Alison K. Malmon
Brian Malmon was “the ying to [her] yang”, her child hood companion, her best friend, her big brother—and at the age of 22 Brian committed suicide. Then he became her motivation, her drive and her mission. Brian taught her “to recognize the story in everyone, the struggles, and the strengths and the connection with others that is vital to thrive”.
After the death of her brother Alison Malmon was inspired to create the organization Active Minds. She was 21 years old when she founded Active Minds, a non-profit organization “in order to give a voice to young adult mental health”. Alison is still actively combating the culture of silence and the stigmas that surrounds mental health issues on college campuses 12 years later. She is doing so by encouraging students to speak openly about mental health issues, which in turn encourages help seeking. She wants students in similar situations to the one her brother was in to know that they are not alone and that it’s okay to ask for help.
Malmon says that “In many cases the resources are already out there”. So the issue is not that resources are not available to students, instead Malmon argues that our culture doesn’t allow students to talk openly about mental health and talk about what they are going through. Social support correlates very highly with the psychological well-being of college students. This in turn means that if students are too afraid or ashamed to ask for help then the consequences can be severe. For many college students just like Brian suicide is the end result of not getting help.
In the United States suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students and up to 84% of students suffering from mental disorders failed to receive treatment for certain disorders. Malmon believes that the "connection with others is so vital to survive" and lack of communication that our culture has about mental health issues is the main reason that students are not receiving the help they need. By changing this culture of silence Malmon helps students who otherwise would be alone in their struggle.
References
Image courtesy of Google Images
Video courtesy of Active Minds
- Active Minds Inc. “Active Minds Video 2013: 10 Years of Changing the Conversation About Mental Health.” Online Video Clip. YouTube. YouTube, 30 Jul. 2013. Web. 1 Nov. 2015.
- “Alison K. Malmon, Executive Director and Founder”. Active Minds. Active Minds, n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.
- Eisenberg, Daniel and Ezra Golbersein and Sarah E. Gollust. “Help-Seeking and Access to Mental Health Care in a University Student Population”. Medical Care 45. 7 (2007): 594-601. JSTOR. Web. 26 October, 2015.
- “Five Minutes with Alison Malmon, Founder and Executive Director of Active Minds”. Peace Love. Peace Love, 2015. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.
- “Our Story”. Active Minds. Active Minds, n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.
- Yasin, Aris., Dzulkifli, Mariam. “The Relationship Between Social Support and Psychological Problems Among Students”. International Journal of Business and Social Science 1. 3 (2010): 110-116. Web. 1 Nov. 2015.
Image courtesy of Google Images
Video courtesy of Active Minds