The Eastern Michigan University Wellness center hosted the “Healthy Minds Jeopardy Hour” in the Student Center on Friday.
Energies were high among students as they participated in a Jeopardy game immediately following a lecture on health and wellness on campus, substance abuse and mental illness. Prizes were given to each student who answered correctly to questions based on material discussed in the lecture. Participants selected questions based on range of difficulty. Every student received a prize for attending at the end.
The lecture began with Kathy Walz, coordinator of health and wellness, explaining the eight dimensions of wellness, such as physical, emotional and social health, and related them to being college students. She also talked about healthy alcohol limits.
She emphasized the importance of having only one drink an hour in order to remain at a healthy limit while drinking. She said that any higher than that is over your limit.
The second speaker, graduate student Stephanie Salsbery, touched on the current decision by EMU to implement a tobacco-free policy starting July 1. She said that it is important especially because the majority of Eastern’s population are non-smokers. She also displayed a map of tobacco-free zones and explained the rules for smoking on campus.
Graduate student Rosie Bak covered mental health and gave the signs and symptoms of various disorders such as depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder. This topic was very important to her because of her own past struggles with depression. She stressed the importance of treating mental health issues and how to treat it.
“If you can’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of anybody else.” she said.
The lecture ended with graduate student and event organizer Muneez Patel showing a video on suicide risk factors. The video gave statistics on suicide and analyzed how to prevent future occurrences.
Health education graduate students Muneez Patel, Rosie Bak and Waeil Abuagla organized the event to spread knowledge to EMU students about the importance of maintaining good health and the new tobacco policy.
“I believe that any educational institute’s strength depends on the students’ health,” Patel said. “There is no doubt that education comes first, but students and staff’s heath is always EMU’s priority to maintain the power of our success.”
Bak, who is working on her masters in health education, wants this event to be memorable for participants and feels it’s important for students to get involved.
“It’s really fun. Health is something that affects all of us. This will increase people’s awareness and understanding of mental health and awareness in particular.” she said.
Patel passionately explained what student should learn from this event and why more students should have attended:
“I want them to understand the tobacco-free campus policy and to stay healthy, have a healthy mind and feel safe by seeking out resources available,” he said. “These topics are very important. Wellness, mental health, suicide prevention, substance abuse awareness, these topics are very necessary for all EMU community members need to be aware of it in order to maintain health and reputation of the institute they are in.”
The event was promoted and supported by 12 Eastern organizations such as the International Students organization, Campus Life and Snow Health Center.
Graduate student Nupur Goel was first made aware of the event when Patel, who is a friend of hers, invited her to attend. She feels that her decision to attend was a great one.
“We should be aware of our surroundings and people we live with to know if they are not mentally sick,” she said. “This is something that should not be ignored. Being healthy is important for everyone.”
