flag football, and baseball teams, were able to talk to representatives from organizations such as Georgia Pines, Green Leaf, 90Works, Turing Point, and the Vet Center. They received informational materials, brochures, and gifts.
“It was great for us as a community to bridge the gap between community providers and TU for suicide prevention month,” Taneil Green-Wood, Director of Counseling Services for Students, said. “A lot of the providers had the opportunity for the first time to really spend some time with some of our students. Having such a large population of our students there, they got the opportunity to engage with so many students at one particular time.”
One of the providers who was at the event was Bonnie Travis, a behavioral health counselor at Georgia Pines and an alumna of Thomas University. She said mental health illness can affect every and anyone, so she supports the efforts Thomas University is making to be proactive and offer resources to help students.
“We just really appreciate being able to be involved in something like this because the more we get out and say, ‘It is OK if you ask for help,’ the better we’ll be as a society,” Travis said. “No one wakes up one day and says, ‘Today I will be an addict or an alcoholic or have a mental illness problem.’ No one wants to wake up and have to deal with that, but it is OK if you do have that problem because none of that discriminates. It can affect everyone, so I am grateful to be involved with this event and be able to help individuals.”
Along with the fair, there was a walking course where students were able to compete in a walk race. The top finishers got medals for their performance.
One person who won a medal was Nikolas Megrichian, a graduate student and an athletic assistant coach of the men’s baseball team.
He has been impacted by suicide.
“What made me want to participate is because I have had loved ones commit suicide,” Megrichian said. “So, suicide awareness is something that I care about deeply. It is really important for our team since our team mission is mental health. For years it has been widely overlooked and now we are finally getting more traction with it. More athletes go to therapists, which is amazing. I think student counseling on campus is getting a lot more recognition, which is all that we can ask for because I remember when I was doing my undergrad, we didn’t know we had a counselor on campus.”
Zachary Buelk, a graduate student, said he will continue to talk about mental health and suicide prevention.
“Whether it be one-and-one with people or on social media or with the people I come across,” he said. “We’ve had a few seminars about how to talk to people about suicide and mental health. The way a lot of boys and men have grown up, they don’t talk about their feelings. We are learning how to communicate with others about our feelings. I think it is awesome that we are getting stuff on campus with Ms. Taneil. She has been awesome in her first year here. She has been able to get a lot of the school together to talk about mental health. It is a good thing.”
Green-Wood said she could not put the event together without the help of others.
“I want to thank Stephen Ferguson, Vice President for Military and Corporate Relations; Heather Stephens, VA Suicide Prevention Specialist; John Rainey, Director of Goalline Ministries and Alexis Gresham, Student Activities Coordinator,” she said.
