Original airdate October 02, 2018.
Disclaimer: This show is not a substitute for professional counseling and no relationship is created between the show hosts or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental help and are a UA student, we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling Center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective county’s crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 9-1-1 or go to your nearest emergency room.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Hey, it’s 6:00 and time again for Brain Matters, the official radio show of the UA Counseling Center. We are broadcasting live from the WVUA FM studio 90.7 The Capstone on the campus of the University of Alabama. Good evening, my name is Dr. BJ Guenther and I’m the host of the show.
Dr. BJ Guenther: If you don’t know, this show is about mental and physical health issues that affect college students and, in particular, UA students. You can listen to us live each week every Tuesday night at 6:00 PM on 90.7 FM or you can go online and listen to us at wvuafm.ua.edu. Or, you can also download the Crimson White App and click on the 90.7 live streaming link.
Dr. BJ Guenther: I’m asking for questions like I always do each week via email, so if you have questions for myself or my guest, you can email those to us at brainmattersradio@wvuafm.ua.edu. Also, I always like to ask if you have ideas for future shows, even for the remainder of this semester or spring semester, I would love to hear your ideas. Email those again. The email is brainmattersradio@wvuafm.ua.edu, and I’ll try to remember to give out this email address throughout the broadcast. If you think of a question, you can send those to us, and we’ll answer them live on the air.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Tonight’s show topic is so interesting, and I’ve been wanting to have this guest on ever since I found her. I’ll tell you a little bit about who I came across her name and her interest in the topic. The topic tonight is changing the culture of mental health on campus. Working here on campus for about 15 years, I’ve seen a lot of changes, and I think working at the Counseling Center, we’ve done a lot of good work with regards to not only seeing students, but also marketing our services and helping to make students feel little more comfortable coming to the Counseling Center or normalizing mental health issues across campus.
Dr. BJ Guenther: It is still a struggle. Students know students better than anybody, and they turn to each other when struggling with health issues. They’re also experts in the most effective strategies to engage their fellow students and create a campus culture and climate that fosters mental health, physical health, and even well-being. In a recent research article, students on campuses where there was wide support for mental health issues, were more than 20% more likely to receive mental health services and 60% more likely to do so on campus. That was according to those findings.
Dr. BJ Guenther: That was fascinating to me because we probably at the Counseling Center, there’s 17 of us licensed professionals and we see probably five to six students a day per week. You can add that up and it’s a lot of students. I don’t really know the percentage of our student body who utilize the Counseling Center, but we have a large student body. We have about 40,000 in enrollment. It’s probably a smaller percentage than I would imagine.
Dr. BJ Guenther: My guest tonight is a UA alumnus who was very instrumental on this campus in helping to change the culture of mental health. Her name is Helmi Henkin. I hope that’s pronounced-
Helmi Henkin: You’re good.
Dr. BJ Guenther: She excelled at the university and was involved with several mental health organizations she’s going to talk about. She currently works as a mental health specialist at Brewer-Porch Children’s Center here at University of Alabama, but the way I came across her name and her information about working with mental health services, I just really was Googling the topic because I was interested in how to change the culture of mental health and get more people to talk about it on campuses.
Dr. BJ Guenther: What came up was from Mental Health America. It’s an organization that’s exactly what it says, Mental Health America. It was listing the 15 students across the country who have been instrumental in changing the culture on their campus and Helmi was listed as one. It’s an honor, thanks-
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, absolutely.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Thank you for being on the show.
Helmi Henkin: Oh, my God. I’m so excited to be here.
Dr. BJ Guenther: So, I get your name right?
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, ma’am.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Now, you’ve been on many shows. You’ve publicized many mental health issues. I’ll say, we were talking a little bit before the show about … ’cause I always ask people, have you ever been on radio ’cause some people are nervous and what not. Tell the listeners about your background, where you’re from, how you came to the University of Alabama and how you got involved and why?
Helmi Henkin: My name’s Helmi Henkin like you said. I am currently a UA graduate, so my mental health involvements right now are working as a mental health worker at Brewer-Porch. I’m on the board of directors for NAMI Alabama as well as the Ending the Silence Program coordinator and connection support group facilitator for NAMI Tuscaloosa. While on campus, I was president of NAMI-UA and I was on the Jed Foundation’s student advisory council, the Crisis Text Line Use Advisory Council, and the council you mentioned, which was the Inaugural Mental Health America Collegiate Mental Health Innovation Council.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Wow.
Helmi Henkin: Yeah.
Dr. BJ Guenther: That’s a lot of involvement.
Helmi Henkin: It’s a mouthful.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Your major, I’m assuming, you said was psychology?
Helmi Henkin: Yes. I was a psychology and French major. I’m definitely interested in pursuing clinical mental health as a career in the future.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Tell us, you mentioned NAMI, what is that stand for?
Helmi Henkin: NAMI stands for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. It’s the largest, grassroots mental health organization in the United States. Our main focus is our support, education, and advocacy. We have support groups, we have a family support group, connection support group, which is open to anybody 18 or older living with a mental health condition. Some chapters have veteran’s support groups. We do a lot of advocacy work so at the local, state, and national levels.
Helmi Henkin: We have state capital days, national capital days for any sort of … There was a piece of legislation recently that would have increased funding for research into the feasibility of making a three-digit hotline number like 9-1-1 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. That got passed, so we were part of promoting that. Or, various healthcare bills.
Helmi Henkin: Then, of course, education. As the Ending the Silence program coordinator, I go into high schools or even freshman college classes and give them background on what mental health looks like, both good and bad, what symptoms of mental health conditions may look like, how to end the stigma, and also how to reach out for help for them, but also maybe hot to talk to their friends about getting help as well.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Did you start getting interested in these organizations when you first came to UA?
Helmi Henkin: Yeah.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Did you know you were going to do this? Was this your purpose in life kind of thing?
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, I’ve always been passionate about mental health. I think part of it is my lived experience with mental health conditions. Another big part of it was I grew up right next to Stanford in California.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Palo Alto, yes.
Helmi Henkin: Yes, absolutely. So-
Dr. BJ Guenther: We’ll talk about a great restaurant there at the break. I want to get your opinion on it.
Helmi Henkin: Yes.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Go ahead.
Helmi Henkin: It was an understandably competitive academic atmosphere. It was just a competition to be stressed. “Oh, I failed that test. I got a 98%.” “Oh, you got two hours of sleep, well I got 30 minutes.”
Dr. BJ Guenther: Exactly.
Helmi Henkin: It was a very unhealthy environment to be in, and I feel like that contributed to just increased stress in students, increased development of mental health conditions students, and an increased environment where they felt like they couldn’t reach out to other.
Dr. BJ Guenther: That’s right.
Helmi Henkin: We had an epidemic of suicide contagion. A lot of students would step in front of the train. To this day, we have crossing guards at every railroad track to prevent that from happening. Just growing up in that environment, I became passionate. I think that’s how I decided I wanted to do it as a career because I felt like I wanted to be a resource for folks who maybe were feeling that way and needed somebody to talk to or reach out to.
Dr. BJ Guenther: You mentioned the Jed Foundation. Can you talk about that a little bit for people who don’t know what that is?
Helmi Henkin: Yeah. The Jed Foundation specializes in collegiate mental health. They have various programs. Their biggest one right now is Seize the Awkward, which is partnering with ASFP and other mental health organizations to talk about how to speak with people about mental health ’cause it is stigmatized and can be awkward to talk about. Other things they do, they’ve done Love is Louder. I’m sure a lot of the listeners have maybe heard of that one.
Helmi Henkin: They do another thing called ULifeline. UA has a-
Dr. BJ Guenther: We have a link to that-
Helmi Henkin: … link to that.
Dr. BJ Guenther: [crosstalk 00:09:09] the website.
Helmi Henkin: Yes, absolutely. That’s just informing you about mental health resources around you on campus and also has a little screener quiz that you can take as well if you’re worried about yourself or a friend.
Dr. BJ Guenther: I’ve actually had students to take … Well, they’ve taken several of the screenings we have [crosstalk 00:09:25] and they’ll bring them in sometimes. That helps us.
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, absolutely.
Dr. BJ Guenther: I mentioned that you were named in 2017 one of the 15 students changing the culture of mental health on campus by Mental Health America. Can you talk about the criteria for being selected?
Helmi Henkin: I honestly-
Dr. BJ Guenther: Did you know?
Helmi Henkin: I always apply to that kind of stuff just ’cause I’m so passionate about it. The various councils I’ve been on have been such a great learning experience for me. Part of it is great to be able to give insight based on all my experience and what I’ve learned but also learning from other student leaders. I didn’t know if I was going to be selected, but I think what got me selected is the scope of my work.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Yes.
Helmi Henkin: On campus, I was definitely a leader, but then just in the state and the state of Alabama-
Dr. BJ Guenther: For your age.
Helmi Henkin: Absolutely. I earned the NAMI On-Campus Leader Award in 2017 as well, so I guess they felt like I had a lot of input to give.
Helmi Henkin: It was an awesome experience because they’re people all over the country, schools big and small, learning about what the campus environment is like there and initiatives and events that they’ve held. Talking about what it’s like here and commiserating with people.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Oh, yeah. It is a constant struggle to fight the stigma. It really is. To fight trying to help people realize that it’s okay to get help.
Helmi Henkin: Absolutely.
Dr. BJ Guenther: That you’re not crazy. I have people say that to me all the time. What about after being selected, did it bring attention to mental health issues on the UA campus?
Helmi Henkin: Basically, the council, they’re releasing this report, I’m not sure if they’ve already released it yet. Every once in a while, I forget how periodic it was, we would have these calls and on these calls, there would be a certain topic. For example, mental health and disability services on campus. We’d talk about what the current state is. I talk about ODS and what it’s like. I haven’t searched for mental health disabilities but my friends have, so what they’re experiences were like. Just talking about ways we could improve.
Helmi Henkin: I guess it brought attention in that way so other people could learn. I don’t know how much UA is mentioned in the report or is going to be mentioned in the report, but I think it was really awesome for me to think about these things. At the time, it was right when Doctor Perez was brought on campus, so thinking about things I could bring to him as ideas to work on. If you all don’t know who Doctor Perez is, he’s the new associate vice president for student health and well-being.
Dr. BJ Guenther: He’s actually going to be on my show in late … No, November. He’s going to be on the show November.
Helmi Henkin: That’s awesome.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Right after Thanksgiving, yeah.
Helmi Henkin: That’s awesome.
Dr. BJ Guenther: We’re going to talk about the initiatives he has for student life and the well-being program that he’s really encouraging everyone to take part in.
Helmi Henkin: Yes.
Dr. BJ Guenther: We’re going to talk about that, so that’s what you’re talking about.
Helmi Henkin: Yeah.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Nice lead-in. That was a nice lead-in. Did you have faculty support from your site faculty members? Did you have support?
Helmi Henkin: Not particularly.
Dr. BJ Guenther: What?!
Helmi Henkin: Not that they weren’t supportive-
Dr. BJ Guenther: Give names. I’m kidding.
Helmi Henkin: … but it was such an undergrad-centric club. I did have support if I said, “Hey, can you promote this event,” or we wanted to do class raps or if we had events and sent into the professors, “Can you advertise this event or give extra credit,” stuff like that. We didn’t have too many faculty members. NAMI-UA’s open to faculty grad students or undergrads to give import or seek support. We didn’t have too much of that.
Helmi Henkin: In terms of advocacy, it was pretty difficult to participate in productive advocacy until Doctor Perez got around because I feel like we didn’t have good strong admin connections.
Dr. BJ Guenther: That’s right. I want to ask you about that in a little bit.
Helmi Henkin: Yeah.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Another question, to that extent, did you have support of other mental health providers on campus like the Counseling Center, the Psychology Clinic, the Women’s Gender and Resource Center?
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, we partnered with the Counseling Center a lot for our mental health monologues.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Yeah.
Helmi Henkin: The Counseling Center usually would speak.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah.
Helmi Henkin: Yeah. Sometimes we’d have Counseling Center come to meetings and speak. We’d try and partner with WGRC or these other things for events or SGA, for example, especially in recent years. They became more on top of mental health, just in … It’s UA Suicide Prevention Week right now thanks to SGA.
Dr. BJ Guenther: I’m going to be honest with you. I think mental health has become the sexy topic.
Helmi Henkin: Oh, I completely, 100%-
Dr. BJ Guenther: But, I don’t know how … This is going to sound bad, but I don’t know how sincere sometimes people are. Right before we went on the air, you said this, if you don’t mind me saying-
Helmi Henkin: Absolutely.
Dr. BJ Guenther: … people “say” they care about mental health, but then they don’t really take action.
Helmi Henkin: I completely agree with you.
Dr. BJ Guenther: What is that?
Helmi Henkin: I don’t know, but I definitely agree with you that mental health is a topic that people care about, but it becomes a bandwagon topic that when there’s a high-profile suicide, people are sharing this suicide lifeline. Then, they go back to not donating to these organizations or showing up to these walks or volunteering for NAMI or coming to NAMI-UA meetings.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Unless you have it personally in your family-
Helmi Henkin: Absolutely.
Dr. BJ Guenther: … then a lot of people don’t have the passion.
Helmi Henkin: It’s harder to care. There are very few young people involved in NAMI Tuscaloosa and NAMI Alabama. I wish that would change because we are the future, and we are the ones experiencing increased levels and rates of mental health conditions and suicide. It’s important for us to step up and share our lived experience and also fight for change and figure out what that change should look like.
Dr. BJ Guenther: What do you think is the biggest obstacle. I’m putting you on the spot, but what’s the biggest obstacle for college students to not get help?
Helmi Henkin: There’s a lot. There’s the access to resources part, which is … Just in general, the stat I know is on average one in four people experience a mental health condition in a given year. On average, people wait six to 10 years between the onset of symptoms and seeking help.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Happens all the time, yeah.
Helmi Henkin: I know I was one of those people. Part of that is access to resources, which is an octopus of a problem. Whether it’s they don’t know about it or they can’t-
Dr. BJ Guenther: Money.
Helmi Henkin: … afford it.
Dr. BJ Guenther: That’s right. Or, they live in a rural community-
Helmi Henkin: Yes, absolutely.
Dr. BJ Guenther: … with limited resources.
Helmi Henkin: Yeah. Then, the other part of it is definitely stigma. Stigma, it’s deep set in our culture and definitely, in different areas, it looks different.
Dr. BJ Guenther: And, it’s deep set in the family culture too.
Helmi Henkin: Absolutely.
Dr. BJ Guenther: How many students do I see who do not want their parents to know they’re coming to counseling. They pay for it out of pocket because of that. If we have to have any kind of communication with them outside of here, they ask them not to send that to their permanent home because they’re family just thinks that counseling is stupid or why aren’t you strong than that. I just hear all kinds of critical things.
Helmi Henkin: Absolutely.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Generationally, their parents might not have gotten counseling or whatever and they just … They didn’t do it, so that they’re like, “Why do you have to do it?”
Helmi Henkin: Absolutely, yeah. That culture’s definitely changing, but not changing fast enough.
Dr. BJ Guenther: I’ve got so many more questions. We’ve got a lot of things to talk about. I’m going to check the email and see if we have some email questions. If you have an email question that you want to send to us, the email address is brainmattersradio@wvuafm.ua.edu. We’re going to take a quick break right now. When we come back, we’ll talk a little bit more about how Helmi has helped change the culture here on the UA campus. You’re listening to Brain Matters on 90.7 The Capstone.
Evan: Hey, this is Evan.
Chris: And, Chris.
Jordan: And, Jordan with the doctors and the lawyers. Keep on moving, 90.7 The Capstone.
Disclaimer: This show is not a substitute for professional counseling and no relationship is created between the show hosts or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental help and are a UA student, we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling Center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective county’s crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 9-1-1 or go to your nearest emergency room.
Speaker 8: [inaudible 00:17:59].
Dr. BJ Guenther: Hey, you’re back with listening to Brain Matters on 90.7, The Capstone. I’m B.J. Guenther and tonight my guest is Helmi Henkin. She is a graduate of UA who works at the Brewer-Porch Children’s Center at UA. We’re talking about changing the culture of the campus to be more understanding, more supportive of mental health issues.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Here’s my next big question. Why do you think it’s so difficult to change the culture of mental health on some college campuses? I can guess on this one. I can guess a little bit, but on most college campuses is it the same old thing?
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, I think it’s definitely dependent on … Because stigma, like we were talking about has so many levels, it can be familial, it can be cultural, it can be regional. The way that we talk about mental health here definitely differed from the way we talked about it where I was from and part of that was also our experience with suicidal contagion. It can be difficult because there are these different levels and people maybe don’t feel comfortable trying to break those levels and break the status quo.
Dr. BJ Guenther: I’m curious. How, in your opinion, how is it different? Now, don’t give me the whole five-day synopsis, but how is it different in the way we look at mental health here in the South or here in Alabama as opposed to where you’re from, from California, like specifics? Give me some interesting-
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, one thing I noticed when I got here was, people … Just the Southern attitude that people will put a brave face. They won’t really talk about what’s going on with them. Where I’m from, people are more open about that. That, I think, maybe contributes, that people are uncomfortable showing that they may be struggling with something even with their close friends. Hard to break those traditions of stigma.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Did you, when you first got here, if you were more open to talking about your lived experiences, as you call it, do you think it’d scare people a little bit or, I don’t know, intimidate it? I don’t know what the word is.
Helmi Henkin: It definitely … It depends. I think I’m very open about my lived experience. I’ll talk about it with whomever. Some people, if they have that ingrained stigma, they will isolate themselves from me because … For example, I live with bipolar disorder and bipolar disorder often in the media is portrayed as either these monsters who will destroy their relationship without remorse, or they’re portrayed as these manic-pixie dream girls who just are-
Dr. BJ Guenther: Up and down. Up and down. Up and down.
Helmi Henkin: … all over the place. Yes. People hear the name of one of my diagnoses and they assume that, and they try to isolate themselves from me. Most people-
Dr. BJ Guenther: That’s when your struggle really starts to educate them.
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, absolutely.
Dr. BJ Guenther: You have to educate them and either they isolate themselves and it’s their loss or either they get closer to you and they learn from what’s going on.
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, and I think another part I’ve had a lot of people tell me me being open about it makes them feel better about it because they know somebody else, and they see how I’m living with it and it maybe gives them hope that they can find a balance-
Dr. BJ Guenther: Most definitely, yes.
Helmi Henkin: … or, like you were saying, it makes them feel less crazy because one in four, that’s a quarter of the population-
Dr. BJ Guenther: It’s a lot.
Helmi Henkin: I feel like it’s probably more than that, but it’s-
Dr. BJ Guenther: Those are one in four reported.
Helmi Henkin: Yes, absolutely.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Yes, it always is more than that.
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, so it’s more common than people think, and it’s not something to be ashamed of at all.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Do you think the perception here at UA has changed?
Helmi Henkin: Oh, absolutely, in the past four years. I think several things have contributed to that. For example, the walk on Sunday.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Oh, yeah. Thank you for the plug. I’m going to read a little more details about that and how you can register, but she’s talking about the Walk for Suicide Prevention and to help people become more aware.
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, and the proceeds, the donations benefit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. When I was a freshman, the walk was really small, and it has gotten more support. It’s gotten support from the Greeks after their high-profile suicide. It’s just huge now and that’s been really encouraging. I feel like the university has also gotten much better at talking about the resources, so the Counseling Center.
Helmi Henkin: We have a crisis text link keyword that I think could be boosted a little more. For those of you who don’t know, you can text BAMA, B-A-M-A, to 7-4-1-7-4-1 to be anonymously connected to a trained crisis counselor at any time for free. I was once a trained crisis counselor, but I’ve gotten a little busy for that so I’ve fallen off the wagon. Ask, Listen, Refer.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Yes, Ask, Listen Refer, it’s a prevention program that we provide.
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, and-
Dr. BJ Guenther: Or, QPR training also.
Helmi Henkin: Yes, QPR training.
Dr. BJ Guenther: … Question, Persuade, and Refer.
Helmi Henkin: An IFC representative told me once that they were either trying, or they already implemented having all their pledges complete Ask, Listen, Refer so they could be there for each other. That’s a huge culture change, just the amount of suicide prevention stuff that UA tries to put on.
Dr. BJ Guenther: I think also what I have noticed in the years I’ve worked here, it seems like there are more students … I don’t know if this is good or bad, I see it as good, but there are more students coming to the university with therapy experience.
Helmi Henkin: Yes.
Dr. BJ Guenther: They have … I call it therapized. They have been therapized and maybe they’ve come from California and they had a therapist in California that they saw in high school, so it’s not a big deal for them to continue going to counseling if they need more maintenance. It’s just not a big deal. You’re right, when their friends or their roommates or their whoever hear about them coming, then it normalizes it for them.
Helmi Henkin: Absolutely.
Dr. BJ Guenther: That’s a big … So, what else? The walk on Sunday, the-
Helmi Henkin: Just the stuff that they put on, the resources, publicizing the resources. I think, also, the hiring of Doctor Perez was a big step.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Yes, it was a huge step.
Helmi Henkin: It showed that the university is trying to prioritize student health and well-being. He is really invested in it, and the ways that he showed initiative and was proactive about it last year, having listening session with NAMI, being open to meeting with students, founding that student wellness council.
Dr. BJ Guenther: He has a background. He has a background in psychology [crosstalk 00:24:51].
Helmi Henkin: Yeah.
Dr. BJ Guenther: He was a former counseling center director.
Helmi Henkin: Yeah.
Dr. BJ Guenther: At Georgia Tech, I think.
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, I think that’s true.
Dr. BJ Guenther: What about, have you seen an increase, and maybe you don’t know about this, but have you seen an increase in funding? Do you know anything about that?
Helmi Henkin: I would not know about that, but-
Dr. BJ Guenther: I’m just asking just to see if you knew, but I just wonder, they’ve hired Doctor Perez but how much funding is going to go toward improving services?
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, that was one thing I was hoping to bring up ’cause the Counseling Center is an amazing resource but with the student body increasing exponentially I feel like a lot of the campus resources haven’t had time to catch up and the infrastructure is not able to serve all the students that you want to.
Dr. BJ Guenther: That’s true. Before we went on air I told you that fortunately, we have never had to go to a wait list which some campuses, some bigger universities, some comparable universities have had to go to a waiting list, but we have avoided that. Thank goodness. There is probably a two-week period … If you call today to ask for a screening appointment, you have to wait two weeks to get in. We can go ahead and make that appointment, but it wouldn’t be for a couple of weeks.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Of course, we always have the walk-in availability during the day between eight and five. If you’re having a crisis you can always walk into the Counseling Center and we have after-hours, on-call therapists. That’s good, but fortunately, we have not had to go to a waiting list. I mentioned earlier, we have 17 licensed professional therapists, clinical psychologists, licensed clinical social workers, licensed professional counselors, along with three graduate students who help us out and see students also.
Dr. BJ Guenther: We are accredited, but to be accredited you are required to have one counselor per 1,500 to 2,000 students. So, figure that out. We’re not there.
Helmi Henkin: Right.
Dr. BJ Guenther: We’re always needing more help. I feel what you’re saying, especially this time of year, October. October and April are our busiest months just because it’s mid-semester. Fortunately, with our executive director’s guidance and leadership, we have been able to add a therapist every year that I can remember and I think we have an opening right now.
Helmi Henkin: Wow.
Dr. BJ Guenther: FYI for anybody listening [crosstalk 00:27:16]. That’s where we’ve grown and that’s where I have seen a change too, which is good.
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, definitely.
Dr. BJ Guenther: This is an obvious question. Why should Campus Professionals partner with students on this issue? What’s the benefit?
Helmi Henkin: Well, students, obviously, have the lived experience on campus. They know what problems students face, what-
Dr. BJ Guenther: You’re in the trenches [crosstalk 00:27:43] always say.
Helmi Henkin: What their needs are. But, like my experience was, we don’t really have the pull so Campus Professionals, they know the people to contact to make things happen. They know what ways to most productively catalyze these initiatives. They have the power. They have the pull and we have the experience.
Helmi Henkin: Campus Professionals making decisions on the well-being or mental health of students and on these resources using student input is the best way to make these resources accessible to students and also relevant to them.
Dr. BJ Guenther: That’s right. That’s right. It helps motivate them. I think it gives confidence too.
Helmi Henkin: Yes.
Dr. BJ Guenther: I know how your confidence changed over the years that you were here, but being involved with these organizations and taking leadership roles builds your confidence.
Helmi Henkin: Absolutely. It feels so empowered to be able to make a change. By partnering with Campus Professionals, you can feel like your voices are being heard.
Dr. BJ Guenther: What about did you say when you got here as a freshman, it was a couple of years before Doctor Perez was actually hired, right?
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, he got hired my senior year.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Oh, wow. Okay. That’s my question. Before he was hired, how difficult was it to engage administrators?
Helmi Henkin: NAMI-UA-
Dr. BJ Guenther: This will probably be my last show. [crosstalk 00:29:03] be careful what you say.
Helmi Henkin: NAMI-UA did not have much success at all. We would have our mental health monologues and then each year we would create this petition with areas for request whether it be increased funding to Counseling Center, promote-
Dr. BJ Guenther: Ridiculous demands, right?
Helmi Henkin: Right. Increase funding to the Counseling Center, maybe promote the crisis text line keyword more, stuff like that. Oh, the blurb at the end of the syllabus. We wanted a blurb on the syllabus about mental health resources on campus.
Helmi Henkin: I think we told Doctor Perez about that so that might be in the works. Don’t quote me on that.
Dr. BJ Guenther: That would be cool though.
Helmi Henkin: That would be really nice. I don’t know if we just didn’t have the right contacts, but we would just try and try and try to email administrators. They would never get back to us. Set up meetings. It was just so hard.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Frustrating.
Helmi Henkin: It was very frustrating. It just made me feel like on-campus advocacy is pointless and that’s part of what catalyzed me and motivated me to get involved off campus.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Well, and it also probably made you feel like there’s still that stigma there.
Helmi Henkin: Absolutely.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Because if you can’t get past the administration or if you can’t get the support of the administration, how is this ever going to work?
Helmi Henkin: Absolutely. It’s gotten a lot better now and administration is definitely more open to hearing our concerns now and doing something about them.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Yay!
Helmi Henkin: Yeah. Thank God.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Yes.
Helmi Henkin: I was able to be involved in both and be a leader in both and participate in NHA’s Collegiate Mental Health Innovation Council and just talk about the progress we’ve made. It’s very inspiring to have made so much progress in my four years, to see the culture change.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Well, you can look back. Did some of the events that you guys have, were they well-attended by students? How did you market that?
Helmi Henkin: For example, Mental Health Monologues is an event we have every year.
Dr. BJ Guenther: It’s still going on? As far as you know?
Helmi Henkin: I hope. It’s every March so you’d have to ask the current NAMI-UA exec about that.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Yeah.
Helmi Henkin: But, we’ve had it every year for a long time. Basically, students, staff, faculty can submit anonymous monologues about their lived experience with mental health conditions and then we have people perform them. Generally, it’s a very well-attended event. We have psychology professors offer extra credit or get it worth a Greek Point. Or, people just come because they’re interested in learning about us or learning about lived mental health experience.
Helmi Henkin: Generally, we partner each monologue with a description from either Y’all or last year I wrote them about what the mental health condition is like and just encourage people to get help, provide information about resources or advocacy opportunities.
Dr. BJ Guenther: That’s amazing. You know, when I first started here several years ago, it was very hard to get people to attend events.
Helmi Henkin: Yes.
Dr. BJ Guenther: That’s why I ask you that question. It’s very hard. We would go sometimes to whatever was scheduled by RAs in the dorms and whatnot and there would be either nobody showed up or one or two people would show up or you would have to bribe people with pizza-
Helmi Henkin: Oh, absolutely.
Dr. BJ Guenther: … which is fine. I’m all for bribing people with food. It was so impossible. That’s how I’ve noticed it changing is the events that we go to now, and we are speaking at those events, it’s well-attended.
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, that’s definitely something I’ve noticed too. I have a lot of campus leadership experience. I was an officer in 12 organizations my senior year-
Dr. BJ Guenther: Oh, my goodness.
Helmi Henkin: … which is not something I recommend. I had to schedule in time to breathe, basically. Definitely, I just feel like the general student … The baseline is apathy and so plenty of students are happy just what they’re doing, where they’re at. They don’t feel needed or motivated to go to these events. It’s the same students going to all the events and so that’s one problem.
Helmi Henkin: From these organizations, I’ve been trying to tackle is how to motivate this basically 80% of the campus population to go to events.
Dr. BJ Guenther: There are some topics though that we talk about when we go and talk at these events or present at these events that are not fun to talk about. I mean, let’s face it. Suicide is not fun to talk about.
Helmi Henkin: Absolutely.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Depression is not … Bipolar is not fun to talk about.
Helmi Henkin: No.
Dr. BJ Guenther: It’s just not something unless you have an invested interest or you have that diagnosis, who wants to go to that?
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, yeah. I have the same problem even trying to schedule Ending the Silence programs at high schools. I’ve had so many high schools just not even reply to me. A lot of people don’t see the need to go for mental health events.
Dr. BJ Guenther: I think sometimes, tell me if I’m wrong, I think sometimes people who are uneducated about mental health issues, they are afraid to have mental health professionals come and talk about certain topics because they’re afraid it will cause people to do the act.
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, there’s a huge misconception on what suicide contagion entails.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Exactly.
Helmi Henkin: Of course, there are safe ways to report and talk about suicide. For example, saying died by suicide instead of committed suicide because suicide is not criminal and it’s just the-
Dr. BJ Guenther: Terminology, the language.
Helmi Henkin: Yes, it’s the effect of depression. It’s not a shameful thing.
Dr. BJ Guenther: It’s not punishment.
Helmi Henkin: For example, when we had this suicide contagion in the news, they wouldn’t say, “Student jumped in front of train,” they would say, “Pedestrian hit by train.” When you’re reporting about any suicide … Anthony Bourdain, Kate Spade, what have you, you don’t put the method in there because it will make people want to do it.
Helmi Henkin: It’s perfectly fine to talk about suicide. It’s actually better if you think a friend is struggling, instead of beating around the bush, studies show if you’re like, “Hey, are you thinking about killing yourself,” or something like that, that’s better than beating around the bush because then you can do the crisis assessment.
Helmi Henkin: There’s this ladder that they teach us about. Thinking about assessing ideation, a plan, means, and then a timeline.
Dr. BJ Guenther: That’s right. Intent.
Helmi Henkin: Intent. There you go.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Real quick before we take a break I want to talk about gender differences too. In a recent article … I always do a little bit of research before I have somebody on the show so I at least think I know what I’m talking about. In one of the articles that I read, it was reported that when it comes to seeking professional help, men face more obstacles and consequences from a combination of stigma and cultural expectations. Do you have any suggestions, sorry, on how to improve the culture so as to help more men seek counseling?
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, and I think that’s something that’s been in the news a lot and something I’ve talked with my friends a lot about recently. I think a lot of the added stigma for men is this toxic masculinity that they’re brought up thinking that they’re not allowed to cry, to be a man. Instead of learning how to properly or healthily process their emotions, they don’t learn at all or they learn to cope with them through anger and violence. Just trying to raise boys and men to know that it’s okay to cry and it’s okay to talk about emotions instead of trying to isolate themselves or act out.
Helmi Henkin: For people who are grown, it’s just about having these conversations and just ending the stigma in general. Letting them know it’s not a shameful thing to talk about. Letting them know that help is out there and they deserve help.
Dr. BJ Guenther: It might be only a one-time thing.
Helmi Henkin: Absolutely.
Dr. BJ Guenther: You just may need to talk to somebody who can be objective. I have students tell me that all the time.
Helmi Henkin: Yeah.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Well, I could replace men in this sentence or in this question with culture because I’ve had several different cultures whether it’s African American, Asian, Indian, who they’re taught not to talk about this, not to talk about mental health. They just feel so defeated, it really affects their self-esteem.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Or, they’re from a very religious culture and the religious part of them, they’re being told by their family members to just pray about it and it will go away. Or, if you were a stronger Christian then that would take care of it. It’s sad to see some people come in and basically say, “That’s not working for me.”
Helmi Henkin: Right, absolutely. Yeah.
Dr. BJ Guenther: We’re going to take another short break and then we’ll come back for our last segment. I’m going to remind you again if you have a question, you can email the question for me or Helmi and we’re going to talk about your name when we come back. I’ve been meaning to ask you about that. So, if you want to email a question, it’s brainmattersradio@wvuafm.ua.edu. And, we’ll be right back. You’re listening to Brain Matters here on 90.7 The Capstone.
Mary Alice: Hi, this is Mary Alice with the High Divers and you’re listening to WVUA.
Naked Giants: Hey, this Naked Giants. You’re listening to WVUA, Tuscaloosa.
Disclaimer: This show is not a substitute for professional counseling and no relationship is created between the show hosts or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental help and are a UA student, we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling Center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective county’s crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 9-1-1 or go to your nearest emergency room.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Hey, you’re back listening to Brain Matters on 90.7 The Capstone. I’m B.J. Guenther and I am with Helmi Henkin. We were talking about changing the culture of mental health on college campuses, in particularly, UA’s campus. Helmi, I had to ask her about her name and I thought in one of the articles I was researching about her that it mentions being from Scandinavia. She tells me that she is Finnish. Sounds weird to say that.
Helmi Henkin: My mom’s family is from Finland so I’m a dual-citizen. I grew up pretty close to my Finnish background. It has definitely influenced my upbringing a lot.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Your mom came here though to have you so you were born in the United States.
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, my dad’s American.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Because the healthcare was better, of course.
Helmi Henkin: I think it was just that my family’s based here now and it was just … It was as easy as my mom saying, “Hey, I was born and so her child was able to get Finnish citizenship.”
Dr. BJ Guenther: But, you’re going back to Helsinki for Christmas.
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, for Christmas. I’m so excited.
Dr. BJ Guenther: I’m so jealous. I ask Helmi about sleigh rides because I see that a lot on Pinterest and Facebook. She tells me there’s like … What are you talking about?
Helmi Henkin: Basically, Finland lays claim to Santa Claus. If you go to a place-
Dr. BJ Guenther: What do you call him?
Helmi Henkin: Joulupukki.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Okay, whatever.
Helmi Henkin: If you go to Rovaniemi which is in Lapland, Santa Claus has an amusement park. There are reindeer farms you can go to. You can see the Northern Lights, the whole shebang.
Dr. BJ Guenther: The whole shebang. The Northern Lights. I was going to ask you about those.
Helmi Henkin: I’ve never seen them. I really want to.
Dr. BJ Guenther: How far is that from Helsinki though?
Helmi Henkin: Several hours by train.
Dr. BJ Guenther: You still have lots of family over there.
Helmi Henkin: Oh, yeah. My entire mom’s side. I speak Finnish. I try and watch Finnish TV and listen to Finnish radio online ’cause I got to keep it up somehow.
Dr. BJ Guenther: You do.
Helmi Henkin: I went to Finnish school when I was younger but try and read the Finnish news.
Dr. BJ Guenther: What about, there is a book, actually there’s several books, and you mentioned that when people from the Scandinavi … Scandinavian, excuse me, countries moved over to the United States back in whenever, 1800s, they settled in Minnesota. So, that’s where a lot of … I told her. I said, “Yeah, I watch the Golden Girls. I know about Saint Olaf. I know the language and all that.” Yeah.
Dr. BJ Guenther: There are a series of books out, have you ever seen the books about ‘How to Live Like a Finnish Person’ or ‘How to Live Like a Swedish Person’? Have you ever seen those?
Helmi Henkin: I’ve heard of that book. I’ve never read them.
Dr. BJ Guenther: They are so cute, but I’m getting off on a tangent here. Let’s get back to what we were talking about with the topic of the show is changing the culture here on UA’s campus. We were finishing up talking about how if students come from different backgrounds, not just male or female, but different backgrounds, depending on … You mentioned in the break about the Finnish background with regards to mental health. Can you talk a little bit about their philosophy? Is it anything similar to Asian culture or African American culture or even Hispanic culture with regards to how they view mental health?
Helmi Henkin: I think it’s definitely becoming less stigmatized there as well. We live in a very dark place. There is a lot of depression.
Dr. BJ Guenther: I forgot about that, yes.
Helmi Henkin: A lot of Finnish music is really, really sad. There’s a high prevalence of substance abuse and stuff.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Is there a high prevalence of suicide?
Helmi Henkin: Mm-hmm, as well. I just feel like compared to here it’s … Finnish people might write in and say I’m wrong, but with my experience, my family is pretty open about it if someone in our family is living with depression. I had experience with some family members who came from before so it was more with their age and what generation they were from then our Finnish culture that they weren’t really comfortable admitting-
Dr. BJ Guenther: It’s kind of similar here.
Helmi Henkin: … I had a mental health condition or whatnot. Yeah. About Asian cultures, I actually worked at a psychiatric hospital in Bali for a summer, which was-
Dr. BJ Guenther: Girl, you are killing me. How did you get that gig?
Helmi Henkin: It’s through a program called SLV Global. They do mental health placements in Bali and Sri Lanka. I was on the pilot Bali program, which was a whole adventure in and of itself. I used to do-
Dr. BJ Guenther: All I can think about is ‘Eat, Pray, Love’.
Helmi Henkin: I used to do presentations on it when I was an undergrad. A lot of people in that psychiatric hospital, their families had expelled them, ostracized them because, in some Asian cultures, your mental health conditions are seen as demons. If you can’t expel them or exercise them-
Dr. BJ Guenther: Like it was here some time ago.
Helmi Henkin: … then, something’s wrong with you. Absolutely.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Same thing here.
Helmi Henkin: There are still Christian cultures are face the belief that. I think it’s all about talking about it, talking about its prevalence. That’s how I turned my family around.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Was it hard to get people help in Indonesia, just the resources?
Helmi Henkin: Yeah. Some of the resources actually were I’d say better than ones we have here. I worked in an institution for children with ID and some of the stuff they had there was really awesome. The sensory rooms they had. A lot of the stuff was state funded as well. They had schools with people with various disabilities. It was awesome to see just the emphasis and priority they put on their people’s well-being.
Helmi Henkin: Obviously, the culture is different and the amount of resources they are able to provide is different, but it was really inspiring to be able to connect with these people cross-culturally and learn the difference between the cultures and also the different resources and even how we approach mental health in different countries.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Right, right. This is a yes or no question. Do you think that there needs to be an institutionalized process for receiving and acting on student input about mental health concerns where it’s just like set in stone kind of thing?
Helmi Henkin: I have a friend actually who’s working on a startup. He’s been talking to me about it. I’ve been beta testing it for him and-
Dr. BJ Guenther: Is this the first time you’ve talked about it in public?
Helmi Henkin: In public, probably.
Dr. BJ Guenther: This is cool. Okay.
Helmi Henkin: It’s like the thing UA has set up where basically he’s trying to partner with schools around the country and it allows students to … It takes the intake process, that step, out of the equation for counseling centers and it gives them resources in the interim before the waiting period. Whether it’s articles or Ted Talks or whatever, journals or daily check-ins.
Dr. BJ Guenther: What about teletherapy?
Helmi Henkin: He probably is not able to do that on his app.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Is that a whole other … Yeah.
Helmi Henkin: I think telemedicine is really important and something that is an under-utilized research and would really help people in this campus. That’s a thing that a lot of campuses have done too is just doing surveys to try and figure out what students want, what the culture is.
Dr. BJ Guenther: That’s right and that was another question I had for you. What do you think ’cause some universities have developed surveys asking students? How can we do that? Why are we not doing that in your opinion? Is it just the lack of time and effort or money or staff even?
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, the thing about surveys is just it’s really … Just, in general, this is part of the reason it’s hard to get people to go to things is, how do you reach all these students?
Dr. BJ Guenther: Yes.
Helmi Henkin: Do they all check their email? You can’t go into the Ferg and reach everybody. That’s the thing about having … I do believe there should be some sort of system to help people get the mental health help they need on campuses whether it’s they fill out the survey and then they are, through my friends startup, they have resources until they’re able to get that Counseling Center appointment or whether there are other resources put in place or recommendations to resources in the community as well. The Counseling Center isn’t-
Dr. BJ Guenther: At the Counseling Center, we have started using a resource called TAO. Have you heard of it?
Helmi Henkin: No.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Yeah, it stands for Therapy Assisted Online. A therapist out of the University of Florida actually developed and created it and it’s fantastic. It has a lot of resources. For instance, if you come to the Counseling Center and let’s say we do regular counseling and you’re not at a risk for harming yourself or anybody else, sometimes we will actually assign a TAO project to them. It’s not homework or anything like that, but if somebody wants to work on themselves outside of a counseling session, it is a wonderful tool.
Helmi Henkin: I think, yeah.
Dr. BJ Guenther: All kinds of information, but all kinds of strategies and interventions that you can practice at home-
Helmi Henkin: Yes, absolutely.
Dr. BJ Guenther: … yourself. Then when you come back in. Then we go over that with you. It’s not like we just assign it to you and never talk about it again.
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, and that’s something that I try and tell people. Just even the strategies of cognitive behavioral therapy, et cetera are helpful to use. Obviously, I’m not a licensed therapist, but if I see-
Dr. BJ Guenther: But, you play one. I know you do.
Helmi Henkin: If I see somebody and I can recognize, “Oh, that’s absolute thinking.” I won’t be like, [inaudible 00:48:06]. I don’t have the right terminology for it or anything, but I say, “What helps me is keeping a journal of these thoughts and writing down rational reasons why they’re not true,” stuff that they might tell you in therapy.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Well, I think it encourages them to know, like we talked about earlier, that you’ve tried this and that’s what worked for you.
Helmi Henkin: Yeah.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Some people are so desperate that they will try to do anything or, yeah, of course, they’ll take your suggestion.
Dr. BJ Guenther: I mentioned in your introduction that you also work at Brewer-Porch Children’s Center. Can you tell the listeners what you do there and what’s that-
Helmi Henkin: Oh, my gosh. Basically, for those who don’t know, Brewer-Porch is a mental health facility for children and adolescents with various mental health conditions or behavioral problems there are different programs that you can read about online. Basically, what I do is I help facilitate the daily activities for the children whether it’s going to school or on the weekends we do various groups, even going on outings with them. Just being there for them.
Dr. BJ Guenther: You said ages seven through …
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, generally-
Dr. BJ Guenther: … 11?
Helmi Henkin: The program I’m with is generally seven to 11. We have kids anywhere from pre-K to middle school depending on the program.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Children that you work with, do they live there?
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, I work in one of the residential treatment programs.
Dr. BJ Guenther: How long do they live there? I’m curious.
Helmi Henkin: It really depends. There are different programs, of course, so there’s a shorter-term program where it might be a matter of months.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Does it depend on the progress that they make, right?
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, it depends on that too. It depends on a lot of things, but I absolutely love it. My kids mean the world to me.
Dr. BJ Guenther: I bet they love you too.
Helmi Henkin: Yeah, some have called me mom.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Oh, no!
Helmi Henkin: I know.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Oh, gosh.
Helmi Henkin: I don’t know.
Dr. BJ Guenther: One of the things we touched on right before we went on air and I said I was going to mention this, so I want to make sure I get this in here, you established so many things when you were here on campus. How are your efforts sustainable for the long-term? How can UA ensure that student’s mental health leadership is sustained on campus year to year?
Helmi Henkin: Well, that was actually-
Dr. BJ Guenther: It’s hard.
Helmi Henkin: Just in general, being gone watching campus organizations that I created or helped with struggle, that’s just a huge problem that a lot of campus organizations have is setting up that infrastructure for leadership to continue.
Dr. BJ Guenther: ‘Cause it’s just a turnover.
Helmi Henkin: Yes, absolutely.
Dr. BJ Guenther: [crosstalk 00:50:39] turnover. People graduating.
Helmi Henkin: In terms of mental health, like we talked about, I didn’t find another me. There were people passionate about it, but I wasn’t able to motivate anybody to go out into the community like I did. It was just I was unable to find somebody with my level of motivation to help it, which I think maybe my campus organization will struggle because of that.
Helmi Henkin: I think with Doctor Perez, it’s going to be better because he’s going to need these mental health organizations to sustain to be able to continue his work. I think each year the incoming class becomes more motivated to get involved. Last year, I got so many more emails from freshmen. It reminded me of me. I was one of those freshmen. I was on the [inaudible 00:51:22] website the summer before I got here emailing everybody.
Helmi Henkin: Just finding those motivated people and keeping them motivated. Building the infrastructure in your organization to facilitate a healthy transition because if your constitution does not allow for that …
Dr. BJ Guenther: Let’s face it, Helmi, you’re unique. You are unique. No, in a positive way.
Helmi Henkin: Thank you.
Dr. BJ Guenther: It will just be every so often when someone as passionate as you comes along. That’s why you were named one of the 15 students in the country who helped change the campus. I think you really have made an impact. Listening to you talk-
Helmi Henkin: Thank you.
Dr. BJ Guenther: … I just really appreciate you being on the show. Thank you.
Helmi Henkin: I’m honored to be asked to be here.
Dr. BJ Guenther: I may ask you-
Helmi Henkin: I listen to the show all the time.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Do you? Well, I may ask you to be on the show again in the future.
Helmi Henkin: I’m here all year.
Dr. BJ Guenther: [inaudible 00:52:14].
Helmi Henkin: Anyone reading this is interested in contacting me, you can hit me up on Facebook.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Yeah. I’m going to give some information. Let me do this now about the Suicide Walk. First of all, I want to say don’t forget our shows are recorded and podcasted and they’re put on audioboom.com. Just type in Brain Matters and you’ll find some of our past shows. There’s also a link to audioBoom on the Counseling Center’s website at counseling.ua.edu.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Helmi and I’ve been talking about the Suicide Walk, but all this week, October 1st through the 7th, this is the University of Alabama’s Suicide Awareness Week. During this week, they’ll be in a lot of activities held around campus daily to promote prevention and awareness of suicide while also promoting mental well-being.
Dr. BJ Guenther: As the anchor event of UA’s Suicide Awareness Week, the Counseling Center will host the ninth annual Tuscaloosa Out of the Darkness Community Walk which will be held on Sunday, this Sunday, October 7th from 1:00 to 4:00 PM at the Ferguson Center Plaza. Usually, there’s speakers there. Sometimes there’s students who have been directly impacted by suicide. We have giveaways and a lot of helpful information.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Then, we take a walk around the quad, I think it’s two times actually, to raise money. The goal this year is $40,000. I don’t know where we stand on that, but I’ll find out more about it at the week’s end. This is to fight mental illness. If you’re still interested about walking, you can register for the walk at afsp.org/tuscaloosa.
Dr. BJ Guenther: You can also learn about the Counseling Center prevention programs. We do a lot of prevention programs. We mentioned, Ask, Listen, and Refer and we also do a prevention program called QPR that I mentioned. It stands for Question, Persuade, and Refer. We’re always going out and talking to classes about all kinds of stuff. If you want more information, go to counseling.sa.ua.edu/counseling/suicideprevention. Excuse me, prevention. I totally messed that up. Just go to the Counseling Center website.
Dr. BJ Guenther: We hope to see you there this Sunday. I hope we have a good turnout. In the past few years, we’ve really had-
Helmi Henkin: It’s been great.
Dr. BJ Guenther: … record numbers, actually.
Helmi Henkin: Absolutely.
Dr. BJ Guenther: As always, I want to thank people who have made this show possible. Doctor Lee Keyes, who’s our executive director. Terry Siggers from the Office of Student Media. My production assistant tonight is Katherine Howell and my colleagues at the Counseling Center, the WVUA staff, and, of course, my guest tonight, Helmi Henkin.
Dr. BJ Guenther: Join us next week. I’m so excited about this show because I am obsessed with this phenomenon. It’s a YouTube phenomenon called ASMR. I’ll tell you more about that next week if you’ll tune in, but it’s just fascinating. Thanks again for listening to Brain Matters tonight on 90.7 The Capstone. Goodnight.
Disclaimer: This show is not a substitute for professional counseling and no relationship is created between the show hosts or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental help and are a UA student, we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling Center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective county’s crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
