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FEBRUARY 2018
Flathers and Yang stressed the importance of learning how to support and respond to someone experiencing a mental health crisis. “A lot of that (support) centers around trying to communicate with the person, … being present with the person and less of ‘I need to call 911 right now’ or any other of (what) the immediate responses tend to be,” Flathers said.
Brown Daily Herald (Melanie Pincus) / Read Full Article
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FEBRUARY 2018
A group of Brown student leaders and activists is currently pushing to create a disability identity and cultural center on campus ... Flathers and Yang used their experience working with Project LETS — a nonprofit that aids students with mental illnesses — to foster dialogue among student activists.
Brown Daily Herald (Katherine Bennett) / Read Full Article
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AUGUST 2017
“One of the most important things for us is making sure that people are in relationships that they feel are relatable, and that they’re not being judged or trying to be fixed,” Kaufman said. “It can be terrifying in our current society to be bold and proud and out loud about being mentally ill, especially if treatment is inaccessible.”
WBUR (Stefanie Kaufman) / Read Full Article
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MARCH 2016
Some students want to come to a professional who’s been trained in the mental health profession, and some feel more comfortable going to peers. It has to do with who the student is going to go to. Peers understand peers in a way that staff will not.
Brown Daily Herald (Dr. Jackie Twitchell) / Read Full Article
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FEBRUARY 2017
Waverley Y. He ’18 added that ... this year’s delegates attended largely out of personal interest.“I think because of that, people are going to be more invested in carrying the work forward than individual advocates, coming together as a team. I feel more confident that more action will come out of this year’s conference,” He said.
The Harvard Crimson (Waverly Y. He) / Read Full Article
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FEBRUARY 2017
"We wanted (the workshops) to be about specific topics that we know to be really close and important to students but not (regularly discussed),” said Stefanie Kaufman ’17, founder of Project LETS and co-organizer of the conference. “We know that racism is a problem … and that it’s connected to (worsening) mental illness, but what are we doing (to stop) that?"
Brown Daily Herald (Stefanie Kaufman) / Read Full Article
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SEPTEMBER 2016
It is important to remember that these institutions were treated for white, heterosexual, cis, men. When a system was not designed for you, even with accommodations, privilege is still ingrained in the structure itself ... We have seen that uniting as a group allows individuals with mental illness to affect structural change — making others aware of systemic oppression and erasure of our narratives, and to enact solutions to these institutional injustices.
WEBeMED (Stefanie Kaufman) / Read Full Article
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SEPTEMBER 2015
So now I’m here, “in recovery,” but really just relearning who I am and who I want to be, while reintroducing myself to my family and my friends. I’m going places and doing things I couldn’t have envisioned before. But my brain is hard-wired to prepare for the worst, to expect nothing can be as great as this new life seems. This condition and I are fundamentally intertwined.
The Mighty (Jackie Giovaniello) / Read Full Article
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MARCH 2013
In 2009, an East Meadow High School freshman named Brittany Petrocca lost her battle with mental illness and committed suicide. Kaufman said she was friendly with Petrocca, and they shared mutual friends. Petrocca’s death had a great impact on Kaufman, and after attending her wake and talking with her friends, she decided that suicide prevention was something that needed more attention. “I’ve seen the after-effects of a suicide, and I know what it does to a community."
Long Island Herald (David Weingrad) / Read Full Article
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May 2017
Brian Matusovsky '19, another attendee and Mind Matters member, cited Brown's Project LETS as a model for potential programs at Yale. LETS, which hosted the conference, runs educational workshops focusing on topics ranging from eating disorders to depression and anxiety, and pairs students with mentors who have lived with the same diagnosis.
Yale News (Brian Matusovsky) / Read Full Article