Student Peer-to-Peer Mental Health Promotion:

Students Promoting Mental Health Awareness, Resiliency, and Self-Care

Picture of the students and Dr. Lanzi in green Mental Health Ambassador t-shirts with the heading “We are a peer-to-peer mental health promotion program. Students promoting mental health awareness, resiliency, and self-care.”

Mental Health Ambassadors (MHA) is a student peer-to-peer mental health promotion program that Dr. Robin Lanzi launched in the Fall of 2019 as her Honors College Faculty Fellows initiative in partnership with Dr. Angela Stowe, UAB Director of Student Counseling Services, and Juhee Agrawal, who at the time was an Honors College student and president of Active Minds. 

Mental health initiatives focus on mental health awareness, resiliency, and self-care. Students receive instruction and training in mental health awareness and promotion, suicide prevention, active listening, motivational interviewing, and program design and development. With the leadership team, students collaboratively develop and implement timely, relevant, and innovative mental health promotion campaigns for peers across campus, online, and via social media. 

An image that says Mental Health Ambassador Program Goals:

  1. Enhance: mental health knowledge among students
  2. Develop: peer to peer mental health promotion initiatives and educational resources
  3. Share: peer-to-peer mental health promotion initiatives and educational resources
  4. Impact: the mental health climate within our programs, schools, and beyond

MHA has an active social media presence vis-à-vis Instagram and Twitter (@uabmha) as well as Facebook and YouTube (UAB Mental Health Ambassadors). Previously recorded online MHA events and presentations are posted on the YouTube Channel as well as playlists. The MHA Podcast, “Archive: Our Lives, Our Journeys, Our Stories“ was launched in the Fall of 2020 on Spotify. Archive: Our Lives, Our Journeys, Our Stories MHA podcast is designed for listeners to hear personal mental health stories from a variety of different backgrounds and cultures.

Applications and trainings are held in the fall. Please reach out if you have any questions and/or would like to discuss MHA (uabmha@uab.edu). We love to collaborate, share resources, and connect!

These initiatives began in January 2020 with in-person presentations and events and associated social media platforms and newsletter engagement. The COVID-19 pandemic began impacting the UAB campus initiatives and programs just as MHA was taking off. Prior to the UAB 2020 Spring Break, we held an in-person “From Struggle to Success” event that was well-attended by various students and many staff. We also held a “Make it Stick” event on the campus green with stickers and buttons that said “Grow through what you Go through.” What little did we anticipate those words would be so telling. Our campus did not return after Spring Break due to the pandemic. MHA was one of the leading organizations on campus to connect and collaborate with many student organizations as well as faculty and staff committees seeking to provide support to students. MHA quickly started offering weekday online events via Zoom for UAB students, faculty, and staff. These were and many continue to be recorded and are available via our UAB Mental Health Ambassadors Program YouTube channel.  

UAB Mental Health Ambassador Program YouTube Channel

Statement of Purpose

Mental Health Ambassadors is a peer-to-peer mental health promotion program. Students propose, develop, and implement mental health promotion campaigns for students across campus and social media platforms.

Mental health initiatives focus on mental health awareness, resiliency, and self-care as well as practical skills for addressing concerns.

Students have the unique opportunity to create educational resources for fellow students and leave a lasting impact on the mental health climate within our program, school, and beyond.

Vision

Positively impact the campus mental health climate for students and build a culture of resiliency.

Commitment

Commitment to actively contribute to and participate in individual MHA team’s initiatives, supporting MHA initiatives, and adhering to MHA guidelines.

Trainings

Mental Health Matters
QPR Training
Active Listening + Motivational Interviewing
Program Design + Development
Kognito

Partnerships & Sponsorships

Department of Health Behavior, School of Public Health
Student Counseling Services
Honors College
VISTA AmeriCorps
University of Alabama at Birmingham

Picture of MHA Award for outstanding new student organization and two MHA leaders holding the award.

Three pictures of MHA students tabling with a green tablecloth and white overlay that says MHA.

Contact: Dr. Robin Lanzi, Founding Director, Professor of Health Behavior with secondary appointments in Psychology and Adolescent Medicine.

rlanzi@uab.edu

205-975-8071