The final presenter of the night, Dr. Melissa Zarin, began her talk by having the audience close their eyes and remember to the time they were in college and different things they liked about college. She then asked them to imagine that something changed. That they started to sleep more, miss class, get anxious, not eat, stop seeing friends, only felt good with alcohol and drugs, and seriously considered suicide. Would any people you are involved with notice?
Dr. Melissa Shuman Zarin earned her B.A. in Psychology and Drama from Kenyon College, her MA/Ed.M. in Psychological Counseling from Teachers College Columbia University, and her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Fordham University. She supervises the CAPS Peer Education program and is a faculty advisor for the new Active Minds Stevens chapter. Dr. Zarin worked with former Associate Dean of Student Life, Kristie Damell, on the SPEAK-UP bystander intervention program. She is constantly working with student groups, Greek life, resident assistants, and peer mentors on mental health workshops. Dr. Zarin became the first recipient of the New Jersey College Counseling Association Professional Recognition Award in June 2017.
Dr. Zarin actually ended up replacing Kristie Damell in the event. When asked to speak, Dr. Zarin didn’t want to say no, since mental health doesn’t usually get a stage, not to mention a stage that would reach such a wide variety of people. She wanted to make “mental health proud.” Damell was originally supposed to discuss bystander intervention with regards to Title IX and sexual assault, so Zarin decided to stay with bystander intervention just with respect to mental health, especially since the two worked together to develop SPEAK-UP. “When I was asked to step in, I started where she left off and adapted the presentation to focus on mental health,” commented Zarin.
Zarin is used to presenting workshops geared towards Stevens students and Stevens resources. So this talk made her contemplate mental health on a global level, related to college students, and the tools to intervene. Zarin also had to change her style of presenting from interactive to 16 minutes of her sharing with the audience.
In her talk, Dr. Zarin stressed the statistics on mental health: 75% of mental health cases are from people under the age of 24, 40% of students suffer from depression, and 11.1% contemplate suicide. Suicide is the second leading cause of death in college students. The number that Zarin cared about the most was 2/3. Two-thirds of students with depression and anxiety don’t seek help. Which means we all are bystanders to someone in distress.
The problem is finding those students and getting them help. People are probably seeing clues that someone needs help — they just don’t know it.
Zarin talked about creating a community of care and turning people from passive to active bystanders. She discusses three steps to becoming an active bystander. Recognize the problem, assume personal responsibility, and speak up. The misconception of assuming personal responsibility deters people from becoming active bystanders. Zarin says all that means is to merely recognize the problem and take action. Speaking up is the action.
She introduced tools like the “3 Ds” — distract, delegate, and direct. Most people often forget that they can be active by delegating, since they might not be the best person to deal with a certain situation. These tools can be applied to various circumstances. “I also think that when someone is struggling with mental health problems, it may not always be obvious and if we start to look at things a little differently and put pieces together, we might be able to better see someone when they need help. And, if someone is not sure how to help, the 3 Ds gives a person options,” explained Dr. Zarin.
“I think it was amazing to have mental health be a part of the talk.” Zarin believes that mental health needs to be discussed more openly, which can be challenging, especially in STEM fields. Dr. Zarin hopes the talk will reach a new audience who would otherwise be unaware of mental health issues on college campuses. “Also, I think it gave a platform for all those watching to think about how they can better intervene in their own lives,” commented Zarin.
The theme of intervening was strong in the presentation. “Don’t be afraid Speak up!” urged Dr. Zarin, hoping that people will take that message away from the night. There is always someone you can talk to and come up with a plan for either yourself or for reaching out to someone you are concerned about.
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