SHS celebrates World Mental Health Day with fair encouraging students to connect with campus resources

Boston University’s George Sherman Union bustled Thursday afternoon as students, staff and campus partners gathered to recognize World Mental Health Day. 

Spearheaded by BU Student Health Services, the resource fair featured free two-minute mental health screenings, stress relief kits, therapy dogs and informational tables run by campus organizations such as the Newbury Center and Survivor Advocacy, Response and Prevention, according to an SHS Instagram post.

Melissa Paz, SHS assistant director of mental health promotion, said the event offered a one-stop shop for students, staff and faculty to connect with all of BU’s mental health resources.

“There’s so much that exists, and sometimes it’s difficult to navigate or remember what’s available,” she said. “Having an event like this puts it all in one spot.”

Maria Dykema Erb, executive director of the Newbury Center, said collaborating with SHS was a natural extension of the Center’s ongoing work supporting students. 

Erb volunteered as a mental health screener at the fair, where she analyzed participants’ test results and directed them to campus support services that would best fit their needs. 

“If [the screening] might reveal suicide ideation or wanting to hurt oneself, there are Counseling and Psychological Services clinicians right on site there, so we’re able to get them to those folks for the professional conversation,” Erb said. 

Chen-Hong Tony Chen, SHS assistant director of community initiatives, added the quick, “pulse check” nature of the screenings would hopefully encourage more people to treat mental health checkups like physical health checkups.

“We’re encouraging folks to do the same around their mental health, and I think it plays a big part in destigmatizing it as well,” he said. 

Chen said SHS had been planning this event since the start of the semester, coordinating with campus partners and undergraduate peer health educators. 

“This event would not happen without them,” Chen said. “A big piece of it is to show the BU community that they have a support network.” 

Paz said the event also gave everyone an opportunity to connect.

“Whether I’m walking past someone who’s petting a therapy dog and having a conversation with them or engaging with someone who’s interested in filling out a mental health screen, it’s just those in-person, casual conversations that arise,” she said. 

Chen said conversations surrounding mental health started to become more widespread during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

On campus, this is especially evident at events like the resource fair, he said. 

“It shows up very clearly in the number of volunteers [and] across our campus partners who find this really important and encourage folks to do this check in,” Chen said.

Freshman Grace Maloney, a volunteer at the event, said she has noticed BU is a strong advocate for the mental health of its students. 

“BU is super supportive to students with any sort of mental health concerns, and even hosting events like this, trying to get students to address any mental health concerns they have,” she said.

Emily Wu, a first-year graduate student in BU’s Counseling Psychology program, said the fair gave her the chance to find out about various campus resources such as SARP, which supports survivors from trauma and violence. 

Wu said events like these make mental health services more accessible for people with busy schedules. This is important, she said, because young adults often stigmatize getting help when it comes to mental health.  

“It’s nice to have something that’s out in the open, that’s easy to access for people,” she said. “It’s really helpful for people who are intimidated by the process of going into therapy or talking to a counselor. That way, it gets their foot in the door, [and] they can see what the process is like and then choose for themselves whether or not they feel like that’s helpful for them.”