October 14 th – 15 th , 2005
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Duke University, Durham, NC
Friday, October 14 th
6:30-8:30pm Founders Reception (Dinner; open to everyone registered for the conference)
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8:30-9:30pm Keynote Speaker - “What’s so good about dying?”
Von Canon C Gail Griffith, Author of Will’s Choice: A Suicidal Teen, a Desperate Mother, and a Chronicle of
Recovery
As anyone familiar with major depression knows, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to imagine that life is worth living when you’re in the midst of a bout of depression. But science shows that the dynamics of brain function during episodes of depression trigger the sense of hopelessness and desolation, squelching the will to live. By talking about depression and exposing it for the brain illness that it is, we can help ourselves and others get beyond the immediacy of the desperation brought on by the illness and move towards
Saturday, October 15 th recovery .
8:00-8:45am Registration, Continental Breakfast
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8:45-9:00 Welcome
Von Canon C Alison Malmon, Executive Director, Active Minds, Inc.
Katie Hardgrove, Conference Co-coordinator, Active Minds at Duke
9:00-10:15 Keynote Speaker - Living the Message
Von Canon C Ross Szabo, Director of Youth Outreach, National Mental Health Awareness Campaign
One of the biggest challenges as a mental health advocates is helping yourself while you devote your time to helping everyone else. It is frighteningly common for advocates and mental health professionals to offer great advice to others, but not live the mental health message in their personal lives. Young advocates can be especially at risk when trying to balance their personal struggles with school and mental health outreach, whether or not they live with a diagnosable mental health disorder. This program will highlight the importance of finding what works best for a person as he/she furthers his/her advocacy.
Participants will hear a very personal message of the challenges that face everyone in the mental health community. This presentation will provide insight into positive maintenance of mental disorders, steps everyone can take, advice for friends or other advocates, and the best ways to live the mental health message for you.
10:30-11:30 Concurrent Workshops - Special Topics in Mental Health
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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Veterans’ Mental Health - Findings of the Joint
DoD/VA Conference on Post Deployment Mental Health
Harold Kudler, M.D., Associate Clinical Professor, Duke University, Co-Chair, Under
Secretary's Special Committee on PTSD, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Approximately 900,000 new combat veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan will be returning home and there has been concern about their psychological readjustment. Medical research indicates that the majority of these men and women will not develop a diagnosable mental disorder as a consequence of their service in a combat zone but experience suggests that all Service Members will face important and sometimes painful readjustment issues. To better assess and address their needs, a group of over 50 representatives of the Department of

Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs met in March 2005 to consider the challenge of post deployment mental health. This presentation will summarize the findings of that group and bring the audience up to date on actions taken to implement the group's recommendations.
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Cultural Adjustment and Study Abroad: International Mental Heath Issues and
Resources
Wendy Settle, Ph.D., Staff Psychologist and Coordinator for Outreach and Consultation,
University Counseling Center, University of Notre Dame
Every year, a global educational exchange takes place as numerous college students seek to include an experiential intercultural perspective by studying abroad. Study abroad can be a personally rewarding, culturally expanding, growthproducing, as well as a somewhat stressful experience. However, it is also well known that "pre-existing emotional difficulties are often intensified by living in a foreign culture" (NAFSA). This workshop will describe the stages of normal cultural adjustment and how to ease the transition both to the host country as well as during the return home. Normal cultural adjustment will be distinguished from more serious emotional distress. We'll also discuss resources available for students and international educators for students dealing with mental health issues while abroad. One or more members from Active Minds will describe their own experiences studying abroad, and we hope that whether you have been abroad yet or not, you will feel free to join in the discussion.
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Mental Health in Minority Populations: Towards Cultural Understanding and
Cultural Competence
Stephanie I. Coard, Ph.D., Clinical Researcher and Instructor, Duke University,
Department of Psychology
This workshop will discuss issues of diversity as it relates to mental health. We will explore the current social and personal meanings of race, ethnicity, and culture including conceptual frameworks for examining differences and similarities between cultures and ethnicities and race-related dynamics that effect mental health and treatment. This workshop is guided by the assumption that the ability to reflect about and examine such issues intelligently will undergird your future effectiveness as culturally sensitive mental health advocates and professionals. This workshop represents a "first step" in learning to think critically about mental health and illness and to expand ones traditional "knowledge".
11:30-12:30pm Lunch (Provided)
12:30-1:45 Keynote Speaker
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The State of Campus Mental Health and What Students Can Do About It
Von Canon C Dr. Paul Barreira, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Director of
Behavioral Health and Academic Counseling, Harvard University
Recent articles, books, newspaper reports, and conferences have identified the increasing number of students who present with significant mental health problems at college campuses across the country. Data will be presented that documents the extent of the problem. Students are in a unique role to shape a college’s response to these problems.
Students are most able to challenge the stigma that often paralyzes a college’s response to providing adequate mental health resources. Further, student advocates understand better than any other group the kinds of resources that provide the most effective support and treatment. Examples of successful strategies utilized by student groups will be presented.
Models of community action in community psychiatry will further illustrate possible successful student interventions on college campuses.

2:00-3:00
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Concurrent Workshops - Student-led 'Best Practices'
 ‘The Truth About Suicide: Real Stories of Depression in College’ Video
Developed by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) has developed "The
Truth about Suicide: Real Stories of Depression in College" as an outgrowth of its commitment to support colleges and universities in implementing suicide prevention as an integral part of their ongoing campus activities and services. The aim of this 27-minute film is to present a recognizable picture of depression and other problems associated with suicide, as they are commonly experienced by college students and other young adults. Come watch the film, engage in a discussion moderated by Duke’s Counseling and Psychological Services, and receive a free copy of the DVD (all Active Minds chapters are entitled to receive the video free-of-charge; extra copies are available at the registration table)
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Mental Health Awareness Week: Putting the Spotlight on Mental Disorders
Large School, Large Scale
Lekshmi Santhosh, Co-Coordinator, Mind Matters at Yale University
Nicolas Abreu, Community Service Coordinator, Mind Matters at Yale University
Rachel Denison, Webmaster, Mind Matters at Yale University
Mind Matters of Yale presents the keys to the success of their multifaceted awareness campaign during National Mental Illness Awareness Week last year.
Come learn about the simple, cost-effective, yet powerful tools that they used to bring campus attention to mental health issues.
Smaller Weeks, on Smaller Budgets – With Just as Much Impact
Erin Polk, President, Active Minds at University of Mary Washington
This presentation will answer the burning question of new/small chapters: how do
I make an impact when I’m just starting up? Using examples from what Active
Minds at Mary Washington planned during their Mental Health Awareness Week last spring, just two months after forming, this presentation will give new chapters ideas of how to get the most bang for your buck, both in terms of finance and energy expenditure. Learn who to turn to for help, how to most effectively publicize the Week, and how to focus on just a few high-impact events to spread the Active Minds name and message throughout your campus community.
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Raising Awareness through Student Publications and Runs
Producing Mentality – From Innovative Idea to Tangible Outcome
Dave Strauss, Former President, Active Minds at Duke
The production of Mentality began with a letter to the editor of The Chronicle on
February 9, 2004. After bringing attention to the stigma surrounding mental illness, Dave Strauss, Cole Wright and Logan Leinster announced the formation of
Active Minds at Duke and stated their intention to put together a publication of students’ personal stories to draw out open discussion about mental health. While responses were originally slow, Logan Leinster wrote a personal narrative,
Challenging the Stigma of Mental Illness , which ran in the Chronicle on February
20, 2004 and produced a number of responses. Soon after many more students got involved in editing and in the summer of 2004 Active Minds applied for and received a grant from the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation to fund the initial publication. This workshop will run through the process from idea to publication development that will be relevant for groups wanting to pursue similar ideas.
Stomping Out Stigma
Vivek Patel, President, Active Minds at Penn
Julia Cunningham, Vice President, Active Minds at Penn
The Stomp Out Stigma 2-mile run is an annual tradition on the University of
Pennsylvania campus. This event attracts participants from around the community because of its innovative way of incorporating exercise into a greater mental

health awareness message. Come learn about the ins and outs of planning a Run on your campus – from working with the police in order to develop a route, to securing donations from local vendors for the fastest runners, to ordering t-shirts for participants. Members of Active Minds at Penn will teach you the most effective messages and campaigns that they have learned over the last 5 years of hosting a benefit Run.
3:00-3:30 Snack
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3:30-5:15 Student/Advisor Breakout Sessions
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5:30-6:30
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Concurrent Workshops - Student Advocacy Nuts and Bolts
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Website development basics: What you need to know to get your group online
Rachel Denison, Webmaster and Past Co-Coordinator of Mind Matters, the
Undergraduate Mental Health Organization at Yale University
Every advocacy group should have a website, and anyone can learn to make one.
In this workshop, we will cover the basics for people who have little to no prior experience with website design. By the end of this session, you should know: how to use html to build your website from scratch using software you already own; how to use principles of good website design to make your site appealing and functional; how to put your website online for all the world to see; how to use resources that will let you add interactive elements like guestbooks and forums into your site; as well as the best resources on the web for learning more.
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Funding your Ideas
The Bringing Theory to Practice Project and funding opportunities
Jennifer Wong, Program Associate, Bringing Theory to Practice Project, AAC&U
The Bringing Theory to Practice Project (BTtoP) seeks to advance engaged student learning and determine how it might improve the quality of student’s education, development, health, and commitment to civic engagement. One way that we support this advancement is through funding programs and projects that engage students in areas of mental health, substance abuse, and civic engagement.
In this presentation, we will detail the work of the Project and share what new funding opportunities are available to students and universities.
Grants, Grant-Writing, and Getting the Funding you Need
Dave Strauss, Active Minds at Duke
This fundraising presentation will also include an interactive session on grantwriting “how to’s” and specific examples of grants that have successfully brought funding to Active Minds on Campus chapters
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Transitioning your Organization to Next Year and Beyond
Kat Fauss, Program Advisor, American University
This interactive workshop will help you explore the challenges involved with transitioning your Active Minds chapter from year to year. We will discuss expectations, goal setting, passing on useful information, how to pass on the information, and resources available to you.
6:30-7:00pm Wrap Up – The Mental Health Advocacy Movement, and Young Adults’ Role Within It
Von Canon C Alison Malmon, Active Minds, Inc.