Coinciding with World Mental Health Day on Oct. 10, Kent State celebrated Mental Health Awareness Month all October.
Kent State鈥檚 social media team collaborated with teams within University Communications and Marketing and with other university partners such as the Division of Student Life. The goal was to promote the vast mental health resources on campus and to help destigmatize mental health challenges. A comprehensive digital content plan was developed as part of a massive university-wide campaign.
The plan began with the social media team joining forces with Tal茅a R. Drummer-Ferrell, Ph.D., Our Kent State Dean of Students, for an 鈥淎sk me Anything鈥 content plan. This project allowed the audience to directly ask questions of our Dean of Students regarding mental health services. After members of the Kent State community submitted their questions via Instagram, Dr. Drummer returned to answer those questions, which was then featured on our Instagram Story.
Up next, social student assistants attended the Mental Health Awareness kickoff event to showcase the event on Instagram and Snapchat stories. The event featured a moderated discussion and Q&A with Kier Gaines, licensed therapist and mental health advocate.
Throughout the month, we shared special animated graphics featuring the campaign鈥檚 mental health advocates that coincided with the kickoff video, providing a cohesive look and feel to the content.
Along with all the digital content, events were held throughout the month and many visuals were displayed throughout campus for the Kent State community to learn more about resources and destigmatizing receiving mental health care. During Kent State鈥檚 Homecoming Parade, we made sure to feature the mental health awareness wrapped PARTA bus!
Throughout the month, we also shared information on our social media accounts that promoted the new mental health website. All the information posted to our Instagram has been added to a highlight on our main page for easy access to all the resources. The link to the new website has also been added to our Instagram bio.
We want to thank all our mental health advocates, university partners and UCM teams for making this month possible.