Nizam, along with around 80 other students and campus activists, gathered on Wednesday afternoon for a march to demand better accommodations for students with disabilities.
I asked if a wheelchair was provided, as requested in my accommodation email, to which I was told no one made sure I would have one. When I asked who is responsible for accommodations, I was told they didn’t know.
Several Stony Brook groups associated with Latinx community came together to discuss issues of mental health. Issues include the need for Latinx healthcare professionals and stigma of mental health care in Latinx community.
The Peer Mental Health Alliance (PMHA) wants to bring a program to campus to fill certain gaps in mental health coverage that they say are not being addressed by Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS).
So why does Stony Brook, a university with 3,117 students from China, South Korea and Taiwan alone, have zero mental health counselors on site that speak Mandarin or Korean?
Fernandez pointed out that minority patients often feel uncomfortable with therapists who don’t understand their culture, background and language. “If you can’t be fully understood at all levels, then how can you be healed?” she said.
Fernandez, a senior psychology major, took issue with the fact that these surveys did not evaluate students’ awareness of available resources. She also criticized CAPS for not doing everything in its power to support PMHA and other student-led mental health groups.
The group’s mission is twofold – to advocate that students with disabilities have access to necessary resources and to help destigmatize mental illness.
