With grant, students launch podcasts on mental health, substance abuse stigmas
School of Communication students recently launched podcasts intended to combat stigmas related to mental health and substance abuse issues.
“There has been an ever increasing need to focus on mental health and access to care and substance use issues and the placement of harm reduction in the community,” said Susan Stinson, an advanced instructor in the School of Communication. “I think it's particularly important at Virginia Tech because of the way Americans historically have and contemporarily continue to incorrectly link mental illness with violence.”
In the summer of 2023, Stinson received a Pathways to Service Learning grant, which supports a community project connected with a Virginia Tech Pathways course. Pathways courses comprise the university's general education curriculum.
With the grant, students in Stinson's communication and issues of diversity class developed a project highlighting the complexities of mental health issues and substance abuse. The course challenges students to think critically about unique perspectives of mental health and the social psychology behind them.
Through this work, a group of Hokies created and recorded a series of podcasts that use authentic conversations to increase awareness of mental health and substance abuse issues. The student podcasts feature weighty conversations and offer mental health resources. Some of the highlighted resources include the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, Cook Counseling Center, and Hokie Wellness.
The group posted the podcasts on the Foundations Podcast YouTube channel, which is hosted by Virginia Tech Student Affairs. Student groups contacted campus and community groups, such as Hokie Wellness, the Blacksburg Police Department, the New River Valley Community Services Group, and the Virginia Harm Reduction Coalition, to help in sharing their message with a broader audience.
“I think that's really cool because it's becoming less class focused and more about spreading the message across the campus in different aspects of the school,” said Camryn Montoya-Cohn, a Virginia Tech junior working on the project.
One of the podcasts highlights mental health and student athletes and introduces Gary Bennett, a sports psychologist for Virginia Tech Athletics. He addresses the immense pressures that student athletes face daily in preparing and competing in their individual sport.
Stinson said it is important to study and recognize patterns of mental illness and violence. She said that these two areas are often inappropriately intertwined, but it is paramount to recognize these behaviors in real time.
Seeing how students embrace these projects and make them come to life validates the reason for the grants.
“For me personally, seeing the impact of these grants on student learning is one of my favorite parts of my job,” said Jenni Gallagher, a coordinator for general education at Virginia Tech.
With nearly two semesters of student planning by the team and more than a year of organization by Stinson, all those who fine tuned the details of the podcasts contributed to their final form.
“The projects required significant time, dedication and inter-group coordination from the students,” said John Tedesco, director of the School of Communication. “The students and Professor Stinson embraced and exemplified Virginia Tech’s Ut Prosim motto with the aim to reduce harm and improve wellness among their peers; for this, I thank them and applaud them.”
Listen to the podcasts on substance use and harm reduction and mental health and wellness.
Written by Ava Swirzinski and Jacob Sawyers, student media content assistants for the School of Communication
