Above (L-R) Jacob Byrd, Rebekah Smith, and Katie Freeman, members of the JC Reflections Team, who volunteered to hand out snow cones and popcorn during the college’s National Day Against Stigma event at the Jackson County Campus.

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College and United Way partnered to host a National Day Against Stigma event at the college’s Jackson County Campus on October 6. MGCCC employees and students joined United Way volunteers in providing information on suicide prevention and mental health to more than 200 college students. Counseling was also available for interested participants, and free snow cones and popcorn were provided by the campus Reflections Team.

College students are the focus of the event because the average age for the onset of mental health disorders is 18-24. It is estimated that 1,100 college students die by suicide annually, making it the second leading cause of death on college campuses.  Unfortunately, almost two-thirds of students who need help don’t receive it, sometimes because of the cost of treatment but usually because of the stigma attached to mental health problems.

The National Day Against Stigma was established in an attempt to eliminate that shame and discrimination surrounding mental health disorders. United Way is partnering with Active Minds (www.activeminds.org) to coordinate the message and materials to reach out to students. The message is, “Stigma is shame. Shame causes silence. Silence hurts us all.”