Heman Gill ’20 S+MH Board Election Candidate Statement

Stanford + Mental Health’s mission is “to improve mental health at Stanford by driving systemic and cultural change on campus through education and direct action.” What does this mean to you and what do you hope to achieve by year’s end through your leadership of the S+MH Board/Organization? *

Providing students with the resources they may need in order to navigate a system that does not provide a complete support network for mental health care/ awareness is absolutely necessary. As a part of the Stanford + Mental Health team, I hope to continue to work towards not only informing the student body of the necessity of mental health awareness, but to also end the negative stigma associated with mental illness on campus. Through serving for the Mental Health + Public Policy Team this year, I have become aware of the multiple student groups throughout campus involved in mental health. These groups and organizations consist of diverse students that we can collaborate and connect with in order to help deliver a direct approach in raising awareness of mental health. By the end of my first year of serving for the S+MH Board, I hope to plan campus-wide events that raise awareness of mental health and S+MH as an organization, while also working closely with the Mental Health + Public Policy team carrying out the projects that we have started this quarter involving communicating research through various platforms.

What is one idea for a project that you have for next year? What makes it uniquely fit to Stanford + Mental Health as a student organization and in terms of our mission, advisors, resources etc? *

In an effort to raise awareness about mental health as well as the stigma associated with it, I hope to bring various speakers and scholars in the mental health field to campus to give discussions/speak at events. Speakers can range from notable advocates for mental health awareness to Stanford faculty who are directing research related to mental health. Through these events, I hope to engage the general student body in order to become more aware of mental illness and develop the agency to help stop the perpetuation of the stigma associated with mental illness. By providing a platform filled with notable speakers, we can further convey the mission of Stanford + Mental Health.

Community engagement is a key to the success of projects in mental health. What is the community that your project serves and/or affects? And how do you engage with them to incorporate their needs into your project? *

I am currently a part of the Mental Health + Public Policy Team. We ultimately serve the whole student body and anyone who might need access to resources regarding mental health. We are currently working on creating a mental health resource guide for all undergraduate students to become aware of the resources they can access if they need any help or have any questions about mental health. We engage through weekly meetings in which we discuss the logistics in creating this mental health resources guide, contacting student organizations, and beginning to make progress on other projects. Other projects that our team hopes to tackle are developing a platform to present neuroscience information to policymakers and raising awareness of research that involves bioethical principles governing the use of wearable technology to detect, treat, and monitor mental illness through literature reviews and interviews. Group communication as well future community engagement from other student organizations plays a large role in communicating mental health, and will surely prove a large role in holding a position as a board member for Stanford + Mental Health.

There are many different entities and organizations at Stanford working on Mental Health including school administrators, other CAPS/Vaden, mental health groups, etc. Furthermore, there are people and organizations working on mental health outside Stanford. How do you work with these organizations? What pitfalls do we have to consider in doing so? And how do we not reduplicate the efforts of others while focusing our efforts on what we can accomplish effectively? *

Currently, I am beginning to work with various student groups across campus and organizations including: CAPS, Vaden, and the Bridge while compiling a student mental health resource guide. In contacting these groups, I am beginning to talk with these community/organization leaders in order to ask about the mental health resources they refer to students. However, by working with these organizations we must make sure that we do not duplicate the work they have done. Many of these organizations provide direct accommodations in allowing a student to receive mental health help/advice. Contrastingly, we as an organization are providing students the best resources in which they can access resources that tend to be the most helpful and beneficial. In helping the student body, we must remember to place the student as the priority.

How do you support a culture of support and mental wellness within S+MH? What is your role in this and what actions can you take to support this. *

Although Stanford + Mental Health is my only experience involving supporting an environment of mental wellness, I have held other positions that involved strong cultures of support. Such positions include serving as a writer for the Stanford Journal of Public Health, in which I raise awareness about certain public health issues. Similarly, I plan to extend a bridge to mental health awareness, and use the platforms I am currently a part of in order to accomplish this goal. Creating a culture of support ultimately draws on my skills from past and current experiences in which I can use my abilities to carry out the role of a board member of S+MH.