Take Five Miami Takes On Mental Health

By Kelly Wagner

Miami University Journalism Student

1 in 5 Americans have a diagnosable mental health disorder. Those Americans are diverse -- mental illness affects people of all races, genders, ethnicities, and socio-economic backgrounds.

At Miami University, five students have come to together to challenge the stigma associated with mental illness, creating Take Five Miami.

Take Five has partnered with The Campaign to Change Direction, which helps teach the population of Miami University about the five signs of a mental health disorder. They encourage people to sign a pledge to “vow to understand and recognize the 5 signs of emotional suffering.”

The five signs of emotional suffering, as listed on Take Five's website, are: personality change, agitation, withdrawal, poor self-care, and hopelessness.

Brought Together By A Class

The five women who created Take Five -- Eileen Curran, Hannah Seitz, Leah McCloud, Megan Day, and Paige Garty -- are strategic communications majors and were brought together in class they took to fulfill their major.

In the class, the five had to come up with a public relations plan for The Campaign to Change for the Public Relations Student Society Bateman competition. Take Five grew out of that experience.

“At the end of the semester, we all presented our PR plans, but just hypothetically, but then our professor just took a look at everyone who is most passionate about it and took aspects from all of the plans she liked. Then, picked the five of us to actually implant our plan,” says Curran.

“We lucked out with the topic, it is super relevant.”

Challenging Stigma

One of the group's goals is to make students more aware of the resources available to them if they are dealing with mental health issues.

“A lot of people who come up to our table will start to tell you things they go through. There’s a stigma around it so it is nice to try to eliminate the stigma,” says McCloud.

Take Five has set up tables in the Armstrong Student Center and the Farmer School of Business, taken over Miami University's Snapchat account, and visited sorority and fraternity chapters on campus to educate Miami students about the five signs.

“People come up to our tables and say this is a really great cause because 1 in 5 students are suffering from a mental illness,” Seitz says.

To cap off the group's work so far, Take Five is hosting their "Pizza and Poses" event this Wednesday.

“It is almost the end of the campaign so it is just to kind of end it off, have a way for people to relax, destress, get some free food and do some yoga,” says Curran.

So far, 500 people have signed Take Five's pledge to recognize the signs of emotional suffering.

Work Continues

Because Take Five Miami was created as a class project, the women's involvement with it will end when the plan comes to an end on March 15.

However, the five hope to pass Take Five along to Active Minds Miami.

“I think people are happy to see some recognition of it because mental health is such a hush hush topic that people don’t really like to address it, but especially in college students, it needs to be addressed,” says Curran.

To find out more about Take Five Miami, you can visit their website or Facebook page.

Photo: McCloud, Curran, and Seitz smile while handing out flyers and assorted candy at a table in the Armstrong Student Center last Wednesday. -- Photo by Kelly Wagner.