The Online Reflector

One in four people suffer from mental illness.  Active Minds is an organization at the University of Indianapolis that is devoted to promoting awareness of mental health issues.

Photo by Kelbi Ervin

“It [Active Minds] originally started at the University of Pennsylvania by a girl whose older brother committed suicide the year before [it was founded],” said second year clinical psychology major Meredith Tumilty.  “She kind of realized that there was a lot of mental illness on campus, but there wasn’t really any discussion about it.  Nobody talked about it.  It was a taboo subject.”

Tumilty is currently a member of Active Minds, and will be a part of the executive board next year.

Rebecca Ritchey, a fourth year clinical psychology major in the doctoral program, brought Active Minds to the campus a year ago.

“She [Ritchey] went to undergrad at DePauw, and they had it [Active Minds] there.  She was involved with it there and thought it was really important,” said clinical psychology major Bethany Leonhardt. “She thought it would really benefit this campus.”

In addition,  to promoting the group tries to create a comfortable environment for conversations about mental health issues. The group holds various activities throughout the year to promote  awareness, so people know there is help out there for those with mental-illness-related issues.

Within the past few weeks, the group has written positive phrases on mirrors throughout campus.

In April, members plan to hold a 5K walk around campus with a goal of stomping out stigma.

“It’s important to say that the group isn’t there to provide services at all,” Tumilty said.  “We just want to encourage people to talk about things and realize that it [mental illnesses] is something that’s very common.”

In its second year, the group is still getting off the ground. According to the Active Minds official website, the University of Indianapolis chapter is considered a five-star chapter. Only two other chapters in Indiana have this rating, which is the highest a chapter can earn.  The group currently has between 15-20 members.

Even though it is  small, the club stresses that they would love to be able to gain more members and see the chapter grow.

“It’s hard finding a time when undergrads and grad students can meet, but we’d really like to see more undergrads getting involved,” Leonhardt said.

Active Minds meets every first Wednesday of each month in Good Recital Hall, and everyone is welcome to come, regardless of their major.

“It’s not a huge time commitment,” Tumilty said. “You just have to attend two meetings and help out at one event throughout the year. We are a very open group and we’re pretty easygoing.  We welcome everybody.”