By Cheyenne McGuire
Contributor
The Mind Matters Club at WCC aims to educate and engage students in topics relating to mental health.
Each meeting has a theme and the group often holds events and activities to encourage active learning.
The recent meeting focused on Mental Health Awareness Week. Members participated in games designed to dispel myths about mental illness and encourage reevaluation of the labels commonly ascribed to emotions and behaviors.
Mind Matters founders, Abigail Biehl and Cassandra Stewart, started the club after they saw a need for such an organization at WCC.
“We felt the need for a community or an outreach, specifically for people who go to community college. The club fulfilled that need for us, and our goal is to do that for others as well,” said Stewart.
Biehl said that struggling with mental health can be a lonely experience.
“You can’t see depression or anxiety like you can see a physical illness, so people usually don’t know that you are suffering,” said Biehl, noting that mental illness is often misunderstood.
“We hope that starting a conversation around mental health can help lessen the stigma around it and that people won’t be afraid to seek help,” she said.
The group strives to create a safe environment.
“We have one person leading the meeting and another participating and setting the groundwork for others to feel comfortable,” said Stewart.
Biehl said, “We know people have varying levels of education about mental health and that is totally OK.”
Mind Matters meets on Wednesdays, 12:30-1:30 p.m. in LA 254.