This month I had the pleasure of meeting with Vangie in the READY Room to discuss how I could be involved in developing the core mental wellness aspect of the space.
Vangie specifically spoke about the inspiration she drew from from the Barnard Well Women space, and we discussed the possibility of my visiting the space over winter break. From our conversation I've narrowed my focus for this month and January. One goals for these months that I've begun to work on include compiling a list of books and other resources for the book shelves in the wellness room to allow students to do some independent research on topics they have any questions about. Additionally I'll be helping to plan some programs for the later months in the semester. These programs will be led by Health Center staff and will be open to all student who wish to learn about the given topic. I'll be getting the input of NAMI@Emma for the subject of these programs. I'm also planning on going to Skidmore and Siena with the READY room creators to get some inpriartion for some work.
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After my vague post about a shift in focus, I wanted to elaborate and lay out some more concrete plans I have for myself in December. I will be devoting December to researching the rise of a mental wellness culture in colleges (since the movement is still relatively new in high schools). Specifically I will be researching the rise of "Wellness Centers" that encompass many different types of health. I'd also like to see what elements of such a center make it succesful. I also plan of visiting a local college, such as RPI or Union, to visit their wellness centers for inspiration. Some of my main research questions will be: What types of layout are condusive to feeling private enoguh to talk about mental wellness, but also inviting enough to encourage participation in this conversation? What are the most popular sorts of activites in wellness centers? How can a center encourage good mental health once a person leaves the center? How can a center encourage people to independetly learn about mental health and mental illnesses? After meeting with Ms. Moore two times this month, per her advice I've found a slightly different way in which I can develop a mental health curriculum, or now what I think is more accuretaly called a mental wellness program and environment.
In this blog post I can only speak about the development in vague terms because it is still under wraps at school. In general, I will be focusing more on researching and developing ways in which Emma Willard can create an environment to ensure mental wellness. Ms. Moore and I agreed that attemtping to squeeze in more mental health education into the sophomore health class presented too many conflicts with the other curriculum in the health class. In my mind, at least 2 weels (4 classes+homework)should have been devoted to mental illness, while currently it is only 2-3 classes. Although I will be interested to see what happens when the Mental Health Education in Schools bill goes into effect in 2018! That all being said, I may still try to expand the curriculum in a more doable way; I read an amazing book about mental illness over break called Challenger Deep (recommended by Ms. A), which dismantled a lot of the myths surrodning mental illness and also develed into stigma and self-stigma. It would be wonderful if every sophomore had it as summer reading for the class... and if not, perhaps I could run a book club discussion on it during spring semester. A couple weeks ago I had a conversation with Ms. Moore about how to ensure the mental wellness of Emma students. We spoke about how to get students to incorporate mindfulness into their daily routines, and also spoke about how it might be possible help educate students about mental wellness in health classes. She is currently going in to the sophomore health class to give students statistics about mental illness, and I think it would be very good to include information about the resources available on campus for students.
We have a tentative plan to meet again to discuss how I could get involved in the process of perhaps updating the mental health curriculum, and I have asked Ms. Moore if she would like to be my mentor as well. I will update my blog with news about this! The main update to my Signature project this October is my shift of focus from expanding the club to other schools to instead developing a mental health curriculum for high school health classes. While this is still in the tentative planning stage, I think this change will allow my project to have a more long-lasting impact.
There were also a few roadblocks that I faced that also affected my decision to change this focus. I tried to reach the coordinator of the student leadership conference at the Rensselaer by email and phone multiple times, but did not get a response. This was going to be my main method by which to recruit members of other schools to start their own branches of the club. I could have gone back through the Rensselaer school district to then have the Superintendent's office call the coordinator, but given my enthusiasm for the alternative plan for my Signature project (and my lack of time because of college applications), I decided to go with my second plan. This is an especially timely given that the Mental Health Education in Schools bill, signed by Governor Cuomo in October, will require schools to start teaching mental health in the currently mandatory health class starting in 2018. I'm hoping that maybe this could help me encourage Emma Willard to also adopt a more comprehensive mental health curriculum (which ideally could become part of my Signature. More to come later!) September: Begin creation of the “club in a box”, find routes for recruiting members
October: recruit student leaders, get in contact with interested students November: Run leadership training day, provide students with materials December: Ensure that each club will be established in schools through contact with school administrators January: Establish clubs in additional schools, keep in contact with leaders, determine specific use of funds (if grant is approved) February: Suggest events for clucs (such as for National Eating Disorders Awareness Week in February), distribute funding (if grant is approved) March: Ensure that grant money is being used appropriately (if grant is approved), meet with club leaders to discuss progress, suggest activities for May Mental Health Month April: Have sustainability conversations with each club to ensure continuance and new club leadership (schedule another leadership training day), prepare Signature presentation May: Run additional leadership training for 2017-2018 school year, present Signature project In addition, I hope to coordinate with NAMI Northern California and Baltimore who both have recently independently established their own NAMI high school programs so that we may consolidate our resources (and I hope to have this done in the fall). Hello blog readers! You may have already read my blog posts from last year, but I will be continuing to update this blog with my work on my second Signature, which builds off of the work I completed last year. If this is your first time on the blog, my name is Katherine Wallace and I am a senior at Emma Willard School. My Signature last year was centered around developing a club model in association with the National Alliance on Mental Illness in order to increase awareness and decrease the stigma surrounding mental illness. This year, I'll be continuing this work by running NAMI@Emma, but I'll also be involved in expanding the club to other schools in the Capital Region. Hopefully we can get branches of the club started in three other schools, and I'll be centering my work on both engaging other student leaders in various schools, and equipping them with resources and leadership skills so that their clubs may achieve success.
I care so deeply about this issue because of my family’s history with mental illness, and the hardships I have seen lessened in our lives because of our support for each other. I want to ensure that no one living with a mental illness lacks this care because of the stigma. On August 3rd I attended a rally outside the capital building that was aimed at urging Governor Cuomo to sign a bill that reforms Step Therapy in New York. For those unfamiliar with this policy, step therapy, also know as "fail first", allows insurance companies to deny coverage of certain medications that may be more costly, but more effective, than other similar generic treatments, until a patient proves that the generic treatment is unsuitable. This obviously is unsuitable for many mental illnesses given that two drugs treating the same disorder may do so in very different ways. In addition, finding the right brand, dosage, and/or combination of medication for mental illnesses may take years, and the current policy of fail first only extends this period. NAMI NYS was a strong supporter of the reform, along with other advocacy groups rallying for lupus, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, and cancer. Later that same evening Congressman Paul Tonko spoke at a town hall meeting in Colonie to discuss federal mental health policy. The Congressman discussed the advances made by the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act of 2015 Bill that recently passed in the House and is awaiting a vote in the Senate. The Bill aims to remedy the lack of beds in psychiatric facilities, expand pediatric mental health series and coverage, and overall reform the federal mental health care system. In addition, the Congressman brought up many interesting points about how this bill has been tied to gun reform legislation, with many people attempting to make the two a package deal (while others using mental health care reform as a scapegoat for gun reform, in my opinion). It was a very insightful talk, and I hope to see more progress like this at the national level! School is almost back in session, and I am very eager to get back to having actual meetings for NAMI@Emma! Before I return to blogging about the club's activities again, I thought I would share the steps I've been taking this summer to expand the club and further educate myself. Firstly, on June 8th Wendy Burch, the Executive Director of NAMI NYS, and I met with the head of the Rensselaer school district to discuss the development of a NAMI high school club. It was wonderful to be met with such enthusiasm, and as it stands the tentative plan was to have me speak at the Rensselaer Youth Leadership Summit in October in order to recruit club leaders in different school districts. I am very excited about this prospect! Secondly, from June 14th-17th I attended the ANNPower Leadership Forum, run through ANN Inc. and Vital Voices. This was such a wonderful experience for me, especially meeting 50 other girls from across the country who were so passionate about their own projects to benefit their community. I was able to develop a more solid plan for expanding the club, create an elevator pitch, and learn about the Vital Voices Leadership Model, which places a lot of emphasis on creating community-based solutions to pressing issues. In addition we heard from many wonderful speakers such as the CEO of Girls Who Code, Michelle Obama's stylist, and the EIC of Marie Claire. In July I attended a course at Notre Dame called Science, Ethics, and Responsibility. While a majority of the course focused on the ethics of emerging technologies, we spent a day studying Disability Studies, a field in which I saw many connections to the work NAMI@Emma is doing. I plan on perhaps tying in some of this field to a few discussions this year. Additionally we took a trip to the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and met with two Medical Ethicists. I was very interested in how they dealt with mentally ill patients who refused to consent to treatment, and might use this and the debate surrounding court mandated treatment as a topic for discussions during club meetings. What a year it has been. I am so happy with how far NAMI@Emma has come in its first year, and am even more excited to see what next year will hold for the club and its expansion to other schools.
I reflected in my previous blog post on my Signature presentation, but will again mention how I was inspired by some of the questions to improve my project by perhaps developing a way to quantify stigma, and thus develop a way to measure the effectiveness of certain NAMI@Emma programs. In terms of the challenges I faced, I would certainly say that the biggest one I faced was simply that I did not have enough time, enough team members, funding, etc. to do everything I wanted with the club. I think we did extremely well with what we had though, and am excited to see if we may be able to get funding from the school next year. My proudest moment from the project was probably the culmination of many small events when students and faculty would compliment the work NAMI@Emma was doing. Small, personal affirmation like this were very inspiring and heart-warming. Now, if I could give a future Signature student advice, I would recommend being flexible. Your project will probably not be the same or similar at all to your original idea, and perhaps that is a good thing. I’ve come to believe that the natural evolution of ideas produces the best product possible, and even though you may be hesitant to let go of your original idea, your core belief may be better suited with another project. Furthermore, I would hope that people would carve out a significant part of their schedule for their Signature. I certainly think running NAMI@Emma and doing my Signature was the most rewarding part of my year, and if I had perhaps made my schedule even more jam packed the club would not have been as successful. This is related to the fact that Signature is what you make of it, and that the program provides a great framework to work from and a good support system, but it still requires hard work. Originally I was going to do a STEAM Internship and run NAMI@Emma on the side. I am so happy that instead the year worked out so that I could invest all of my time into NAMI@Emma. There is little I would change about this year, and am thankful for the Signature program and its support. |
Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, but stigma and bias shame us all. -Bill Clinton
Katherine WallaceEmma Willard Class of 2017. Archives
May 2017
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