Content warning: The following story is about World Suicide Prevention Day and discusses an event focused on mental health support. The story contains mentions of suicide and death.
On World Suicide Prevention Day Sep. 10, Donkey Coffee partnered with The Office of Health Promotions for “A Night at Donkey Coffee” to raise awareness of mental health and have an open discussion to combat the stigma of suicide.
In the private back room of the cozy coffee shop located at 17 W. Washington St., the students and staff involved in planning the event created a safe space for people to share their raw stories.
Assistant Director of Peer Health Education and Empowerment Taylor Bauer started the night with opening remarks and the intentions of the night.
“We’re here together on this World Suicide Prevention Day to embrace a shared mission to change the narrative surrounding suicide prevention and create a space where we can openly discuss mental health challenges and encourage collective action that fosters hope, support and resilience,” Bauer said.
In memoriam of the loss of an OU student last week, Bauer enacted a moment of silence during her opening speech.
“I wanted to take a moment to recognize that we’ve had a loss in our community as well last week, as we are processing the unexpected death of one of our students,” Bauer said.
Bauer explained the events of the night, which began with a moving speech from Brandon Lias, a board member of the National Alliance of Mental Illness, or NAMI, Athens, followed by volunteer speakers from the audience.
Mia Walsh, a senior studying women’s, gender and sexuality studies and journalism, helped run the event as both a Peer Health Educator for the Office and being involved with Designated Space, a weekly Tuesday event at Donkey.
“It’s not affiliated with the university at all,” Walsh said. “Anybody can come. We have a really dedicated group that comes, and then people sporadically show up. In that dedicated group, some of them are townies, community members, grad students, undergrad students.”
There were about eight or nine signups in advance to participate in the open-mic portion of the night, Bauer said, but there were also attendees who felt empowered to speak on a whim after feeling inspired by others’ words. People shared stories, songs and poems all tied back to the discussion of suicide and mental health, and the genuine affects it has personally had on their lives.
“It’s always a really beautiful thing to have people share their stories, and so it can be very powerful,” Walsh said. “But I also understand some people that regularly come each week aren’t in the audience this week because it can be tough. knowing boundaries is so important and taking care of yourself even more so.”
Hearing such honest truths from strangers had an effect on those in attendance, including Sydney Loftin, a freshman studying psychology, who said she knew an event like the one at Donkey would resonate with her after her experiences.
“It makes things a lot easier to feel and go through because you get a very real experience of other people sharing their stories,” Loftin said.
Loftin shared she even jotted down some notes from the night on her phone, reminding herself of the inspirational words heard from the speakers. One of her take-away messages from the event was “grief is love with no place to go.”
The Office of Health Promotions extended numerous resources for students, including Counseling and Psychological Services, or CPS, ‘Let's Talk Hours’ in the Living Learning Center or stopping by the Office, located in Baker Center Room 339, to request wellness checks.
“You’re not alone,” Walsh said. “Whether you believe it or not, you are not alone in anything that you’re going through, statistically, which is kind of annoying because we all have main-character syndrome. But it’s so beautiful at the same time.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing mental health concerns, call or text 988 for support or contact the NAMI helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264). Find OU’s mental health resources through Counseling and Psychological Services.
