Promoting Mental Health
Pictured from left to right: Nursing students Courtney Avera, Abby Patterson,
Kendal Berry, Samantha Campbell, and Teni Adebayo implemented an
anti-bullying activity at the Bulloch County Parks and Recreation
Fall Festival at Mill Creek Park where over 3,000 attended.
Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing, Pamela Worrell-Carlisle, Ph.D., CHPN, MA, RN, is on a mission to decrease the effects of stigma around mental health and the devastating impact mental health has on individuals, families and the community.
Worrell-Carlisle recently served as a guest speaker at the 2018 Alliance on Mental Illness Annual Conference and Meeting that
was held in Atlanta, Georgia, in April, where she spoke about how to reduce stigma among nursing students so that they are motivated and prepared to care for the mind and body as an integrated whole and to serve the local community by promoting open dialogue about mental health.
In addition to guest speaking, Worrell-Carlisle, along with School of Nursing faculty members, Alison Rushing, Ph.D., RN, Rose Mary Gee, Ph.D., RN, and Ellen Hamilton, DNP, MSN, FACHE, RN, have begun investigating perceptions of stigma around mental health in the Statesboro community.
Strategies, such as student-led mental health risk reduction interventions, are being implemented in the undergraduate mental health nursing courses. Nursing students enrolled in the Mental Health Nursing course on Georgia Southern University Statesboro Campus, are required to design and implement a mental health promotion project that disseminates information about mental health to the Statesboro community. Students who have previously been enrolled in the course have developed and implemented outreach activities to include The Opioid crisis, Mindfulness for Teens, Anti-Bullying, What color are you feeling, Expressive art and your health, Alcohol use and women, Addiction 101: Alcohol and Substance Use Facts, Sexual Assault Awareness and Being A Good Sport.
“Awareness and education about mental health needs to permeate throughout our community with the eventual intended effect of reducing risks for mental disorders, promoting early detection and referral for early intervention and improving quality of life,” stated Worrell-Carlisle. “The student-led interventions place mental health on the agenda for public display and discourse.”
Students are also responsible for distributing a business size card with local mental health providers’ contact information as well as National and State crisis hotline numbers while out in the community.
Posted in SON