Introducing the Academic Mental Health Collective
By: Prof. Lisa Droogendyk (Psychology)
Hello Sheridan colleagues! I’m excited to tell you about the launch of a new website that I’ve been involved in creating – the Academic Mental Health Collective (www.amhcollective.com). If you care about mental health, and you are a grad student, former grad student, or someone who works in higher education, then the AMHC site is for you. We are an international collective comprised of current and former graduate students, and our goal is to provide resources for graduate students who struggle with mental illness (including but not limited to anxiety disorders, eating disorders, depression, addictions, and so on). Graduate school is often a high-pressure, stressful environment, and can contribute to the development of mental illness among graduate students who may be susceptible to these kinds of problems. We also aim to promote mental health among graduate students more generally.
We are just getting started, but our vision for the site is big! We want this to be a place where people can share stories about their mental health journeys – stories that will help struggling grad students feel less alone. We will talk about research on mental health, share mental health tips, and reflect on the unique struggles faced by graduate students. Eventually, we hope that the stories and experiences we collect will play a role in helping the academic community to provide better mental health support for grad students.
The main focus of the site right now is to reach out to graduate students, but we also envision that the content on our website will appeal to people in academia and higher education more generally, including post-doctoral researchers, early-career academics, undergraduate honours students, medical and law students, and individuals working on professional degrees.
Please check out the website and read on below to learn more about how you can help and get involved!
How can you help?
Help us spread the word: Like our Facebook and Twitter pages and share on social media!
Write for the site: Many of you are former or current grad students and could offer valuable perspectives for our readers. Please consider contributing to AMHC! Contributions can take the form of blog posts, poetry, or even artwork. We accept one-time guest contributions, and we are also actively looking for writers who are interested in contributing on a semi-regular basis. Get in touch with me directly (lisa.droogendyk[at]sheridancollege.ca) or via the website.
