Conversations around mental health are becoming less stigmatized and more mainstream.
This is a major positive in working toward helping people in all circumstances care for their mental health.
The problem with these conversations is that, oftentimes, the solutions raised to help ease mental health hurdles solve a symptom of the issue and do not get to the root cause.
The American Psychological Association reported that 91% of young adults in Generation Z have said they have felt at least one physical or emotional symptom relating to anxiety, depression or stress.
According to the same study, the biggest stressors are issues that will be on the ballot in the upcoming presidential election. The topics include gun safety and mass shootings, climate change and the separation and deportation of immigrant families, in addition to mental health itself.
For college students specifically, it’s hard to find the time to peel back the layers and dive into our own mental and emotional health when many of us are also trying to juggle school, jobs and internships, relationships and post-graduation plans.
At Columbia, the seven-week part-time faculty strike and an ongoing deficit also has impacted us, hanging over the college like a dark cloud.
For the last print edition of the Chronicle this year, we are focusing on mental health but also on cutting through the nuances, giving it a name and showing solutions to some of the challenges of mental health in real-time.
The Chronicle was awarded a grant from the Solutions Journalism Network, an organization working to shift the journalism landscape to report out solutions, not just the issues, to produce solid reporting on solutions to some of these issues. In this issue, we dig into different issues that revolve around mental health. We dive into the ways that the college, students and organizations around the city are working to solve the mental health issues that so many people face every day.
Thank you to the Solutions Journalism Network for your funding and support on this project, helping us report on solutions to these problems and hopefully helping our community.
Within these pages, we’ve reported on how Columbia has started a counseling practice that pairs students with counselors who share a culture with them to help cultivate stronger connections and foster conversations.
We have written about the toll financial stress and class workloads have on one’s mental health and the unique worries seniors experience.
We reported on the positive ways that playing video games can actually benefit someone’s mental health; the Chronicle partnered with Interactive Arts and Media students to create a game that specifically tackles this issue, which will premiere at this year’s Manifest celebration.
As a newsroom filled with journalists, photographers and illustrators, our mission is to serve the Columbia community during the hard times.
We hope with this issue, we’re producing news you can actively use no matter what.
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» VIVIAN RICHEY ASSISTANT CAMPUS EDITOR
Kaidyn Carter moved to Chicago as a first-year Columbia student without a job and not enough scholarship money to cover her tuition and living expenses.
Now a junior communication major, Carter remembered what she was thinking when her first bill was due.
“Knowing if I don’t pay this portion of my Columbia balance at this date they’re gonna kick me out of my house is a little bit concerning, especially since I don’t have family in Chicago either,” Carter said. “I just go to school here, so if they revoke my housing, I’d be homeless and that’s really scary.”
Carter isn’t alone. In a recent survey, 67% of Columbia students who responded expressed concerns about meeting their current monthly expenses, especially as tuition has increased 20% in the past three years by next fall. In the survey, students identified specific areas where financial constraints necessitated cutbacks, with the top categories being personal purchases (86%), clothing (68%), socializing (65%), and high-quality or preferred food (62%).
“Every year tuition just increases and my scholarship is staying the same. I make the same amount of money at work, and then take the same amount of classes,” Carter said. “It kind of is like we’re raising this and I’m getting more stressed out, but what are we doing about it?”
Student Persistence Assistant Director Elizabeth Fuertes said it is not uncommon for students to “grapple with extenuating circumstances at some point during their college journey.”
“We understand that such challeng-
es can be accompanied by a host of emotions, such as anxiety or shame,” Fuertes said. “However, students are not alone. We all work at Columbia because we are invested in student success and want to see our students thrive.”
Carter has had to adjust her daily eating and living habits to comfortably meet her monthly tuition payments, rent and things like going out on the weekends “completely stopped.”
“Sometimes, whatever food I have in my apartment I just live off of that up until I kind of get a little wiggle room. That can be two weeks, sometimes it can be four without going to the grocery store,” Carter said. “But that’s kind of just life, I guess.”
Carter said she reached out to the student persistence peer support program but ended up feeling like “there was nobody behind the screen.”
Junior communication major Jesse Gonzalez said they appreciate the college’s number of resources for both financial aid and mental support, but they wish that it was advertised more.
“I feel like the school doesn’t really promote it as much as it should,” Gonzalez said. “For someone who doesn’t really check their emails as well as much, it always feels like my chances are that my resources are all narrowed down or little.”
The fall 2023 survey, which had 1,122 responses, assessed the total cost students are required to cover from on and off-campus housing to living expenses.
In the survey, 48% of respondents expressed confidence in managing their finances, while 67% expressed concerns about meeting their current monthly expenses.
Students reported average month-
ly expenditures of $697 on housing, $262 on food, $81 on transportation and $146 on personal items in addition to an estimated $210 per semester for books and educational supplies.
45% of students admitted that their financial circumstances had negatively affected their academic performance.
The survey also reported that on-campus students were more inclined to cut back on food expenditures compared to their off-campus counterparts.
Coordinator of Equitable Student Success Chloe Nailor works with students enrolled in the Scholars Project program providing connections to resources, skills and mentorship and primarily serves first-generation and BIPOC students.
“Dealing with financial challenges during college can be very frustrating. I want to commend students for showing up and doing their best even during these challenging times,” Nailor said.
TRIO Student Support Services is a federally funded program offered at the college that serves first-generation students, income-eligible students and students who have disabilities and is meant to provide support that not only promotes the well-being of students but also “assist them toward achieving personal and academic goals,” TRIO project advisor Elizabeth Rodriguez said in an email to the Chronicle.
“A big part of what TRIO does is that we holistically advise students,” Rodriguez said. “Some students just come to us to talk and have someone to listen. It’s a very fulfilling position and I know the students appreciate it too.”
Rodriguez mostly gets students who come for help with finding scholarships, funding tuition and career prep.
Fuertes said she often hears from students who are unable to afford re-
quired resources for their classes, such as web-based courseware and consumable supplies like photo paper, paint and so on.
“I recognize that difficult financial circumstances can impact students in all areas of life,” Fuertes said. “My personal experience involved being a first-gen student with an EFC of zero. While I struggled with basic needs while I was in school, that experience now enables me to help support students who find themselves in similar circumstances.”
Senior animation major Ashantiana Jones said most of her stress comes from the consistent rise in tuition and struggles coming up with the money between payments.
“It’s hard,” Jones said. “It’s hard to find a job. It’s hard to find employment at Columbia.” Gonzalez, who transferred from community college last semester, said the higher tuition payments were a rough transition. “Community college wasn’t that expensive, I knew I could take care of it,” Gonzalez said. “But when I saw that first bill for Columbia, I was like, ‘I need to think of fast cash.’”
Aside from some help from scholarships and some federal student aid, Gonzalez is paying to attend Columbia entirely themselves.
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For Gonzalez, their financial situation following last semester’s historical strike has only become more stressful. The tuition credits issued by the college felt like “a Band-Aid to a broken heart,” Gonzalez said. Read the rest at columbiachronicle.com
Columbia is taking a pioneering step toward inclusive mental health care by hiring a diverse group of counselors and providing them with ongoing training. As the Counseling Services rebuilds after the pandemic, recognizing the intersection of mental health and diversity has been a key part of that process. The office was also largely untouched in the draft presidential advisory report about recommendations for budget cuts, reflecting its vital role on campus.
The emergence of culturally responsive mental health services reflects a growing recognition of the influence of culture on mental well-being. This approach acknowledges that cultural diversity significantly shapes how individuals perceive, experience and seek support for their mental health.
It is often difficult for Black, Indigenous or other students of color to access mental health care from providers who can understand their unique experiences. Having a mental health provider who can relate to their experiences can make a significant difference during treatment.
Growing up in a family immersed in Japanese culture, Maika Shibata, a senior filmmaking and graphic design major, said she felt secure and comfortable in her experience with Counseling Services at Columbia.
“I specifically asked to speak with an Asian American woman because I would feel more comfortable talking to a woman about my assault and someone who would also understand my background from personal experience,” Shibata said. “I was able to get exactly what I requested and wouldn’t have wanted any other therapist.”
Shibata therapist’s use of phrases and sayings from Eastern Asia, familiar from her childhood and her mother’s words, added an extra layer of security and comfort.
“It’s something I wasn’t aware I desperately needed until I had it,” Shibata said. “It really enhanced my thera-
py experience and also allowed me to open up more and share more about my background and history because I knew I would be understood.”
Through its diversity statement, Counseling Services is committed to providing services that acknowledge and promote the diversity of the students. They practice cultural humility, honoring individuality and creativity in therapy.
Britt Hodgdon, director of Counseling Services at Columbia, said there is a growing area in the counseling profession.
With a generationally younger staff and therapists, she says they are trained in a different way.
“They are more culturally flexible,” Hodgdon said. “They’re considering power and privilege in the room.”
According to Hodgdon, therapists must undergo good supervision to get trained and use the learning in their individual work through a supervisory relationship. This helps them to stay unbiased and become competent therapists.
“Supervision is still the place where we should all be on my team, looking at how power, privilege, culture, race, all of these things are coming up and how they’re being used in the room,” she said.
Richard Chin, coordinator of Counseling Services, described a few ways the college has worked to ensure students receive affirming and relevant care.
“First, during the interview process for staff and interns alike, candidates are asked about their knowledge and experience applying culturally responsive
practices in their previous work history,” he said.
They have also received training on serving specific populations such as Black, Latinx and LGBTQ+ communities at the college. “We engage in regular supervision and consultation to examine our practices as we are engaging with students to ensure we are engaging in ethical and meaningful work,” Chin said.
Hodgdon also said the counseling office is working to train as many people on campus in mental health first aid as possible. This training program is designed to teach a layperson how to identify signs of a person experiencing a mental health issue, approach a person with care and connect them with resources.
“What we are finding is a need for people to be increasingly trauma informed and how they do that,” she said. “We have a lot of students who are remarkably ready to sit with other people’s mental illness or to sit with their trauma.”
The purpose is not to deputize community members as therapists or professionals but to help people feel more comfortable discussing mental health issues and support each other in connecting with resources like Counseling Services.
“We have been able to train quite a few student-facing staff throughout the college as well as our RAs,” Chin said. “We are hoping to expand the number of staff trained, as well as to open the training to more students.”
They discovered that students are un-
certain about how to establish boundaries while still taking care of themselves.
“There’s some generational progress happening here, in which students are more likely to go up and engage [with] someone who is hurting or struggling, but then how do they care for themselves in the midst of that?” Hodgdon said.
Chin said students seem to do better if they feel their salient cultural identities are supported, and they can find ways to incorporate those into their lives.
“Sexism, homophobia, etcetera, can be present in a cultural context, so approaching these topics with an understanding of intersectionality is important,” he said.
A challenge can still arise in situations where a therapist lacks extensive knowledge of cultural identity.
“In these situations, there is a necessary balance of having the student take the lead in discussing it and how it relates to them and avoiding the student’s session turning into a lesson for the therapist,” Chin said. “It is these situations where it’s important for the therapist to know the limits of their knowledge and ability to absorb new knowledge, and work to ensure the student is getting appropriate support.”
According to the United States census, the U.S. employed 124,485 mental health counselors in 2021. Of these, 76.4% were women, and 23.6% were men. In terms of race and ethnicity, the majority of mental health counselors
Continued on page 5
were white, comprising 66.1% of the workforce. Black individuals constituted 19.2% of the workforce, while 7.1% were individuals of two or more races. Columbia has a team of seven staff members who offer counseling services to the students. Five of these members are women, and two are men. Additionally, five members identify as white, while the remaining two identify as belonging to other ethnicities. The majority of the counseling staff comprises white women, accounting for four out of the seven members.
There is a significant gender and racial imbalance in the mental health counseling workforce. These figures highlight a potential lack of diversity within the mental health counseling profession, which could impact the provision of culturally responsive care, as individuals from diverse backgrounds may face barriers in accessing care from providers who understand and can relate to their unique cultural experiences and perspectives.
Between the lines:
Chin said in the broader context of mental health service providers, all staff and interns are educated on culturally responsive care within the National Board for Certified Counselors or the Association of Social Work Boards framework in their master’s program.
“After graduation, counselors and social workers have to adhere to their respective professions code of ethics, which in both cases codify cultural responsiveness as a core tenet of ethical care,” he said.
As part of the licensing process, counselors and social workers must engage in continuing education, which includes workshops, classes and reading to maintain their license to practice therapy. The services at the counseling office are specific to the relationship between a particular student and the therapist, with the student in the lead. Some identities are more salient than others at any given time, so part of the work is following the student, listening to what support they need or are looking for, and suggesting some they might be aware of.
Sarmite Poga, first-year film and television major from Latvia, started going to counseling on campus this semester with “no expectations” before coming in since she previously had only seen medical doctors.
“I come from quite a strict and socially ignorant country. People there don’t believe in mental health as it is a post-Soviet Union country,” said Poga. “This mentality definitely has not been great for me as I have severe panic dis-
order and only started treating it last year when things got out of hand.”
Overall, Poga said she had a positive experience. “I feel like the counselor respected me as she asked me about my culture and how I feel adjusting in my new environment,” she said. “From the very beginning I felt safe talking bout my mental [health] issues because before we started, she asked me some questions about where I am from, she learned how to pronounce my name and said that my name is my name, and I should not feel like I need to change it because people can’t pronounce it.”
Ana Salazar, a junior communication major, grew up in a very Catholic family. “They are still very religious and rely their faith on God,” Salazar said. “Back in Ecuador, going to counseling services is not normalized to the max, but luckily, my mom is aware of the mental health crisis.”
Salazar said going to counseling on campus has helped. “I felt like I was being genuinely listened to,” she said.
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La aparición de servicios de salud mental culturalmente sensibles muestra un creciente reconocimiento de la influencia de la cultura en el bienestar mental - reconoce que la diversidad cultural moldea cómo las personas perciben, experimentan y buscan apoyo para su salud mental.
Para los estudiantes negros, indígenas u otros estudiantes diversos, a menudo les resulta difícil acceder a la atención de salud mental de proveedores que puedan comprender sus experiencias únicas. Tener un proveedor de salud mental que pueda relacionarse con sus experiencias puede marcar una diferencia significativa durante el tratamiento. Columbia está contratando a varios consejeros que es un paso hacia la atención inclusiva de la salud mental. Los estudiantes en el campus le dijeron al Chronicle que han tenido experiencias positivas con los servicios de consejería en la universidad.
Resumen en Español por Miranda Bucio
handle it, you make yourself feel worse.”
In some Latino households, those who have any sort of mental health illness are considered “locos” — the Spanish word for crazy. Latinos are more likely than non-Latino white people to feel a sense of shame if a family member suffers from a mental illness.
Admitting the need for mental healthcare can be especially difficult for first-generation immigrants.
“A lot of groups see it as an indication of weakness [or] a character defect, as opposed to, it’s a natural reaction to environments of high stress or a great loss,” said Ané M. Maríñez-Lora, a research assistant professor at the University of Chicago, who focuses on the cultural adaptation of evidence-based interventions in mental health services.
“By giving yourself such a hard time and by saying you’re weak because you can’t
Subsequent generations may inherit the stigma and also avoid seeking help – or even feel they aren’t entitled to it.
“Therapy or mental health services aren’t just for somebody who has gone through a traumatic event,” said Marilyn Rodriguez, a bilingual psychotherapist and the community liaison for Latinx Talk Therapy. “Sometimes day-to-day stressors that we may see as small are impacting our ability to engage, to relate to others and how we’re engaging in our daily functioning.”
This stigma causes many Latinos to avoid seeking help.
“Latinos tend to receive less services,” Maríñez-Lora said. “It’s also very common that they wait a long time until it gets very bad. They wait longer than white, middle-class families to get help and so their symptomatology tends to be higher.”
Even when they do seek help, Latinos can encounter language and cultural obstacles. Only 6.3% of the therapists in the United States are Latino, according to the American Psychological Association Center for Workforce Studies. In Chicago, the ratio of Latinos to Spanish-speaking therapists is 2,462:1.
This is the gap Latinx Talk Therapy seeks to bridge by providing bilingual services from Latino therapists. All the therapists at the cognitive behavioral therapy clinic, which opened in 2020, speak Spanish and English.
Latinos suffer from the same issues as other groups – depression, anxiety, stress, guilt, suicidal thoughts, anger and hopelessness – but they process them through a different cultural lens and sometimes in a different language.
“We try to bridge the gap in access to
mental health services for the Latinx community,” Rodriguez said. “Our therapists specialize in Latinx mental health.”
Many immigrants or first-generation Latinos tend to lean more towards Spanglish when they communicate and others speak limited English. There are words in Spanish that they don’t know in English and vice versa, which can lead to problems when they try to explain their experiences and traumas. Providing therapists who speak both English and Spanish is a way to overcome the language barrier that often discourages many from reaching out for help.
“Sometimes we don’t recognize that language can be a factor in being able to express yourself and being able to communicate what you’re struggling with,” Rodriguez said.
Continued on page 7
The clinic’s cognitive behavioral therapy approach explores how an individual’s mental schemas and thoughts influence their emotions and behaviors — another place where culture plays a role.
“Depending on the stories that we’re telling ourselves and on the different beliefs that we’ve internalized, whether it’s through society or culture or from individual experiences, all these beliefs are impacting how we’re feeling and that is either motivating us or not to take action,” Rodriguez said.
Still, not everyone is able to access help at Latinx Talk Therapy. Those without insurance may find the cost prohibitive and those without transportation may struggle with the clinic’s location in downtown Chicago. And yet, the location downtown on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue, serves a purpose too.
“The message that we want to send out is that as Latinx individuals, we also get to take up space, we belong downtown and we should have our identities be seen,” Rodriguez said.
When Rodriguez first started working at LTT, there were only four therapists in the clinic, now there’s a team of 50. Over the past five years, she has noticed how their services have started to gain traction.
“A lot more people are now aware of the services that we provide, a lot more people are sharing their experience in
therapy, so we’ve definitely increased in caseload and capacity,” Rodriguez said. Their internship program allows them also to provide pro bono services to individuals, although they currently only have a handful of interns at the clinic.
Intern Darío Zamorano is a first-generation Mexican American who focus-
“Any other experience doesn’t give me the access to provide care and develop a philosophy of care that’s specifically geared towards the Latinx community.”
The key to Latinx Talk Therapy’s success is breaking through the stigmas and connecting on a deeper cultural level based on a shared understanding
“I’ve never had the space to connect with my community”
es on working with BIPOC, Latinx and LGBTQIA+ identities. Zamorano has provided pro bono group therapy sessions at Latinx Talk Therapy since August 2023. He handles eight to twelve clients weekly and 30 to 50% of his sessions are in Spanish.
“Having a shared language means being able to not only understand each other linguistically but also understanding one another relationally,” he said. One of the first groups Zamorano developed was for emerging adults, ages 18 to 29, to help them develop skills for responding to their current problems, tolerating stress, regulating their emotions and navigating relationships.
“I’ve never had the space to connect with my community,” he said regarding his work for Latinx Talk Therapy.
of values and traditions.
“As a professional, I’m here to support you to help you reflect and help you understand your experiences better,” Rodriguez said. “Building that rapport and building those relationships is what helps us create a bigger impact and create more of that therapeutic alliance.”
“There’s research indicating that adaptations of evidence-based practices really do help Latino families or other families of color,” Maríñez-Lora said.
“But the truth is, the biggest piece is engaging families in services.”
Doreen Abril Albuerne-Rodriguez is a junior journalism major and sustainable fasion major from Troy, Michigan.
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Inmigrantes de primera generación tienen dificultades buscando servicios de salud mental a causa de barreras como idioma, transportación y los estigmas sobre salud mental. La comunidad latine sufre de varios problemas como otros grupos, pero con una diferente perspectiva cultural. Latinx Talk Therapy es una clínica terapéutica que abrió en el 2020 para proveer servicios bilingües para la comunidad. La terapia de la clínica explora los pensamientos y esquemas mentales y la conexión a los comportamientos y emociones de las personas. Incluso cuando buscan ayuda, la comunidad latine puede encontrar obstáculos idiomáticos y culturales. Sólo el 6,3% de los terapeutas en Estados Unidos son latinos, según el Centro de Estudios de la Fuerza Laboral de la Asociación Estadounidense de Psicología.
Resumen en Español por Uriel Reyes
The bookshelves at the 18th Street Casa de Cultura are filled with colorful books in Spanish and English. People file into the space, where they snack on cookies and popcorn, examine the tote bags, posters and artist-made shirts laid out on a table and stop by the build-your-own bouquet station.
Casa De Cultura, located in Pilsen, regularly offers community programs and art events. Today, everyone who arrives is given a small notebook with a Sin Título sticker on the cover and a pen, perfect for journaling.
This is the second journaling event hosted by Sin Título. The first, “Self Love Journal Club,” attracted around a hundred people. This one, “Journaling with Poems,” was added due to popular demand.
Sin Título is a socially conscious clothing brand that was started in 2020 by three Latina sisters. It has since evolved into a multi-faceted brand that hosts mental health discussion panels and other events series focused on the same objectives that drive the brand: amplifying marginalized young voices and healing the Latinx community in Chicago.
“Journaling with Poems” is led by Sin Título’s CEO and co-founder Iraís Elizarraz. She introduces each journaling prompt with a poem that requires self-reflection: Who you are, why you’re here and how you would define your sanctuary. Afterward, participants talk about how they didn’t expect such a deep self-introspection on a Friday afternoon.
Nancy Gallegos, a frequent attendee at Sin Título’s events, recalls the beginnings of the brand. Her parents live across the street from the Elizarraz’s house, where the sisters began by hosting events in their front yard.
“I think their whole approach is so different because it is very community-centered,” Gallegos said. “You walk into these already feeling a connection because you know people are there for the same reason as you. Not only are they creating a community, but they’re also healing a community. It’s very beautiful.”
Gallegos is already looking forward to the Sin Título’s Mother’s Day event, where she plans to bring her 15-year-old daughter and her mother.
Sin Título began at a pivotal point in society when the Black Lives Matter movement was forcing a racial reckoning. Iraís Elizarraz and her sisters, Itzel and Diana, created the company as a platform where they could speak without speaking through shirts and other apparel.
Some of their early tie-dyed or bleached T-shirts and hoodies feature slogans like “defund the police,” “I am my ancestors’ greatest dreams,” “ponte las pilas” – which means “get your act together” – and “got non-gentrified Mexican food?”
After COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, they decided to host events such as loteria game nights and “build your own t-shirt” opportunities. In 2022, sensing the need among young people, they started monthly mental health discussions.
“We wanted to find a sense of a relationship with our consumers beyond just purchasing a shirt,” Iraís Elizarraz said.
Iraís Elizarraz was inspired to host their monthly mental health discussions after being invited by Coffee, HipHop and Mental Health to be a part of a mental health panel discussion at Thalia Hall, where she talked how she needed to create an Americanized version of her name to help people pronounce it.
“A lot of individuals came up to me and said, ‘I resonated with the dynamic that you mentioned,’” she said. “I wanted to have that feeling more and I wanted to have an outlet to speak on things revolving around mental health.”
Their monthly themed mental health discussions began in May 2022. Smaller, pop-up events are held at spaces such as Kimball Art Center and See You Soon, but the larger ones are hosted at 18th Street Casa de Cultura.
Iraís Elizarraz said having their own business allows the creative freedom and the ability to go in any direction they desire, within reason.
“At some points we were doing too many things and we had to scale back in terms of logistics and of our sanity,” she said. “[My sisters and I] have fulltime career jobs and try to juggle the two, having the free will to go in whatever direction, can be a blessing and a curse.”
For mental health discussion-based events, they partner with therapy professionals, including For Real Therapy, Latinx Talk Therapy and Encuéntrate. They curate the discussion theme to be aligned with the month. For example, December was “Mental Health Around the Holidays,” February was “SelfLove,” October was “Grief” and January addressed seasonal depression. Events typically begin with the panelists or speakers sharing their stories and insights, followed by a Q&A session. Attendees are welcome to speak or anonymously submit questions directly that Iraís Elizarraz will ask on their behalf. Storytelling is a big aspect of these events. Being able to share something personal with a room full of people can be difficult, but these events are supportive. Sometimes, people clap or laugh, but often, they are just silent.
“In mental health discussions, the most powerful reaction, for the most part, is silence and the sense of how people tilt their head and are really engaged in the conversation and in the words that are coming out of literally my soul to an extent,” Iraís Elizarraz said.
Ané M. Maríñez-Lora, a research assistant professor at the University of Chicago, who focuses on the cultural adaptation of evidence-based interventions in mental health services, said events like these can be very beneficial to young people, including college students.
“It’s very important for young people to be able to feel like they are in a supportive environment and that if they are having an off day that there is support there without shaming,” Maríñez-Lora said.
All events are held in-person, with no option of chiming in via Zoom. People have requested that the discussions be available online to reach a wider audience, but the sisters have no plans to provide that option.
“We don’t have the technology or can invest in equipment to really make sure that [the sound] is crisp,” Iraís Elizarraz said. “We also don’t want to disrupt it [by] juggling too many things; if we have technical issues, that means everyone’s experience who is in person is altered.”
Instead, she says, “I want to focus on mastering in-person and then we’ll explore that option of possibly doing virtual.”
Sin Título’s is expanding beyond Chicago, holding a discussion about the relationship with money in Dallas and a hiking trip in Los Angeles.
Events used to be free, with online signup, but now Sin Título charges a small admission fee of $2.50 to encourage people to come. This also helps ensure enough chairs and tables for guests—something that helps people feel more welcome.
“Some people come alone, and it’s something that’s very vulnerable for individuals that are stepping into their journey in mental health,” Iraís Elizarraz said. “We want to make sure that we’re attending to those small details that go beyond the typical event checklist.”
Sin Título’s Instagram feed extends the mental health journey online. Iraís Elizarraz uses Instagram to address her relationship with money and her struggles balancing work for corporate America with her own business. Many people grow up with money traumas, which negatively skew their perspective on working; a lack of resources and information available adds to that stress.
“I feel like that’s another outlet to let people into my personal mental health journey of what I’m willing to share with our customer base,” she said.
Sin Título also hosted a “Mental Wealth” panel discussion with Pablo Torres from Pablo Wealth Talks and Daisy Gomez, a Latina therapist and life coach. Sin Título has begun embedding Spanglish and allows guests to speak in Spanish fully.
“People show up in different aspects of proficiency in Spanish, so we try to keep that in the back of our mind and [ask ourselves] how do we address this? That is something that differentiates us when we’re looking at our specific Latinx community,” Iraís Elizarraz said. Gallegos said they are a fan of Sin Título’s shift to bilingual accessibility.
“I love that Iraís and her sisters are moving into this bilingual format and that I’m seeing a lot of Latinos in this community because we need to talk more about this and normalize these conversations,” Gallegos said.
Since the implementation of mental health conversations in their brand, Iraís Elizarraz says other small businesses have reached out for insight into how they can do something similar.
“I love that aspect that people are normalizing the conversation, we’ve influenced individuals who reach out to us saying ‘Hey, I live in Washington, we don’t have any of this, can we have a Zoom call and chat about how you work and how you started up?’” Iraís Elizarraz said. “A lot of it is just people having to see that it exists, they need to see that it’s possible.”
Doreen Abril Albuerne-Rodriguez is a junior journalism major and sustainable fasion major from Troy, Michigan.
MANAGEMENT@COLUMBIACHRONICLE.COM Copy edited by Lily Thomas
Sin Título está sanando a la comunidad latine, escuchando las voces jóvenes en Chicago. La organización fue fundada en 2020 por tres hermanas latinas quienes se asocian con profesionales de la terapia, como For Real Therapy y Latinx Talk Therapy, para organizar paneles de discusión sobre la salud mental y otras series de eventos en 18th Street Casa de Cultura, localizado en Pilsen. Estos eventos mensuales albergan una variedad de temas, como noches de poesía y narración de cuentos, abiertos a todos los niveles de hispanohablantes. Un aspecto importante de estas charlas sobre salud mental es ofrecer un espacio para que las personas expresen sus sentimientos. Resumen en Español por Lizeth Medina
» AVERY HEERINGA REPORTER
Senior year can be a defining moment for both high school and college students as they celebrate accomplishments and look ahead to what comes next. But amid a cycle of unforeseen disruptions since 2020, the past year has had a déjà vu vibe for some seniors getting ready to graduate from Columbia.
Hannah Dormady, a senior fashion studies major, graduated high school in 2020 during the peak of pandemic restrictions. During her senior year of college, she faced a similar situation during the historic part-time faculty strike, which impacted three of her five classes in the fall semester.
Similarly to how she dealt with the unclear path through COVID-19, Dormady said she adopted a “day-by-day” approach to getting through the semester.
“We didn’t really know what to think for a long time, which kind of felt the same as COVID because, again, you were just kind of going into it blind,” she said. “I just felt like I was trying to do anything to safeguard my education and trying to make sure I was getting my money’s worth being here.”
A recent study by Chicago-based psychologists and doctors found that learning disruptions increased stress and anxiety in college students.
“The constant fear, online presence, the enormous volume of information consumed, endless searches and associated behaviors, amplified anxiety and stress and were a reason for the rise in anxiety,” the researchers found. They acknowledged that academic stress is already a part of a typical student learning cycle, which was only
heightened by the disruptions.
Senior film major Javon White entered the college during the Fall 2019 semester and experienced the COVID-19 disruptions during his first year. During last semester’s strike, three of his five classes were disrupted. White is currently retaking one of them.
Despite the recurring disruptions during his path toward graduation, White said he did his best to make peace with the uncertainty.
“There’s always going to be, maybe, some type of outside circumstance you can’t control,” White said. “The best thing to do is just try your best to navigate through that; do what you do best. In this case, for me, it was still pursu-
of her semester.
“As a student, I felt like it was kind of just scary because it’s like you don’t know what to expect. It did feel a lot like COVID again,” she said. “First two weeks, I felt like ‘kay this is not that bad,’ but when we started going into further weeks, I was just confused and worried” about what would happen.
Director of Student Relations Tiana Hill works to connect students with various resources both internally at the college and externally in the Chicago area. She provides students with initial mental health services before referring them out to longer-term services, assists with housing insecurity and creates plans for students to stay on track
“There’s always going to be, maybe, some type of outside circumstance you can’t control”
ing my film career, not quitting even though that pressure was there.”
Lia Navarro, a senior audio arts major and animation minor, who graduated high school in 2021, said the learning loss during the pandemic made her feel like she was missing out.
“I just felt like it wasn’t real,” Navarro said. “I wasn’t learning as much as I could being in person.”
Navarro said during the part-time faculty strike, which impacted three of her five classes, she questioned the future
“Everything is temporary, it may seem real hard at the moment,” Hill said. “Eventually the wave will change and be different.”
For seniors who may already be experiencing the “what ifs” of life after graduation, added uncertainty during the school year could make for an overwhelming amount of change. Hill said she hopes students understand that the college has resources available for those who want or need them.
“You do not have to sit in this alone, [there’s] help out here,” she said. “Whether you go to a professor, you go to our office, you go to counseling services.” After this repeated nature of learning loss and academic disruptions, students such as White have made an effort to remind themselves of his aspirations as a way to navigate through the uncertainty.
“I realize I’m still young, I’m still pursuing my career no matter what happens. Of course, there are going to be setbacks and losses and I would consider the strike and COVID very big setbacks and losses,” White said. “But at the end of the day, I have to remember what I’m doing this for and everything I’ve done thus far through-
during their time at the college. Hill said she works with students on stress and anxiety-related issues, which often relates to their “locus of control,” which she described as considering what one does have control over in times of uncertainty. During a time like the strike, some students may have felt unsure of what they could do to preserve their academic progress and mental health. Hill said understanding that uncertainty doesn’t last forever is important.
Los graduados de Columbia sintieron el impacto de las repetidas interrupciones durante su tiempo en la universidad. Primero con los confinamientos por COVID-19 y más tarde con la huelga histórica de la facultad de tiempo parcial, en Columbia. Aunque el último año puede ser un momento decisivo para los universitarios, un ciclo de interrupciones imprevistas desde 2020, el año pasado, ha causado un ambiente de déjà vu para los que esperan graduarse de Columbia. Un estudio reciente realizado por psicólogos y médicos basados en Chicago encontró que las interrupciones del aprendizaje aumentan el estrés y la ansiedad en los estudiantes universitarios.
Resumen en Español por Andres Guerra
Cuando Cescilia West tenía 19 años de edad, llegó a este país por primera vez a visitar a su hermana. Desde entonces, se enamoró de la “Ciudad de los Vientos” y decidió que Chicago sería su nuevo hogar y ya no su natal, Mérida, Venezuela.
Fue aquí, donde ha rendido fruto a sus proyectos que tanto deseaba, siendo una entrenadora de salud – y hoy en día, a sus 27 años de edad, decidió lanzar su marca de bienestar, basada en el South Loop, Balance by CW, en octubre del 2023.
Un giro alrededor de las mujeres que se empoderan unas con las otras mientras encuentran precisamente un balance sobre la importancia de su salud, amor propio, paz mental y emocional.
“Creé Balance con el propósito de juntar chicas y hacer eventos una o dos veces al mes. Para que tengamos nuestro rato de nosotras mismas, de manera que podamos conectar con nuestro cuerpo, con nuestra alma”, dijo West. Una comunidad donde el amor propio y el querer sentirse mejor con uno mismo está presente rotundamente.
“Me encanta el ‘after feeling’, siento que todas se van contentas, tienen un
buen tiempo, hacen conexiones, conversan”, ella dijo.
Sin embargo, la diversidad está presente constantemente, ya que West cuenta que chicas de diferentes nacionalidades se han unido. Principalmente venezolanas, mexicanas, peruanas, colombianas, ecuatorianas, americanas y canadienses.
“Al principio si soy sincera, quería latinas. De hecho tenía tantos nombres en mente que llegué a hacer las iniciales BLC, Balance Latin Community–pero después vi que había otras chicas que no eran latinas y pensé que no las podía excluir, todas son bienvenidas”, dijo West.
West se enfoca en crear eventos en donde la comunidad se rodee de positividad y puedan conectar con ellas mismas, para ayudar a su salud mental ya que están en un lugar seguro, donde no serán juzgadas.
“No hay envidia, todas son mujeres. La mayoría ha venido de otros lugares, estamos en la misma sintonía de salir adelante y crecer”.
En algunos de sus eventos, ayuda a otras mujeres emprendedoras. Una de ellas es la economista venezolana, Karina León, quien también es creadora de Healthy Scoops, una marca de comida latina, preparada y saludable.
“Como que hicimos ‘match’, el pro-
ducto que ella está dando, con el que yo estoy dando. Como que vamos de la mano”, dijo León. “Me encanta también ayudar a otras personas, apoyarlas, experimentar cosas nuevas”, contó West.
Desde el primer evento de Balance, que tomó lugar en el South Loop, León se ha hecho presente en apoyar a West con su emprendimiento. Esto es porque siente que le ayuda a tener cuidados personales - ya que es madre.
“Se hace necesario desconectarnos para conectar con nosotros mismos, para volver a eso que nos llena, que nos da vida, que nos hace sentir bien físicamente tal como emocionalmente”, añade Leon, “creo que esa es la iniciativa que tiene Balance. Cada vez que asisto, me siento super recargada y me siento bien”.
A pesar de lo difícil que ha sido salir adelante para West en un país que no la vio nacer, cuenta que tuvo la necesidad de tener tres trabajos para poder sacar sus sueños adelante.
Ahora, West espera poder llevar Balance a un nivel internacional. Hasta la fecha, ha logrado hacer un evento en su país natal, “En diciembre fui a Venezuela y pensé que tenía que hacer algo ahí”.
Hace un poco más de cinco años, West conoció a Stefany Herrera, una esteti-
cista licenciada, desde entonces llevan una amistad.
“Me ayuda a encontrar nuevos recursos porque también me ha brindado un poco de cuidado personal. A veces estoy muy ocupada cuando ella tiene estos eventos, me alejo y me encanta. Intentó asistir a tantos como puedo... conocer gente nueva, socializar y hacer crecer mi red”, dijo Herrera. Herrera también se ha vuelto en un apoyo para la creadora de Balance durante este proceso.
Para West, no hay recompensa más grande que el poder ver caras nuevas en sus eventos. “ Me pregunto ¿‘cómo conocieron Balance, como se enteraron’? Me alegra mucho porque a veces es difícil inscribirse y atender porque no conoces a nadie o te vas a sentir incomoda, pero sin embargo lo hacen”, dijo.
León aconseja para las personas que quieren sanar su salud mental, fuera o dentro de Balance que: 7:09 “Si nosotros no buscamos ayuda, o intentamos de hacer este tipo de actividades que nos unan, que nos enriquecen, que nos hacen sentir bien buscando en nuestro interior– nadie más va a venir a darnos esa ayuda que solo nosotros podemos hacernos conscientes, dedicarnos tiempo”.
CSOTELO@COLUMBIACHRONICLE.COM
Edición de copia por Jordilin Ruiz
Cescilia West has recently launched her wellness brand, Balance by CW, based in the South Loop. By doing this, she hopes to establish a community of women who focus on their physical, emotional and mental health — all while supporting each other. West hosts different events at least once a month for women to have a safe space where they can surround themselves with positivity and connect with others, which could boost their mental health.
Resumen en Inglés por Citlalli Magali Sotelo
Gun violence deeply affects the lives of residents on Chicago’s South and West Sides. According to the University of Chicago Crime Lab, more than 50% of the shootings on Chicago’s South Side take place in less than 8% of the blocks, and more than 35% of the shootings on the West Side take place in about 5% of the blocks. In addition to gang violence, petty feuds – some begun on social media – can spill out onto the streets. And after a shooting, it’s likely that there will be retaliation. This is the cycle of violence that the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago is working to interrupt through programs that address not just the immediate aftermath of violence but also its root causes. Through street outreach – including showing up at the scene of a shooting or the hospital – they work to negotiate peace and train both victims and perpetrators in how to prevent further violence.
In 2023, INVC outreach workers and victim advocates responded to 391 shootings in Chicago. Ninety-seven percent of these responses were within 60 minutes of the shooting. “We successfully engaged and supported 78% of the victims and families, and 56% of victims subsequently joined our programming,” according to the organization’s 2023 Impact Report.
Key to their success is cognitive behavioral intervention, which is gaining traction as a key component of community violence intervention programs, offering hope for long-lasting change.
The INVC incorporates cognitive behavioral intervention in several of its programs, starting with its incident response team.
When a shooting occurs, victim advocates from the INVC reach out to the parties involved on the scene or at the hospital. From there the organization offers “a wide range of holistic support” ranging from support groups to financial assistance through the Emergency Supplemental Victim’s Fund, said Shunda Collins, the organization’s vice president of development and communications. It also offers long-term services using cognitive behavioral intervention to help participants change the way they process their trauma and “think before they respond.” CBI involves helping participants analyze their thoughts and reactions, realize when their negative thoughts and emotions are growing
more intense, and implement strategies to keep those negative thoughts and emotions from turning toward violent actions.
Perpetrators and victims of crimes are invited to participate in several programs that use CBI, including HOPE “Helping Our People Excel,” a 12-week program that includes mentoring and nonviolence training, and FLIP “Flat-lining Violence Inspires Peace,” a six-month peacekeepers training program for former perpetrators of violence. Crucially, participants are paid to participate in these programs, receiving stipends ranging from $100 a day to $470 per week. Successful graduates of the program are better able to find and keep jobs, and some find work in violence prevention.
CBI is typically done in group sessions, though participants can request oneon-one therapy with a behavioral health clinician. Group sessions are co-facilitated by clinicians and non-clinicians, according to Kelly Carroll, INVC’s associate director of behavioral health and wellness. Over the course of 13 modules, participants learn both CBI skills and “the principles of nonviolence.”
Staff introduce the concept of CBI saying, “We are all experts. We will learn just as much from you as you will learn from us.” They assure participants that they “already have skills” but “existing skills may or may not be working for you in different situations.”
Participants learn about the brain’s “alarm circuit:” the amygdala, hippocampus and prefrontal cortex representing the alarm, memory center and thinking center, respectively. They also learn about how normal stress makes these centers work together and how the extreme stress of trauma can cause survival instincts to kick in and cloud decision-making skills.
She notes that the INVC avoids the word “rehabilitation” in these efforts.
“I think language matters and when I hear the word ‘rehabilitation,’ what that says to me is something’s wrong with this person that they need to be fixed,” Carroll said. “And one of the things that we say from the very first CBI session is they are taking a non-pathologizing approach here.”
Caroll said participants respond positively to the program. “The number one thing we hear is, ‘I don’t just react anymore. I pause and I respond differently.’ Folks talk about how they are different in their relationships; they have a new vocabulary to talk about
their feelings and their thoughts and their experiences.”
This is meant to be a lifelong practice. “One of the things we say about CBI is you don’t learn the skills and then you’re done. You learn the skills and then you’re constantly practicing them for the rest of your life,” she said.
After an initial increase during the pandemic, shooting incidents have declined every year since 2020, according to the Chicago Police Department. Institute of Nonviolence Chicago is one of several organizations across the city aiming to help make sure that downward trend continues.
Numerous community violence intervention programs establish relationships with communities heavily affected by gun violence, providing services tailored to their needs.
Chico Tillmon, executive director of the Community Violence Intervention Leadership Academy, said that CVI can only go so far without CBI. He noted that even after triaging an individual and finding out what challenges they may face, violence intervention often doesn’t help with conflict resolution.
“If not for CBI or CBT, what we would find ourselves doing is working with the same individuals over and over again because every time they get in the situation, their manner of handling a situation typically is violent,” he said.
Tillmon also worked as the executive director of Heartland Alliance’s READI National Center for Safe Communities, another organization providing employment combined with cognitive behavioral intervention, skill-building, and other support to those at the highest risk of becoming involved in gun violence.
At READI National participants call their modified behavioral approach, CAD standing for “control, alt, delete.” Control your emotions. Alter your feelings. Delete past behaviors. Tillmon said tackling gun violence must be treated like the public health crisis it is. “What I mean is a public health or ecological systems approach where everybody plays a role similar to how we did with COVID,” he explains. That means everyone holding one another accountable and shaming the act of harming another person. He compares it to the requests made during the pandemic to put on a mask in social situations. “What they were doing
was reinforcing normative behavior, new normative behavior. Everybody could be involved to reinforce the same prosocial behaviors that they are being taught in CBI.”
Other programs that incorporate CBI include Becoming a Man, a program for middle and high school students that provides young people with behavioral science-informed interventions, and which has reduced violent crimes and arrests while increasing high school graduation rates.
While INVC has helped lower the number of shootings and provide support, they still have a long way to go. “We’re not reaching as many people as I’d like to. There’s still a huge stigma in the communities we serve around mental health services,” Carroll said. “People don’t trust or know what therapy is. And so, we have to do a lot of education for folks just to engage them in some of our services.”
In addition, some participants are unable to attend CBI programs due to scheduling conflicts and transportation issues, and one-on-one services haven’t been fully implemented yet. “So, the question is, how do we bring CBI to them?” Carroll asks. They are currently looking into having non-clinical outreach workers adapt CBI for one-on-one conversations, rather than teaching it in the group setting.”
Another concern is the safety of the workers. According to a 2021 study published in the journal Science, 20% of community violence outreach workers were shot at and 2% were shot while on the job. In addition, nearly 60% witnessed someone being shot at. This exposure to violence also takes a toll on the mental health of these workers.
INVC offers mental health support to these workers, too, since their efforts are crucial to reducing gun violence in Chicago’s most affected neighborhoods.
“Even when we do research, especially quantitative, we are so focused on the statistics that we forget we are talking about human beings,” Tillmon said. “The question should be, ‘What resources should we exhaust to stop Black and brown people from dying?’”
PHURSTON@COLUMBIACHRONICLE.COM Copy edited by Lily Thomas
Students involved with dance and theatre grow up in an environment where they have to be vulnerable when receiving criticism for their performances.
For senior theatre major Liv Gallo, this meant “a lot of self-sabotage” and “thinking you’re not good enough.”
Throughout Gallo’s nine years in theatre, the critiques and feedback started to take a toll on their mental health. They said having to keep yourself in a vulnerable state while performing a piece you worked hard on, the critiques “stick with you.”
Because of this, Gallo said they would be hesitant to do new projects because they would be thinking about the feedback they got on a project, even from three or four years ago.
“Some feedback just sticks,” Gallo said. “You’re constantly being critiqued. You’re constantly being judged; it’s crazy.” For senior music business major Elena Hope León, dance affected her mental health “at a very young age.”
The big picture:
Mind the Gap, founded in 2018 by a former dancer who was one of the first to write about the issue of mental health in the dance profession, compiles resources for dancers to get help.
Its founder, Kathleen McGuire, has said that relatively little data exists on dancer mental health. But the organization’s studies have found that more than threefourths of dancers have experienced challenges with mental health and relatively few have felt comfortable enough
to raise the issue with an instructor.
By the numbers:
There were 61 students in the Theatre Department and 100 students in the Dance Department in Fall 2023, according to the Office of Institutional Effectiveness.
Jessica Young, associate professor in the Dance Department, said “some students already come in having experience with therapists” and some are “currently seeing therapists.”
Starting at a dance studio at five years old, León has been the captain of the college’s dance team for the past two years. Along her journey to this role, she said dance “has its ugly sides to impact a dancer’s mental health.”
“Being a dancer requires a lot of looking at yourself in the mirror and analyzing every part of your body and the way it moves,” León said. “This made me very hyper-aware of my body at a very young age.”
By always having to stand in front of a mirror and look at herself, León said it’s been “very taxing” on her mental health and the way she perceives herself.
Gallo transferred to Columbia their junior year after theatre professors at their former school made them feel like they “weren’t good enough.” Once they got to Columbia, professors helped Gallo change their negative mindset into a positive one.
In order to help Gallo continue audi-
tioning for roles without their mental health being affected, “meditation, journaling and positive self-affirmations have been the most helpful,” they said.
Hearing affirmations from famous actors helped Gallo understand that they have dealt with rejection, too.
“If I’m not getting cast, it doesn’t mean I’m not good enough. It just means that I’m not what they’re looking for at that moment,” Gallo said. “And that’s okay.”
León said she’s not sure if the negative impact dance had on her will ever go away, as she spends 30 hours a week in the dance studio, but she said she was able to find “more healthy ways to cope and heal.”
“While dance may have negatively impacted me, it is also so freeing to be able to express myself through movement in an artistic way,” León said.
León has shifted her mindset of staring at herself in the mirror from fixating on herself to now focusing on “getting lost in the craft and beauty of dance as an art.”
Between the lines:
Susan Padveen, associate chair of the Theatre Department, said she sees mental health issues rise in theatre students because of “anxiety, difficulty with communication and relationships, identity and getting overextended and then overwhelmed.”
When it comes to going to the college for help, Padveen said the college evaluates the student’s attendance and grades first to see if it may be a sign of trouble. In the meantime, Padveen said faculty can meet with students they see struggling and offer opportunities to
talk, or meet up and discuss class adjustments to help them succeed.
Padveen also said students will check in with mental health counselors at the college, the office of student services or seek mental health professionals on their own.
Young said although she has seen a rise in anxiety among dancers, people’s willingness to talk about it has risen, too. A factor that plays into a dancer’s health may be the dance environment they grew up in, Young said. This can cause a dancer to “exacerbate feelings of depression, have anxiety, as well as, in some cases, body image issues,” she added.
Young said she believes the environment in the Dance Department focuses on embracing and welcoming dancers from diverse backgrounds. She believes it “really helps to promote that community and sense of belonging, which is really critical.”
During the current days of Gallo’s career in theatre, they said their mental health still affects them, but “not to the extent that it was affecting me before I came to Columbia.”
For León, she said dance has helped her in several ways, like how it “feels like an escape from reality” and “conveys emotions in ways that cannot be described in words.”
“I think no matter what kind of artist you are, you will always go through some kind of block,” Gallo said. “But everybody goes through the phase of ‘I don’t think I can do this,’ and then there’s that one thing that makes them believe that they can.”
ASHELTON@COLUMBIACHRONICLE.COM
Copy edited by Myranda Diaz
A far-right, pro-Israel website is outing pro-Palestinian students, advocates and professors by doxxing them on a public website and labeling them as terrorists, producing what is effectively a blacklist.
Canary Mission, which first appeared in 2015, is a website that claims to document people and groups that “promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews.” It purports to investigate hatred across the North American political spectrum, but in reality, Canary Mission is an online witch hunt of Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims and allies in academic spaces in the U.S. that exposes the personal information of students, staff and faculty who show support for Palestinians. As campus protests against the war in Gaza have spread across the country in recent weeks, Canary Mission has ramped up its work in an effort to discredit and silence student activists who have participated. This is not a website that aims to combat antisemitism, which should rightfully be called out. Canary Mission does not do that. It labels organizations, groups and news sources like Jewish Voice for Peace, Muslim Student Association and Al Jazeera as platforms
“celebrating terrorism.” It is disguised Israeli propaganda aiming to win over the public while simultaneously shaming and endangering its victims.
It is especially harmful at this moment, as largely peaceful protests on college campuses are met with arrests and attacks from police. Following the arrest of more than 100 students on April 18 at Columbia University in New York, students across the country have set up encampments in solidarity to protest the bombardment of Gaza and to demand that their institutions cut any financial and academic ties to Israel and companies profiting from the occupation of Palestinian territories.
At DePaul University, the Students for Justice in Palestine’s lead representatives were reported to the Canary Mission by other students. When the victims brought it up to administrators at DePaul, they said there was nothing they could do about it, even though their students’ personal information was plastered on the website.
Other SJP representatives across Chicago colleges like the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago and Northwestern University have hundreds of their students’ information
on the website as well. Columbia College students and alumni are also listed. The information includes a picture of them, their addresses, workplace, academic history and any other information Canary Mission finds.
The fear of being blacklisted is real and has added to the anguish many students have felt since Oct. 7.
At the University of Texas at Austin last fall, two teaching assistants were removed from a course called “Women and Madness” after they distributed mental health resources to Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students.
Students impacted not only need support and mental health resources directed to them, they need their institutions to condemn Canary Mission like the University of California, Berkeley School of Law did last year.
Columbia needs more visible support. Since the school year, Dean of Students Douglas Eck and the Student Diversity and Inclusion office staff members have provided a safe space for students to report hate on campus. But beyond this, the college has done nothing else.
As a Palestinian, people tell me that the Canary Mission is the reason they bite their tongue when it comes to defending our people, which causes its own kind of stress and guilt.
When I asked Palestinians I know if they’d be willing to speak to me regarding the mental health of Palestinian and Israeli Americans, all of them said “no” in fear of being named on Canary Mission. People from the high school I attended often face issues because their names are found on this website,
labeling them “terrorists.”
In my community, multiple families have been denied entry into Palestine because of Canary Mission, even if they are Americans with no Palestinian citizenship. The goal of this website is not only to scare Palestinians and their supporters but also to give a reason as to why Palestinians can and should be mistreated. Along with this scare tactic, Canary Mission has been reported to send agents to show up students’ campuses to intimidate them.
Even if colleges and universities have no way to stop online doxxing from people outside the campus community, they need to take a stronger stance on speech tolerance to at least attempt to provide support and safety for their students. They need to condemn Canary Mission. They need to recognize the tremendous need for mental health resources for their Palestinian, Muslim and Jewish students since Oct. 7.
In an open letter to college and university presidents late April, the ACLU argued for more protections for students protesting against the war in Gaza to make certain they were not being singled out for particular viewpoints. This is the minimum that colleges like Columbia should do. All students need to know they are safe to express their thoughts on campuses without fear of being attacked online or on their campuses.
When I was younger, I was always trying to find ways to fit in with my peers and make myself feel “normal.” From the way I dressed to the food I ate, I changed my preferred way of living so I wouldn’t inconvenience the people around me.
I was diagnosed with autism as a toddler, but my mom always thought I had “grown out of it” because I seemed to fit in with my peers. When the diagnosis was confirmed again during my freshman year of high school, everything started to make sense to me. With this new information, my entire life changed. I finally had an explanation for why I was “different” or “acted weird.” I no longer had to pretend like I fit in with everyone and could finally be myself. My new conversation starter was “Hi, I’m Hailey, I’m sorry if I act weird or anything, I’m autistic.”
As time went on, I realized that certain people still wouldn’t understand me because I appear neurotypical to anyone who doesn’t know me. This realization put me back into my norm of putting on a cover, also known as masking.
Although masking is a strategy that many autistic people use, it can be harmful more than helpful. I mask so often that sometimes I lose sight of my true self. I tend to mask when I am in a classroom setting, around people I am not fully comfortable with, or if I am at work or in a professional setting. When a neurodivergent person recognizes a social interaction might be affected by being perceived as neurotypical, they might mask. I mask so frequently that when I don’t have to do it anymore, my peers and friends think I have an alter ego that comes out when I get tired. Masking is present in all genders; however, studies show that people who
identify as women tend to mask more which is why autism in women is often diagnosed later in life. Having a late diagnosis for me caused a lot of identity issues. I wasn’t sure if I had been living a lie my whole life or putting on a character.
The hardest thing for me on my journey so far has been finding a balance between being treated the same as everyone else and having my sensory issues accommodated and respected. My roommates and friends have always done a good job of not babying me or treating me differently because I’m autistic. However, I sometimes get insecure as to whether they just ignore my autism, or if they have gotten used to the masked version of me.
Being in college is a much different living experience than being at home. I had to learn to deal with the food smacking, door slamming and dish clinking. I get anxious thinking about having to ask my roommates or friends
to be cautious of my sensory issues, and I have had times where I have isolated myself in my room to avoid confrontation. At the end of the day, why should anyone have to accommodate their living style for me?
Breaking free from the masks requires courage and support. I need an environment of acceptance and understanding in order to feel comfortable embracing full authenticity and self-acceptance. When we unmask autism, we reveal both the true faces that were hiding in plain sight and a diversity that adds to our shared human experience.
Hi, I’m Hailey. I’m sorry if I act weird or anything. I’m autistic.
Hailey Wilkins is a senior film major from Dallas, Texas.
Climate change is no longer a distant threat lurking on the horizon; it’s a reality we face every day, especially here in Chicago. The Windy City’s weather has always been notoriously unpredictable, but in recent years, it seems like Mother Nature is playing tricks on us more than ever before.
Climate change is not just about rising temperatures or extreme weather events. It’s about the profound disruptions it inflicts on our environment, economy and daily lives. Take the recent extreme cold spells that have gripped the city. Not only are these frigid temperatures uncomfortable, but they also pose significant challenges
for commuters. Metra and CTA trains have faced delays and stoppages due to switching problems caused by the cold, leaving many stranded and frustrated. The unpredictability of the weather adds an extra layer of anxiety to our already stressful lives. For instance, when erratic weather disrupts public transportation systems, it directly affects students who rely on these services and can’t afford alternatives like Uber, leading to added financial stress. Here is one example of the change in the weather: In Chicago, measured at the weather station at Midway International Airport, the high temperature for the month of April was 81 degrees on April 18. A year ago, the month of April had a string of even hotter days from April 12 to April 15. Compare that to a decade ago, when temperatures barely hit 70 in April 2013.
Financial struggles worsen existing issues, particularly for marginalized students, as revealed by a recent survey conducted at Columbia. The data paints a distressing picture, with a staggering 62% of students reported having to scale back on food expenditures due to financial constraints, while 37% had to reduce spending on healthcare. These statistics show the harsh reality that financial instability not only compromises physical health, but also adds a toll on mental well-being, fueling stress, anxiety and depression among students. Moreover, erratic weather patterns add another layer of complexity to the already daunting challenge of finances. Students find themselves in a cycle of needing to dress appropriately for fluctuating weather conditions, requiring constant purchasing or switching
of clothing items to keep up the pace. This continuous demand for wardrobe adjustments adds to the already burdensome financial stressors faced by marginalized individuals.
To address these pressing issues, Columbia must take steps to prioritize mental health support and resilience-building initiatives.
This includes investing in accessible and affordable mental health services for students and staff. This could involve expanding counseling services, establishing support groups and providing training for faculty and staff to recognize and address mental health concerns among students. It can include integrating climate change awareness and coping strategies into the college curriculum, which can significantly contribute to building resilience among students.
This can be achieved by incorporating interdisciplinary courses that explore the psychological impacts of climate change, strategies for coping with eco-anxiety and sustainable practices. By equipping students with the knowledge and skills to understand and address the challenges posed by climate change, the college can empower students and faculty to take proactive steps towards sustainability and adaptability.
The intersection of mental health and climate change is a pressing issue that demands urgent attention, particularly for college students at Columbia. As we confront the realities of erratic weather patterns and environmental upheaval, it’s imperative that we acknowledge the impact of these factors on mental health and take proactive steps to address them.
By prioritizing support for marginalized communities, investing in accessible healthcare resources and promoting climate resilience, Columbia can lead the way in fostering a campus environment that prioritizes both the well-being of its students and the health of the planet.
As students struggle to find a balance between seeking mental health services and their passions, music therapy is one option.
Various studies have shown that music has always been used to assist those healing and dealing with their mental health conditions. Columbia is known for its renowned music programs, but it does not offer music therapy. It should. As a student who has used therapy in the past, I would have appreciated some sort of music-listening, playing, writing or discussing therapy service in the last three years. It would allow me and others to attend a form of counseling and therapy while contributing to our creative sides.
Music and therapy go hand-in-hand. It has even been researched to alter brain activity and manage mood disorders, learning disabilities and substance use disorders. There are so many reasons why
Columbia should offer music therapy.
Music therapy is an evidence-backed form of counseling used to address depression and anxiety.
Some may choose to play instruments, write or discuss lyrics and listen or sing along to music, sometimes with direct help from a trained therapist. Officially, clinical music therapy must have a qualified music therapist at the head of each session. A music therapist will evaluate the strengths and areas for improvement and subsequently assist the patient in navigating through the medium of music.
Columbia’s Counseling Service office is in a position to rebuild. They have the chance to show students that no matter what they’re going through, there will always be an option for them. They could also benefit from different approaches to therapy, whether it is an official counseling session led by a professional or implementing a mental health club with a musical focus.
The college should offer music ther-
apy as a new group or solo service for any student on campus. Naturally, group sessions would be easier, with extra time and space for those looking to attend. Solo services may be harder due to student-to-instructor ratios.
Music therapy is still a small field, with only around 10,000 people who have become board-certified, however, it’s growing.
As the industry continues to expand, Columbia has an opportunity to become known for offering these services to its student body. It can be hard for therapy patients to open up and find a new therapist. If music was added, they may be more comfortable tackling a physical and equally vulnerable activity.
Student stress is one of the top causes of mental health issues in college students. Music therapy is a great option for those looking to unwind in one way or another. Music therapy is employed to alleviate physical discomfort by enhancing breathing, reducing blood pressure, boosting cardiac output, de-
creasing heart rate and easing muscle tension.
As Columbia’s Counseling Services office exits its transitional period and moves on to a steadier one, qualified music therapists should be added to the mix for a school that heavily relies on its creative population.
Amelia Rodriguez is a journalism major from Worcester, Massachusetts.
»
Brita Lundberg, senior photography major, catches their cat’s attention to play on Friday, May 3, 2024. Lundberg’s cat, Wilson, walks around the apartment while the sun shines through the windows.
Bear, an Australian shepherd, sits patiently on the cold lobby tile at the veterinarian’s office. This is one of his weekly visits to Jennifer Merleau, who ushers him into an exam room and feeds him treats. Today, she is able to give him a vaccine. Six months ago, Bear snapped at another veterinarian for just opening the package containing a syringe.
The underlying mental health issues that caused Bear’s fear of needles are not unusual. Mental health issues in animals have become a growing concern in recent years.
Animals experience similar mental health issues as humans, such as anxiety and depression, but they manifest in ways that may not be immediately apparent to pet owners—things like repetitive destructive tendencies and aggression.
One contributor to the uptick in animal mental health issues is the shift
toward no-kill shelters over the past several decades. Prior to this, aggressive animals and those with histories of poor physical or mental health were commonly euthanized. Since the early 1990s, Chicago has seen a rapid decrease in euthanasia within shelters. While this approach saves more lives, shelters are now adopting out many animals that previously would have been put down for their behavioral issues. Now, these animals are up for adoption, presenting challenges for pet owners.
Another contributor is the number of animals who spend the first months of their lives in shelters.
The majority of socialization and behavioral patterns in dogs develop within the first three months. Dogs raised in shelters or other nonideal circumstances may not be exposed to proper stimuli during this developmental period, leading to fears, a lack of attachment and life-long stress. This is why many owners of adopted dogs believe their
pets have trauma from prior events or people. It is often a lack of exposure to new stimuli during their developmental period that causes their anxiety and not necessarily trauma.
Pet owners who adopt through shelters are not always well-equipped to deal with the variety and severity of mental health issues that their animals may have. That, combined with people who adopted pets during the pandemic and then changed their minds, has led to animals being surrendered to shelters. In 2023, Chicago’s Animal Care and Control reported taking in over a thousand animals surrendered to the shelter by their owners.
“The number one reason that animals end up in a shelter or get returned to a shelter are generally behavior issues,” said Merleau, who is the director of veterinary affairs at Fear Free, an organization that works to reduce pet fear,
anxiety and stress through programs that educate pet owners and professionals. One of their programs works specifically with shelter staff. “What we try to do with our shelter program is educate people who are handling these pets to make sure that we can reduce [animals’] fear while they’re in the shelter setting,” Merleau said, “and desensitize them to some of the things that they’re going to experience when they get adopted and go home.”
Fear Free estimates that 13,000 shelters currently house 6 to 7 million pets, primarily dogs and cats. Those shelters are stressful for animals, who suffer from abrupt changes to their previous situations, unpredictable schedules and inadequate stimulation. This can lead to poor physical and mental health.
To remedy this, Fear Free’s shelter program provides shelter employees with strategies for reducing the stress, anxiety and fear shelter animals experience throughout the process, from intake through adoption. This includes
Continued on page 19
fear and frustration – and how to interpret and respond to problematic behaviors.
Fear Free provides training videos showcasing training techniques for rescue and shelter workers, veterinarians and other pet professionals, followed by quizzes that go over the information presented in the videos.
Instead of working hands-on and assessing each animal individually, Fear Free aims to give those who complete the program a well-rounded understanding of animal behavior. From there, participants in Fear Free’s online programs can help more animals than just their own. Outside of their dedicated programs, Fear Free posts consistent online content on their website for concerned pet owners. These posts are written by industry professionals and can answer questions as simple as “Why is my dog panting?” to more complex questions like “How do cats learn?”
Sometimes, it can be helpful for overwhelmed pet owners to see what other pet owners have done to solve the issues their animals are facing. House Rabbit Society of Chicago advocates for animal mental wellbeing through blog posts on their website, providing general rabbit care advice along with enrichment and quality of life standards for rabbits. Volunteer Katherine Boron has written about solutions to problems that she faced when first adopting rabbits.
Her first rabbit was depressed until she adopted a second rabbit, so she often promotes keeping rabbits in pairs.
Other posts by staff and volunteers address how to set up a space for a pet rabbit, proper diet, enrichment and nutrition. The blog aims to help new and experienced rabbit owners understand the behavior of their animals and troubleshoot issues so they aren’t returned to shelters. The House Rabbit Society also recommends what to do if problems can’t be overcome: find an adoptive home if at all possible, rather than surrendering a rabbit to a shelter.
When pet owners are able to solve the problems affecting their pets’ mental health, it can be good for them as well, Boron said.
“It benefits humans too, in my opinion, because they’re more fun when they’re happy,” she said.
Pets should remain with their owners ideally, but when a pet is aggressive, a professional trainer may be necessary.
Chicagoland Veterinary Behavioral Consultants pairs concerned pet owners with certified trainers who can help animals struggling with aggression, anxiety and destructive behaviors caused by poor mental health. After a consultation to help the owner and trainer understand what issues an animal is facing, the trainer helps the owner learn and reinforce positive behavioral patterns.
Liz Geisen, the practice manager and a behavior therapy trainer at Chicagoland Veterinary Behavioral Consultants, showcases training virtually using her own animals, who model behaviors
and exercises in front of the camera for owners to recreate. Geisen said the virtual setting makes it easier for anxious animals to feel at ease because a new person isn’t entering their space.
Geisen says her process has three steps: “Medication, if warranted; behavior modification, which is teaching coping skills; it has nothing to do with obedience; and management, which is changing things in the environment to help make changes in behavior.”
Geisen is a proponent of rewarding animals showcasing less destructive or anxious behaviors and not punishing non-ideal behaviors. This can look like giving praise when a dog walks through a room with new people without growling, or rewarding a dog with treats if they stay calm when their owner leaves the room. She advises owners to work with their animals during downtime throughout the day. For instance, when food is being cooked in the microwave, a pet owner can praise their dog for not jumping up on them.
The importance of patience:
Since animal mental health is a relatively new issue, pet owners may become overwhelmed when faced with the need to address it. Merleau and Geisen are empathetic toward pet owners experiencing this for the first time and emphasize patience while using programs like Chicagoland Veterinary Behavioral Consultants and Fear Free to better the mental health
of their animals.
“The earlier we start working with them to try to undo those negative associations, the better chance we have of getting them to a more positive place,” Merleau said. “When we’re dealing with highly anxious pets like this, it’s a slow process. It’s not going to be something that changes overnight. So setting those expectations for people is really important.”
Indy, an anxious Pitbull-lab mix, came into Merleau’s veterinary practice muzzled and with tense, dilated eyes. As vet technicians walked by, Indy tried to bite at them through her muzzle. Indy’s owner confessed to Merleau that he didn’t want Indy to struggle with the anxiety that caused her to lash out because she was a loving and friendly dog at home.
Turning to the techniques taught in Fear Free’s online Veterinary Certification Program, Merleau was able to make the vet’s office significantly less stressful for Indy.
“She was still nervous,” Merleau said. “But she could be around people without a muzzle on and that was not the dog that came to me six or eight months prior. Now she was sitting here in my lap, no muzzle, still a little nervous, but she would at least sit with me.”
James Wieners is a junior journalism major from Las Vegas
When junior Savanna Williams first stepped foot on Northern Illinois University’s campus, her stomach was in knots. Williams struggled to concentrate on her studies after leaving her infant daughter with relatives and worrying about her ability to support them both.
However, her stress eased upon learning that she qualified for childcare assistance at NIU, which is funded by a recent federal program.
“I was isolated as a new parent,” Williams said, who said the support wasn’t just financial. “They made sure I had access to housing. They made sure I had access to transportation and food, and to mental health services.”
It’s the support many parent college students dream of – a service that can make pursuing a degree possible. The added pressures on student parents can harm mental health, academic performance and overall life.
In the Chicago area, Northwestern, the University of Illinois at Chicago and Loyola have childcare centers and support. DePaul does not have on-campus child care centers, affiliated child care or child care subsidies for staff and students. Columbia does not have a child care center either.
In fact, at Columbia, employees and students can only bring their children to work or class in the case of an emergency or with prior approval. During the pandemic, Columbia banned children on campus. Faculty and students protested, and the college formed a working group to review the decision. It was overturned and a new, less restrictive policy was put in place.
Thirty-eight percent of public institutions and 7% of nonprofit institutions reported offering on-campus childcare services in 2023.
The federal program funded by the U.S. Department of Education is called CCAMPIS, which stands for Child Care Access Means Parents in School. It provides financial support to cover daycare and after-school program expenses.
In addition to providing financial assistance to students, CCAMPIS allocates funds to universities like NIU
to support student parents’ overall well-being. This includes covering the cost of family and program coordinators who meet with CCAMPIS students to ensure they’re on track academically and have access to resources such as food, transportation, medical services and mental health referrals.
Kristin Schulz, who oversees the child care services at NIU, said the grant facilitated parent engagement at NIU through monthly events such as parent cafés, providing opportunities for student parents to connect.
“It really is supportive,” Williams said, who’s also found community with the program. “We’re also learning from each other, we’re also improving, we’re addressing anything that we might be struggling with … and we’re really supporting each other.”
At DePaul, over 60 miles east of DeKalb, where NIU is located, a contrasting narrative unfolds with graduate student and parent Ilse Arciniega feeling abandoned as the university resumed in-person learning after the pandemic.
As a mother of a then 2-year-old, Arciniega said attending classes from home while simultaneously taking care of her daughter made her feel like she finally had enough time in the day to balance being a student parent.
“I can honestly say that if DePaul had not shifted to a fully online platform, I would not have made it that year,” Arciniega said.
But four years later, Arciniega said she feels forgotten on campus as she juggles the demands of being a full-time student, an employee and a mother.
With no on-campus child care and just two scholarships for student parents, which are currently not visible on the university’s scholarship portal, Arciniega described every day as a mental and physical struggle to balance her grades, finances and caring for her daughter.
“Over the past couple of years, my sleep deprivation has been intense and my anxiety has been really bad,” Arciniega said. “I feel like I’m not being a mom the way I want to be.”
As the president of Mothers of Color Handling Academia, Arciniega remains steadfast in advocating for sup-
port for fellow student parents on and off-campus.
Recently, Arciniega and Ariel Sylvester, a project mentor in DePaul’s College of Education, are also working to get a CCAMPIS grant to bring child care to DePaul for low-income parents and their children.
Students like Arciniega, who cannot afford Chicago’s average childcare costs that range from $1,000 to $2,500 a month, do their best to organize their schedules around the child care they can find.
To qualify for the CCAMPIS grant, universities must adhere to specific federal regulations, including meeting all Title IV requirements and having awarded at least $250,000 in Pell Grants to students the preceding year if CCAMPIS funding exceeds $20 million, qualifications Sylvester said DePaul meets.
Sylvester serves as DePaul’s Early Childhood Access Consortium for Equity project mentor, working to address the shortage of qualified early childhood educators. However, having been raised by a single mother in the North Lawndale area, advocating for resources and the visibility of student-parents remains one of her top priorities.
She said the university’s failure to recognize student parents and their unique challenges in obtaining their degree negatively impacts their mental health.
“A lot of student parents feel isolated on campus because there’s not a huge support system for student parents,” Sylvester said. “It’s a lot of feeling like they’re unwanted on campus.”
College campuses’ insufficient mental health resources have long been a topic of discussion, according to the American Psychological Association. Yet, student parents, like Arciniega, say they feel overlooked regarding mental health needs on campus.
Shortly after the birth of her daughter during her sophomore year, Arciniega recalls emailing one of her professors to inform them of her status as a parent, emphasizing the unpredictability of parenthood and the potential need for extra support in completing her assignments.
Years later, Arciniega still feels the
sting of frustration from his response, where he stated his class was fastpaced and not suitable for her circumstances.
“I wasn’t asking for anything,” she said. “I was just letting him know.”
Only 20% of the total undergraduate population across the country are student parents, according to a survey by The Aspen Institute. However, they are more susceptible to mental health issues compared to non-parenting students.
Of the more than 45,000 surveyed student parents, significant percentages reported ongoing stress (43%), feeling overwhelmed (40%), struggling with emotional regulation (29%), experiencing depression (28%) and feeling socially isolated (28%). More than a third said they considered dropping out of school within the previous 30 days, compared with 25% of non-parenting students.
Other than MOCHA, Sylvester sees a shortage of support systems for student parents at DePaul. Although the university mentions two private foundations providing external scholarships for students with children on its website, Sylvester emphasized the need for more resources to welcome and retain more student parents.
The university also doesn’t track the number of student parents when collecting its own census data.
“We don’t even know how many student parents are on campus,” Sylvester said. “So they don’t know how to accommodate them.”
Federal funding from CCAMPIS could help change that. According to a 2019 Government Accountability Office report, CCAMPIS helped over 3,300 student parents pay for child care.
If DePaul could get funding for child care, even for night classes, “I feel like we’re gonna get a huge influx of students,” Sylvester said.
Lilly Keller is the editor-in-chief of The DePaulia at DePaul University.
MANAGEMENT@COLUMBIACHRONICLE.COM
Copy edited by Patience Hurston
» CONNOR DORE CONTRIBUTOR
A team of game design students has built a video game focusing on depression and anxiety, which the developers have experienced first-hand.
“The Other Side” portrays mental health through dialogue the player has with in-game, non-playing characters and fighting enemies named “fear,” “anger,” “depression” and more, to simulate someone battling their own emotions.
capstone class for game design seniors where they actually have to develop their own game. The students pitch game ideas in the class and then vote on which ones to do. Groups are then formed by students choosing which project they want to work on. “The Other Side” was one of these projects.
Other students who were involved in creating “The Other Side” include:
While most video games are about fun gameplay or a good story, lead game designer for "The Other Side” and senior game design major Joshua Chaffeé wanted to make a game that specifically focuses on the experiences someone with mental health issues could have.
“Many people go through this every day, this being depression, anxiety, just anything that can go unseen,” Chaffeé said. “When it comes to struggling with mental health, I want them to kind of remember the fact that everyone is going through something whether you know it or not. So remember to be kind to everyone.”
The game's development is part of the
Chaffeé teamed up with Bill Guschwan, an associate professor of instruction in the Interactive Arts and Media Department, who helped assemble a team of game designers, producers, artists, composers and coders to help produce the game.
The game’s development is being funded by a grant from the Solutions Journalism Network.
In development since February 2024, the game features platforming gameplay with a Pokémon-esque battle style to relate to people having to battle with their emotions.
Chaffeé set the storyline for “The Other Side” in a fictional city in Illinois. The main character, Aurora, goes to high school and soon realizes that her good grades start falling. With her thoughts getting darker as the days go by, she spends most of the time stuck in her own head.
“Instead of figuring out how to fix it, she does what mostly everyone does and just kind of masks it,” Chaffeé said. “So she puts this mask on, like every single day, in order to seem normal to everyone else, her friends, her family.”
Nicole Finegan, senior game design major, is the game’s producer and handles scheduling, financing and coordinating with the development team to ensure they hit their prototype release deadline by this year’s Manifest on May 10. Finegan’s focus for the game is to help people be more aware of problems people could be facing.
“There are a lot of people who aren’t aware of what issues with mental health can do to you,” Finegan said. “The people on my team all have something they’ve dealt with which is connected to that.”
Chaffeé said he based the main character, Aurora, after himself as he has dealt with several different mental health issues over the years. Dealing with mainly depression and anxiety, Chaffeé says he hopes the game brings awareness to the storm that could be raging under someone's “mask.”
While Chaffeé says he based the character on himself, Aurora represents
most people who feel they have to cover up their emotions.
“Even when it comes to figuring out how to open up, I kind of suck at masking things,” Chaffeé said. “When it comes to masking, you just get used to it, so [Aurora is] me in a way.”
The development of more mental health-focused entertainment mediums could help people going through tough times and experiencing tough emotions. While the developers of “The Other Side” are focusing on awareness of what people could be going through beneath the surface, more games could be made to portray the experiences of any mental health issue.
“I think there’s a lot of people that have healed from their own experience and want to create the games they didn’t have,” said Grace Anders, a senior programming major and lead programmer for the game. “I love media that handles it responsibly, whether it be games or writing.”
Connor Dore is a senior journalism major from Hickory Hills Illinois.
In the video game “Brain Agents,” the player is a crew member on a starship in outer space. The goal is to rescue your crewmates, and the only way to do that is with cognitive reframing. The player must say things like “I can find a way forward.” At the end of every level, the game prompts you to do a breathing exercise. David Antognoli, an assistant professor in the Interactive Arts and Media Department, partnered with nonprofit Stryv 365 to create “Brain Agents” to teach different techniques to manage trauma, resilience and emotional learning while also being entertaining.The nonprofit’s mission “is about instilling youth with trauma resilience and creating trauma-informed after-school programs and youth initiatives,” Antognoli said. This game is currently being playtested in Minnesota Public Schools. Stryv 365 is conducting a study to test the game’s effectiveness with adolescents through teenagers.
The bigger picture:
Stryv 365 wanted to take its curriculum to a digital platform during the COVID-19 pandemic. Antognoli made a connection with them and both parties had the idea to make a game. In 2023, the Power of Play report, a survey by the Entertainment Software Association, surveyed 13,000 players across 12 countries. The survey found that a substantial number of players saw video games as helpful with navigating personal challenges and relieving stress.
With 212.6 million video game players in the U.S., the potential to use games to address mental health challenges is significant.
What they did:
Antognoli and a team of developers worked with various mental health professionals on how exactly to accomplish the objective of the game.
“One of our subject matter experts is a child therapist, so she tells us what they do during sessions,” Antagnoli said. “There’s a breathing exercise they do called ‘Breathing Shapes,’ where they trace these shapes and when you trace one side, you breathe in and then the next side, you hold your breath and then the next side you exhale. And so we literally put that in the game at the end of every level.”
Working with mental health professionals on a game that focuses on mental health themes is becoming increasingly more popular.
A popular Ninja Theory developed game, “Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice,” portrayed the main character struggling with psychosis and perceiving voices whispering to her and suffering from vivid hallucinations.
To help with the portrayal of psychosis, multiple mental health consultants were brought on. The goal was to portray psychosis but to do so in a way that walks the line of serious mental health issues and fun gameplay.
Power of Play found that 71% of video games serve as a stress reliever, 61% say games help relieve anxiety and 58% help people feel less isolated or lonely. Antognoli said that video games helped him as well, while he dealt with recovery from a surgery. “When you’re pretty immobilized and you can’t do the things you’re used to doing, that can take a psychological toll on you,” Antognoli said. “I think being able to still socialize with people through video games and have some sort of outlet is really helpful for me.”
The connection between the violence in gaming and violence in real-life has been a point of debate since the inception of games like “Call of Duty” and “Grand Theft Auto.” There have been calls to stop the “glorification” of violence in video games, one of them being from former President Donald Trump in 2019. However, recent studies show that gaming also has a positive impact on players as a whole.
A study from Oxford University in 2022 found there is no relationship between aggressive behavior in teenagers and the amount of time spent playing violent video games. In fact, the Power of Play report shows that 63% of global players feel that playing video games helps them feel happier and 64% provides them with a healthy outlet for everyday challenges. That doesn’t mean gaming culture is always healthy as Columbia alum Narcissa Wright learned. Although a film and not a video game, Jane Wagner’s “Break the Game” documentary tells the story of Wright, best known for breaking the world record for speedrunning “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” in 2014. Speedrunning, the practice of using glitches in a game to bypass huge segment sections and play through the entire game as quickly as possible, has a huge online fan base and viewership on Twitch, a popular live-streaming platform.
The film follows Wright as she attempts to set a new world record in “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,” after losing her massive fan base when she came out as a trans woman in 2015. “Despite knowing that Narcissa was facing intense online harassment, Twitch never reached out to her or offered her support,” Wagner told the Chronicle. Wagner brought on a mental health supervisor to help Wright process the experience of watching cuts of the film, which Wagner is screening at 6 p.m. on May 8 in the 33 E. Ida B. Wells building. “When I started ‘Break the Game,’ I did not realize I was making a movie with mental health elements,” Wagner said. “It wasn’t until the events in the film started to unfold that I realized that issues like anxiety, depression, and isolation were part of the story. While the landscape has improved somewhat since I started making the film back in 2017, there’s still a long way to go when it comes to supporting the unique mental health needs of gamers and those who spend a lot of time online.”
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Between the lines:
The first International Gaming Summit on Mental Health was held in Toronto in 2019 and continues on to the present. This Summit is where various game developers and mental health researchers gather to talk about video games mental health impact. It involves panels and roundtables for people to exchange ideas for making mental health based games and supporting game developers.
Paul Fletcher, leading clinical consultant for “Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice,” was a keynote speaker at the first summit in 2019.
“The core principles that emerged were accuracy was striven for but was not an attempt to be everything to all people to generalize across all mental illnesses. This was about one person’s story,” Fletcher said. “For me one thing that was really key was that Senua had to be a person, it wasn’t just a two-dimensional shell of mental illness.”
Fletcher also said that Senua, the main character in the game, was the heroine, which was different than the usual portrayal of people with mental illness in
forms of media, “She’s a hero, I think that’s really important. It’s so often the case that people with mental illness are portrayed as victims, she wasn’t that.”
Columbia’s student-led mental health game in development called “The Other Side” was senior game design ma-
Lytle Landers, a first-year acting major, said playing video games do help her mental health but can sometimes be distracting.
“It depends on the day, on whether I
“For me one thing that was really key was that Senua had to be a person, it wasn’t just a two-dimensional shell of mental illness.”
jor Joshua Chaffeé’s idea to describe the battle some people have with their emotions. Another game, “Celeste,” which Chaffeé said inspired his game, deals with depression and anxiety. A shadow version of the main character is the game’s main villain and follows the main character as she climbs this mountain and ultimately overcomes her mental health pain.
am doing it to relax or or to get away from something,” Landers said. “As long as you are [playing] mindfully and knowing your reasoning, and knowing that it is for mindfulness or relaxation, rather than escapism.”
Marina “Moth” Bradley, a first-year social media and strategy major, said video games have had a positive influence on their life.
“I really like having an alternate reality, escapism-type game to do when I am stressed out about actual stuff,” Bradley said. “Especially with finals right now, it’s nice.”
Bradley said they play more “calming” games like Animal Crossing. However, Bradley said they can see how video games could have a negative impact on mental health, especially when it comes to more violent games.
Zac Klepser, a sophomore film and television major, said video games haven’t had a big impact on his mental health, but said he has used gaming to help with hard times in the past.
Klepser said playing video games gave him an outlet to “have fun and laugh again” while going through challenging times.
Connor Dore is a senior journalism major from Hickory Hills Illinois.
