The Mental Health Awareness Video Competition Program: Key Components and Winning Videos Susan Mann Dolce Ph.D: UB Accessibility Resources Elizabeth Rodriquez LCSW: UB Counseling Services

Presentation Plan Overview of Mental Health Awareness Video Competition (MHAVC) Program Background and Objectives. Review of activities semester by semester (with questions and discussion). View and discuss winning videos

MHAVC Background Mental Health issues that affect students have: increased in severity over the past ten years (National College Health Association Survey, last completed spring 2016). There have been an increased number of students utilizing Accessibility Resources due to mental health issues for themselves or people they are close to on or off campus. Stigma and lack of information often contribute to negative attitudes towards individuals with mental health issues and may discourage them from seeking out appropriate support.

MHAVC Objectives Develop and implement a video competition program to increase awareness about mental health issues that affect students and to educate them about resources available for support. UB Counseling and Accessibility Resources will collaborative to develop and implement the program. Students will be directly involved in the development and implementation of the MHAVC. The MHAVC will endeavor to involve a broad and diverse group of students in all aspects of the MHAVC, including creation of videos. Review the winning Mental Health Awareness Videos for accessibility, including having them captioned and audio described as needed for use at various events during the 2017-2018 academic year and into the future.  

Overview of the timing of the MHAVC Prior to developing the MHAVC, in preparation for the 25th anniversary fall of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 2015, during the fall 2014 semester students In UBE 496 did a flash mob to raise interest in upcoming ADA Celebration. Spring 2015 ADA Celebration, 4 hour event in the Student Union, developed and implemented by students. Fall 2015 students and interns in UBE 496 discussed focusing on Mental Health Awareness and researched ideas, finally recommending a possible video competition. UB Counseling Services reached out to Accessibility Resources about possible collaboration and MHAVC was started.

Spring 2016 Student undergraduate interns through the Social Sciences Interdisciplinary Program with my supervision and under the guidance of a UB Counseling Services graduate intern, researched effective mental health videos online. Using these videos student interns conducted focus groups to determine what aspects of the videos were effective. Interns collected and analyzed data from the focus groups with assistance from students from UBE 496. A summary of the information was provided for students to use fall 2016 in the continued development of the MHAVC.

Fall 2016 Student interns and students in UBE 496 WE2 used the information gathered spring 2016 to create “pilot” videos to learn how to provide guidance to students for the spring 2017 competition. Student experimented with time, technology and spaces to create the pilot videos. “Pilot” videos were shared with UB Counseling Services. Undergraduate interns, students in UBE 496, UB Counseling graduate student (with supervision from professional) worked together to develop guidelines for implementation of the Spring 2017 MHAVC.  

Spring 2017 Student interns developed outreach plan to reach as many student groups as possible. Digital and print poster/flyer was created and distributed across both campuses to recruit students to participate in the MHAVC. Student had approximately 5 weeks to create and submit videos (19 Submitted). Student interns and UBCS graduate student worked together developing a scoring rubric built on the stated goals. Student interns and professionals in UBCS rated videos to determine 3 winners. Three winners received cash prizes, other participants received a gift card of some kind.  

MHAVC Poster

Fall 2017 Videos were captioned access. Currently reviewing for audio description. Videos will be utilized at various campus events, and online to increase mental health awareness Fall 2017 and into the future.  

Student Engagement A minimum of 150 students (undergraduate and graduate) were involved in the development and implementation of the MHAVP, as well as multiple students involved in the submitted videos. Student involvement occurred in multiple ways: Data gathering. Development, implementation and analysis of focus groups with their peers. Production of “pilot” videos. Outreach to multiple student and academic groups. Creation of videos for the competition.

Students’ Written Comments After Watching the Top Three Videos Love the idea of having this competition get students involved and spread awareness!! I’m really impressed with how people are creative! I think it is important to reach out to minority groups… …the one that won first place because the song they chose really showed the darkness of it and opened my eyes to this. Post the videos on social media or in the Student Union. We can use these videos in events or on websites.

MHAVC Top 3 First Place Video:            Carly Pinter (Individual) Till It Happens to you video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COSUXLx150Y&t=21s   Second place video: Daeil Kim, Yoon Gu Yeo, & Melanie Sudyn (Group) UB Counseling and Accessibility Resources Contest video  https://youtu.be/ndhb7EBqiwM Third place video: Hunter Grad and Andrew Onegender (Group) A call for action video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbDTo_TVTao

Questions or Comments? Thank you! Contact information: Susan (Sue) Mann Dolce: samann@buffalo.edu Elizabeth (Betsy) Rodriquez: ebianco@buffalo.edu