Today is Global Mental Health Awareness Day. A time when we shine a brighter light on this incredibly prevalent global challenge that impacts one in eight people worldwide. From my perspective, global mental health awareness should not be delegated to one day. We need to talk about it every day, 365 days a year, shout it from the highest mountain top, smash the stigma associated with it, so that people will feel less alone and more inclined to reach out for help.
This time last year I was just settling into student life in Edinburgh. A member of the 2023-2024 MSc cohort in Global Mental Health & Society. The last time I wore a student lanyard was in 1988 when I typed my papers on an actual typewriter and held actual books in my hand. Returning to a classroom after a LONG hiatus was extremely daunting but such an incredible privilege. My north star – the reason that drove me to leave the U.S. and step back into a classroom- was to get a better understanding of stigma across cultures and learn about how other countries address mental health challenges. I wanted to see if The Yellow Tulip Project a youth-driven, community-based, nonprofit organization that I founded with my daughter in 2016 with a mission to smash the stigma associated with mental illness, build community and spread hope, could translate to other communities across the pond and across the globe.
A takeaway from my year in Edinburgh is that it takes a vital village to make a difference in the way we approach and talk about mental health. This became clear last fall when our cohort, with students from Malaysia, India, Syria, Indonesia, Argentina, China, Japan, Canada and more, planted a beautiful YTP Hope Garden right in front of the library of this 500-year-old campus. As we stood together, listening to heartfelt speeches and original poetry, singing Beatles songs, and planting a community garden, the world felt small, close, and so beautiful.
Global mental health is a relatively new and growing field and finding solutions to the critical issues that we face takes innovation, and collaboration. Last week in Portland Maine where I am from, I participated in a forum on mental health and public health in the refugee and asylum-seeking community. I spoke alongside new Mainers from Somali, South Sudan, and Afghanistan about mental health from a global perspective. All that I have learned over the past year on this program somehow gelled together. I didn’t have imposter syndrome. I was talking comfortably and earnestly about the social determinants of health and the need to understand other community-based approaches. Just one year later, after many group projects, long essays, and a dissertation, I carry a much deeper and more complex awareness of mental health issues and see things through a much broader global lens.
No one can do this work alone and the alumni of this important program have so much to offer and new perspectives to bring these conversations. Just like tulip bulbs that need light, water, and care, which need to be planted close together and go through cold, dark winters, only to bloom so beautifully in the spring, we too need to be there for each other so that we can all grow and continue to bloom. We need to keep using our voices to make a difference, keep getting involved, keep getting our hands dirty and keep planting gardens of hope.
Blog author: Suzanne Fox
Co-Founder, Director of Global Initiatives
The Yellow Tulip Project
MSc Global Mental Health & Society class of 2023-2024
