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Reflective Essay On Mental Health

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We conducted interviews with new members and with a leader of the club who had been involved for years. All of the interviewees have in the past or are currently struggling with mental illness and saw TWLOHA as a safe and welcoming community when they came to Grand Valley. We found that a primary goal of the group as a whole is to rid the stigmas of mental health, starting with the Grand Valley campus, through creating a dialogue, service, and advocacy. We asked if this club was only for people who struggle with mental illness, and we were pleasantly surprised by their responses that “No, anybody (can join), it helps create a dialogue and it educates people. People can talk about it and make it not a bad thing because there's a lot of negative thoughts about mental health.” We began the interviews in an etic fashion with pre-written questions but ended up going off the path to having a natural, emic conversation about the topic of mental health. The members do not feel negativity towards mental health at Grand Valley, though this may not be the case for everybody else who does not know enough about the subject. To expand on the primary group dynamic between some members, interviews confirmed that there was an instance where a very close friendship/roommate formed due to meeting through the group. Lastly, the lack of attendance and structure of the meetings can be summed up by a response from another girl who mentioned:
“What I like most about the group is that they care

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