Coalition for Mental Health unites campus leaders and resources

After being founded in 2019 and disbanded in 2021, the UNC Mental Health Coalition was brought back to life in January by juniors Harini Somanchi and Neha Saggi. They now serve as co-directors of the department of student wellness and safety in the Undergraduate Executive Branch. The Mental Health Coalition is designed to bring together student leader representatives from various identity-based and mental health-focused organizations on campus. Somanchi and Saggi collaborated with UNC Student Wellness to identify interested groups, using a list of organizations involved with the coalition’s initial founders.

Currently, the coalition has about 15 organizations represented, including leaders from groups such as the Carolina Covenant Student Advisory Council, the National Alliance on Mental Illness On Campus, and the Minority Student Caucus. Saggi described the coalition as a coordinating collaborative body aimed at streamlining mental health efforts on campus by organizations with a shared interest in mental health. The group had its first meeting in January, where representatives received insights from UNC’s Counseling and Psychological Services Director Avery Cook on the misconceptions surrounding CAPS and mental health resources at UNC.

Emily Hernandez, a UNC junior and resilience outreach intern for Healthy Heels, mentioned that there was positive feedback from coalition members following the meeting. Representatives are currently planning a social media campaign to share the information learned, such as the availability of brief therapy appointments at CAPS and the option for students to receive walk-in care. Somanchi believes that sharing this information with organizations will help spread awareness and improve access to mental health resources on campus.