It’s been 22 days since our official launch and things are in full swing at the Academic Mental Health Collective!
Our site has had thousands of visitors from all over the world – 31 countries in total. The majority of our traffic comes from Canada, USA, Australia, and the UK, but visitors from many other places have also been checking us out (hello to those of you in Finland, Italy, New Zealand, Turkey, South Korea, Sweden, Norway, Brazil, and many other places!). Many of you have reached out by email, shared our posts on Facebook, or connected with us on Twitter. Thank you!
The most common feedback we’ve been getting is:
- “Finally! A resource dedicated to mental health for academics! We need this so badly!”
Obviously, we couldn’t agree with you more and we’re so excited to hear from each one of you that has reached out to tell us you’re on board with our venture!
- “How can I help? What support do you need right now?”
We wanted to take a few minutes in this post to respond to this second type of comment. At this stage, a big part of what we’re working on is spreading the word. We have some strategic plans for reaching out, but we also believe strongly in the power of word of mouth!
Could you share one of our posts with your friends on Facebook and invite them to link our page? Re-tweet something from our Twitter feed? Even better yet, send a quick personal email to your academic colleagues (feel free to modify this letter that some of us have been using!).
If you’re looking to do get more involved, please consider contributing to the site itself. Here are a few options:
Personal Stories: If you have struggled with a mental illness (e.g., depression, anxiety, phobia, eating disorder, personality disorder) as a grad student or post-doc, please consider sharing your story – anonymously if you like. These stories can raise awareness and provide solace to others who are struggling. Some of our early contributors have reported that they can also be therapeutic and/or empowering to write.
Blog Posts: More general than personal stories, blog posts can be written on any topic relevant to mental health and graduate school/academia (e.g., mental health tips, thoughts on topics like “Talking to Your Supervisor About Mental Health” or “How to Take an Actual Break”). We welcome one-time guest posts, but if you like to write, we are also actively looking to build our list of regular contributors.
Artistic Content: We welcome artistic content (e.g., poetry, drawings, or other art) related to mental health and academia. We’re still exploring what this means – please get in touch if you have an idea!
For more details on all of these possibilities, please click on our Contributions tab.
Thank you again everyone for enthusiastically welcoming us to the Internet and the blogosphere! Even if all you have capacity for right now is reading (and maybe clicking “like” now and again!) – we see you and we appreciate your interest.
Academic Mental Health Collective 