Thrive Navigators is just one of the many mental health resources handy to K-State students.
Picture this: You’re driving to work, and you keep hitting red lights. As soon as you get through one stop light, you see the next one turn yellow, then red. This happens repeatedly, until finally you hit a green light, then another, then another, and you don’t stop until you arrive at your destination.
When people are experiencing mental health issues, they may feel like they are hitting a bunch of red lights. Eventually, they may lose the strength to keep “driving” altogether. But anyone can change a crashing individual’s red light to green with a simple smile, or in K-State’s case, a green bandana.
Bandana support system
On K-State campuses, many green bandanas tied to students’ and faculty members’ bags promote mental health support. A bandana is given to each person who’s been trained to recognize mental health issues in their peers.
“Everybody has mental health, just like physical health,” said Thrive Navigator Jackie Castle. “You can either have good, mild or moderate mental health or it can go all the way down to severe. We teach people how to gauge where a person is with their mental health. Someone could be struggling with suicidal ideation, or they could be under a lot of financial or academic stress.”
Thrive Navigators also inform students about the mental health resources that are available:
- 24/7 mental health service provided by Central Kansas Mental Health Center
- Lafene CAPS: K-State’s mental health counseling service
- The CARE office for victims of sexual or domestic violence
- Academic Achievement Center
- 911 or 988 (the suicide hotline)
Connected Campus
Navigators host monthly presentations about mental health across campus. They organize social gatherings for new and international students to make connections, and among the most popular events are relaxing painting or yoga nights. With all these options, students have better mental health at their fingertips, as well as the prospect of beneficial relationships.
“It’s nice to have that social connection scheduled with other people,” Castle said. “It’s just interacting with other people that does so much for our mental health.”