Active Minds: Creating Peer-to-Peer Mental Health Awareness

Abstract

Utilizing student peers is one vital avenue for improving the prevention, detection, and treatment of mental health disorders on college campuses (The Campus Suicide Prevention Center of Virginia, 2011). This article will briefly review research findings indicating the importance of student peers and then focus on a promising model and growing movement, established by Active Minds Inc., an organization dedicated to engaging students in mental health promotion and prevention on campus. We will describe Active Minds’ history, goals, model, and programming, and give indications about future directions. After a decade of existence, Active Minds has seen firsthand the challenges and rewards of utilizing student peers to change the conversation about mental health on college campuses.

Keywords:

• college student advocacy
• leadership development
• mental health promotion
• peer-to-peer mental health