Students on UNA’s campus are making efforts to raise awareness for mental and physical health across the student body. The Healthy Lion Council, a registered student organization focused on promoting student health and well-being, have begun taking applications for their program.
“We want to have different types of voices at the table,” says Ashley Cook, President of the HLC and Graduate Assistant with University Health and Well-Being. “All different types of majors, minors and different places in life.”
Cook says that it is important to have a diverse set of members in the HLC, because it helps bring each part of UNA’s wide reaching campus into important conversations surrounding difficult topics such as mental and physical health.
In her position as a graduate assistant, Cook was tasked with restarting and promoting the HLC. “I came into it two summers ago, and before then there was no (GA) position,” says Cook. “One of the things we wanted to do was to reignite the Healthy Lion Council. That was one of the tasks as a graduate assistant–to carry that forward.”
The members of the HLC also serve as ambassadors that help promote health and well-being programming initiated by University Health Services. More often than not, HLC does not host events themselves, but rather, they work closely with UHS to promote these events to the student body.
“Previously, we have done a lot of mental health programming,” says Cook. “That is something that has been voiced by our students, and that we want to see more representation of. We have done all types of programming with student counseling services to initiate some of those resources and services.”
One of these programs that the HLC will be helping promote is the National College Health Assessment. They will be taking part in this national survey from Sept. 23 to Oct. 14. The NCHA is a comprehensive assessment of health and wellness on college campuses across the United States. Cook says that the HLC hopes for a high response rate from UNA’s students, as it would aid UHS in improving health and wellness programming on campus.
The HLC also has plans to partner with UNA Fraternity and Sorority Life for alcohol abuse awareness and prevention programming that she wants HLC members to be directly involved with. The HLC plans to produce engaging activities to promote more change than could be promoted by a simple seminar.
Members of the HLC have already played crucial roles in creating popular events such as the once-per-semester Tame Your Mane event. Tame Your Mane is an event hosted through a partnership between UHS, Mitchell-West Center for Social Inclusion and Shoals Hair Co. Academy, where free hair care products and haircuts are provided for students who may not have the time, finances or transportation to go out and get a professional haircut.
In addition to the programming goals of the HLC, Cook says that she also wants to see the group develop into a peer support group. She says that she wants to provide the members of the HLC with a mental health first aid background in order to equip them with the skills to lift up their fellow community members when needed.
In her own academic pursuits, Cook has also studied mental health issues on campus. She says that her studies also attest to the focused efforts of University Health on improving the mental health of students at UNA.
The HLC wants students to continue to take the initiative and get involved in supporting health on campus.
“Find something that you are interested in,” says Cook. “Health and Well-Being looks different for everyone.” Cook says that health is much more than just exercise and proper diet. She says that students should feel free to raise awareness about the issues they are passionate about–from substance abuse to mental health awareness and everything in between.
