#5 - We Are All a Work in Progress: Interview with the Mental Health Peer Educators from the College of San Mateo

In today’s episode of Matters of the Mind, I’m interviewing a group of mental health advocates attending the Active Minds Mental Health Conference, the nation’s leading conference focused on young adults and mental health. I speak with Gil, Antoinette, Paola, and Priya, Mental Health Peer Educators from the College of San Mateo, who proudly received the “Chapter of the Year” award at the conference. Together we discuss their motivations for attending the conference, new strategies in addressing stigma, and the importance of “be the change.” 

To learn more about the CSM Mental Health Peer Educators, follow on Instagram @csmactiveminds.

To learn more about Active Minds, visit their website www.activeminds.org

Transcript

Pippa: Hello everyone, my name is Pippa Greenberg and you are listening to my podcast, Matters of the Mind. Today, I'm in Washington, D. C., attending the Active Minds Mental Health Conference, the nation's leading mental health conference for young adults. I'm currently sitting with the Mental Health Peer Educators group from the College of San Mateo.

Welcome to Matters of the Mind. 

Priya: Hi, my name is Priya. 

Gil: I'm Gil. 

Antoinette: Hi, my name is Antoinette. 

Paola: My name is Paola. 

Pippa: So, can you tell me what brings you all to this conference? 

Gil: Yeah, so the Mental Health Peer Educators at CSM, it's a group of student leaders. I oversee the program and our work is around destigmatizing mental health and creating open conversations, um, because there's a lot of silence around mental health, which can be harmful.

And so we're always looking for like, you know, seeing how other colleges and universities are doing programming around mental health activities on campus. And that's really my hope, at least, is to feel inspired to like take action and feel like I can bring back ideas to our campus. Our mental health peer educators this year are graduating and they're transferring to four year universities and will be continuing their mental health advocacy and also be starting with a new group of mental health peer educators.

I just want to make sure I'm feeling really like up to date and like we have really helpful tools to support our campus community. 

Antoinette: And I feel like us individuals and mental health care educators are, and the advocacy that we have right now and the goal that we all vision for the future and the present too, is get to know more about what we're doing, get updated of what's going on right now. And also more awareness of mental health. I personally wanted to come here, want to celebrate us. We won the chapter of the year award and also because I want to create or found. a Active Minds club or chapter at the university I'm going to because I did some research and they don't have one.

They do have mental health resources, but they don't have the Active Minds and I feel like that chapter is going to bring a different avenue in the university that I'm going to. So hopefully with more resources I'm going to gain from this conference and the workshops that I'm going to, I'm going to gain more awareness and also like more knowledge so I can implement and take that to my future plan. 

Priya: I just wanted to share like my personal experience with Active Minds and Mental Health Peer Educator program. I've been with this program for almost two years now. And I'm looking forward to continuing my education and like advocate about mental health in future as well. I'm here to enjoy the moment with the people that we have grown, like we have spent hours on different workshops. We have collaborated for like outreach programs. We also did like a lot of suicide prevention presentations. Like there is so much that we did and there is always a space to grow and learn in an individual level. So that's what I'm here for today. 

Paola: I'm very excited for this conference because I love connecting with the breakout rooms.

Especially, I just went to one with alumni of the Active Minds Advisory. And one of them was talking about how in his work as a lawyer, after being a student at Active Minds, advocate for mental health. How is advocating for mental health now in different settings? And he talked about how his colleague has said, Oh, I never had a one day break.

And it resonated with me a lot because I also am working in a research institute and there are people talk about, Oh, when you're an immigrant, you come to a new country, it's 4th of July, but we're not gonna celebrate 4th of July because we don't have family. We are gonna, and we are working there. So, it was just very interesting to see this because in America, it's very normalized to burn out and work, but it's not normal to feel this way, even though it's so normalized. So, I just love connecting with these people, hearing their stories, hearing what other people are doing. 

Pippa: So, what are you all most interested in learning about at this conference? 

Priya: For me, I have done a personal storytelling workshop. As I come from an immigrant family, I have had a past experience with the mental health.

I was struggling with it, and I had no resource that I was aware of. I was fortunate to join to CSM College of San Mateo, where I found personal counseling, which is for free. I like to emphasize it, because it costs a lot. All of the people talk about it's important. It's this and that, but people don't know how hard it is to get the service and it's not accessible to everyone.

So I was fortunate enough to get it. Through CSM. Coming back to your question on how, what, what am I looking forward to learn? Getting to know, as Paola mentioned, like getting to know their personal stories, because personal story is very strong. Today I joined a breakout session about first generation student. I found myself in a comfortable space and people with whom I can, could connect to. 

Gil: And I'm hoping to connect with other mental health advocates, like we're not alone doing this work, so I think it's really incredible to be in this large conference where we're with hundreds of other people that are doing this work at their colleges, universities, high schools,

too. Like, we want to really start early on to like destigmatize mental health and normalize the conversation. And for me, I'm again, I'm looking for language, like how are people talking about mental health? We want to make this work, not transactional and find ways to like really connect with people when we're talking about it, you know, as we're supporting them to, you know, have vulnerability to, you know, share their stories and, and earn the right to hear other people's stories too. So again, even just this first half, I feel like I've already been getting so much around like how we can keep the conversation moving forward. 

Antoinette: Just like peers said, this conference is going to provide me with not just networking and getting to know more people, but also getting to know their stories. I feel like their stories are so valuable and for me it's like an insightful way to see how people's stories can be told, but also how they can create a new vision for me for my life and also for my goals. As Priya mentioned today, we went to this first generation workshop talking about the struggles, the intricacy of being a first generation student.

I'm a first generation student and I wanted to attend this workshop because I did a workshop, a first generation workshop and mental health also at my school, and I wanted to see what are the things that I can get better and what are other, like, resources out there that I can provide next time, because that's the population I want to get more involved in and also work with.

But I do also want to get more knowledge about the other populations that are out there more. knowledge about mental health, the different ways we can talk about mental health too. 

Gil: Yeah, I think that's the beauty of it too. It's like you realize there's not a one size fits all for how you take care of your mental health. So I just love the diversity of experiences and how people are sharing how they take care of themselves or address mental health issues in their life. To know like, we're not alone, but there's so many different ways you can take care of your mental health and wellness. 

Priya: I was like literally going to say the same thing.

Thank you for bringing it up. Thanks for bringing it up. But yeah, like even when I was saying about personal story, it's powerful and strong because you have lived those experiences and looking at the other side of the story, you also learn about how people think and how it can affect to an individual.

Right. So it's like diversity for sure and inclusion being including in it. 

Paola: One of the breakout rooms I did was very amazing was a small town in Mississippi, which I was very In press, they were like 97 percent black and 90 percent of the township also black and they were like working with these populations and it was just very sad about because they are supporting students on an elementary level that get a grant and I got ideas from what they are doing.

And connect and say thank you for the work they are doing because in California, I see the conversation is a little bit ahead is different for them. They're still combating the stigma. So just seeing because each one of individuals in this conference that we want to be the change in our own environments at work or at academic setting.

So just learning what other people are doing and giving ideas and oh, have you thought about that? Oh, you did. Oh, nice. 

Pippa: So, is there any advice that you would like to share for those struggling with mental health challenges or for anyone hoping to become a mental health advocate? 

Priya: Can I be the first? 

Pippa: For sure.

Priya: Before anyone takes it! I really love the motto for this conference, which is be the change, but at the same time, I really want to highlight. and emphasize being the change. Yeah, it is certainly important, crucial. But at the same time, be kind to yourself because not every time it should be you. It's okay to sometimes step back and take care of yourself doing self care.

It's like being kind to yourself. People in this busy life with the technology, social media, have really lost the true self. And I want to really emphasize on that, like, be true to yourself, be you. 

Gil: The first thing I want to say is that you're not alone. I really want to emphasize that. I mean, for me, that's like such a widespread, I feel like experience and like feeling that I have, especially in community with everyone. I'm like, wow, I don't feel alone in my experience. experiences. And you see it in people's responses, their reactions, like the non verbals, the head nods, everything people are reacting to it's like, oh yeah, like there are other people that are also, you know, go through difficulties and experience mental health challenges that they're addressing.

And then the other thing I want to mention, I also, yeah, really love the theme around "Be the Change." And I'll say this, like, being the change means it starts with you. It can feel a lot, uh, think like, Oh, we want to tackle destigmatizing mental health in our society that's so like systemic and how stigma works.

But when you focus on you and like working on your self, whatever that looks like, it's enough to start there, because that's the ripple effect it has, because you change and then you want to make a difference in the lives of others. And you can see how even for the mental health peer educators here today, They're talking about how they're continuing their mental health advocacy even after graduating from College of San Mateo, and now they're going to a four year university, and so there's a ripple effect that change has, but it really starts with you.

Antoinette: You need to prioritize yourself first. Your mental health journey, learning from it, heal. It'll take time, of course, and it's like a whole process. I feel like it never ends. You're still learning for yourself because you are well involved in, you're changing over time. And knowing that that's going to happen, accept it, but also learn it and grow.

I feel like you need to be prepared, as Priya and Gil said, you need to be true to yourself, knowing your boundaries, knowing what are your limits, because if you don't know your limits, you're gonna prioritize other people that by yourself, and your mental health is gonna decrease. You're not gonna find a balance in your life and also you're not alone.

There's always somebody that wants to help you, that wants to listen to you. Just need to either ask, don't be afraid to ask for help, because there's people that actually care. And always look around yourself and ask yourself, Are these the people I need to be around with or should I change my environment too?

Because changes are okay. Difficult. I hate changes to be honest, but they have taught me that I can always find a different perspective and people that can actually help me and support me. 

Paola: Just adding to what everybody said, uh, remember your essence, who you are, you want to be the change, but also, as we were saying, you are not alone. You can find peers, if you can find in person in your community, if you're alone, try online resources. There are many resources. And always remember, just because something's normalized doesn't mean it's normal. Just because it's normalized to work every day and study so much, it's not normal to feel burnout and tired.

And what one of my breakout room, they talk about working the healthcare field psychologist. I never listened to this word before this breakout room about compassion fatigue, which we don't even sometimes Understand or can name our feelings. So if you are listening to this podcast and you are feeling something that you don't know, remember you are not alone.

Look for people and you'll be okay. 

Pippa: You guys have such amazing things to say. And thank you so much for sharing with the audience. 

Priya: Yeah, I was just going to add, we are all work in progress.