Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at U Ottawa chapter.

A new group of students has emerged on uOttawa’s campus, Students Against Stigma, and they are here to help talk about mental illness. Mikayla Vattiata, one of the series’ directors explains SAS as “an initiative run by students for students, striving to ensure that the conversation around mental health reflects the realties and needs of all students on our campus.” It’s not news that there is a stigma along with mental health worldwide, and uOttawa is no exception to this.

The idea for Students Against Stigma came from Caylie McKinlay, the VP of Philanthropy and Activism of IPPSSA. The idea first came up in the summer and planning began for an event that would “allow the mental health conversation to go beyond just awareness, to ensure that the intersection of mental health with race, disability, gender, sexual orientation etc. are part of the discussion, and most importantly to allow students to give their feedback to our campus services in order for their voices and experiences to be heard” as Mikayla put it.

Students Against Stigma put on their first ever series from January 27-29th. It was complete with ‘lunch and learn’ workshops, discussion panels and a gala at the end of the week. There were many speakers and groups present who were from both the local Ottawa community and from as far away as British Columbia.

Roselyn Dougé-Charles led a workshop on disability and racial justice. Discussing how “disability ain’t like race” as well as how the two are connected to each other, not only in their similarities, but also how race causes a specific stigma around mental health and may take away from the possibility of healing.

Zac Johnstone and Sarah Littisha Jansen from Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity discussed LGBTQ+ and mental health. After many eye opening statistics on LGBTQ+ and mental health, they discussed how we can all be allies and how being an ally is an action you take, not a title.

A teleconference from Lieutenant Colonel and Honourable Randy Callon, was arranged all the way from British Columbia. His talk was on the Issues of Trauma and Navigating the Legal system, more specifically about the military and PTSD. He discussed how these cases are dealt with in the legal system and the stigma attached to them.

1 in 5 Initiative, a SFUO club, led a Mental Health 101 workshop. This workshop was the basics on mental health, signs and symptoms and what to do if you know someone is going through a hard time. The club name comes from the fact that 1 in 5 Canadians will battle with a mental illness in their life.

My personal favourite part of the week was the Mental Health Action forum. It was an opportunity for students to get their voices heard in the way the university’s mental health accommodations works. Topics discussed included community building, and a mental health working group.

#BellLetsTalk is one of the most commonly known mental health initiatives known, so we talked about Bell Let’s Talk as well as hashtag activism in general. The discussion surrounded the possible issues with hashtag activism and capitalist politics.  

And finally the gala. This included a talk from Chris Nihmey, a performance from a Jingle Dress Dancer, information about Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health as well as a talk by Vanessa Dorimain. Not to mention some delicious food from 1848.

The entire series was informative, fun and definitely got people talking. Students Against Stigma is looking forward to putting on more events in the future so keep an eye out for their next series!

 

All photos are taken from Students Against Stigma social media (Twitter and Facebook). 

Hello and Welcome to my profile! I am a second year Psychology student at uOttawa as well as a first year writer for the HCuOttawa chapter.