Eliminating Mental Health Stigma on College Campuses

Steve Adubato sits down with Robin Davenport, Director of Counseling Services at Caldwell University, who explains how the university is keeping their campus stigma-free in regards to metal health issues.

3/13/17 #2019

Excerpt:

"This is One on One. I'm Steve Adubato. I will tell you. I'm going to introduce you to a great guest in just a second, but I've got to tell you something. Look at this! If you've been watching One on One for a while, you will notice that behind me, we have a terrific set. It was time. We have great guests. They continue to be compelling and provocative and interesting but our great team here at TriStar Studios put together an extraordinary set with a terrific look. I want to thank the folks here at TriStar, our terrific One on One team led by our executive producer Jen Icklan. I want to thank all of you for doing that and making us look good. Now, onto the show. It is our pleasure to welcome on our new set for the first time Robin Davenport, Director Counseling Services at the great Caldwell University. How do you like our new set? I love it. It's so comfortable. Isn't it? And I'm honored to be here. Well, it's an honor to have you. Listen, over at Caldwell, right, I want to put some information out so people can get this as we're going through this. A campus that is... let me get this right... stigma free? Yeah. Of what? The push was to help decrease the stigma that surrounds mental illness and mental health concerns and this was a campaign that was started by governor Richard Codey and his wife Mary Jo. Right. And again, wanting to reduce the stigma around mental illness as well as provide public awareness about resources that are out there to deal with mental health concerns and if you drive through different areas of New Jersey, Madison, West Caldwell, East Hanover, you'll see signs that say "stigma free town" and we realized as a campus that we really did fit the bill as being a stigma free campus and was acknowledged, I believe, as the the first college in New Jersey to be stigma free. Let's talk about how you do that because it always strikes me as we've been doing programming around mental health... I don't want to sound naive here, but the stigma still is there in place that so many of us are uncomfortable talking about the fact that we need help. That we reach out. But we do it privately, and never talk about it on the air. And there's a whole range of mental health issues, right? Yes. How significant is the stigma today and what is being done specifically to be helpful on the campus? I think you're right that the stigma does exist still. And the way that we try to combat it is, to begin with, just talking about it..."