Amplify Utah supports and facilitates dynamic journalistic storytelling to celebrate diverse points of view. By partnering with traditional media, we cultivate an environment that encourages stories be shared widely and made easily accessible for our communities to read, hear, watch and engage.
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The internet has gotten some things right — mental illness is not the exception.
According to The National Alliance on Mental Health, about 51.5 million U.S. adults struggled with mental health in 2019. That’s one in five adults.
And many of these struggles start early. About half of all lifetime mental illness begins at age 14, the study found, and 75% by age 24.
Generation Z and parts of the millennial generation grew up largely with the internet, exploring a world where there is a community for everyone and sharing their experiences. This cultural shift has led older generations such as Generation X, which spans 41 to 56-year-olds, and baby boomers, 57 to 75-year-olds, to reconsider the stigma around mental health and what living with a mental illness entails.
The internet has helped people find solace, knowing they are not alone, but it may leave people of all ages to wade through misinformation about mental illness, said Jodi Lorenzen, a clinical mental health counselor at Salt Lake Community College’s Center for Health and Counseling.
Lorenzen treats both older and younger patients regularly and said it can be easy to associate getting help with something wrong or shameful.
“People tend to think they are broken if they have mental health problems, more so than physical problems,” she said, explaining that physical ailments are not typically viewed as the person’s fault, whereas mental health issues sometimes, and incorrectly, are.
Lorenzen believes the internet has created a space for mental illness to be normalized. “It’s like ‘Oh, it’s not just me. I can get help for this.’”
Younger generations, who are often more influenced by the people they follow on social media, have been found to be quicker in seeking treatment than their predecessors, according to the American Psychiatric Association.
Despite criticisms that overusing social media can lead to anxiety and depression, the study found that 37% of Gen Z and 35% of millennials were more likely to have received treatment or gone to therapy compared to 26% of Gen X, 22% of baby boomers and 15% of the Silent Generation, or those older than 76.
Ian Eggleston, a 19-year-old biology student at SLCC, believes younger people are more open to treatment.
“[They are more] willing to change and adapt to new information,” he said. “There’s a lot more learning about it [now], and a lot more knowledge.”
Anita Riddle, a 58-year-old music major, recalled students with more severe mental illnesses being educated separately in school.
“As adults,” she said, “they were often institutionalized.”
She feels the recent influx of mental health positivity is partly due to celebrity endorsement, mentioning gymnast Simone Biles, who temporarily withdrew from the Summer Olympics, citing poor mental health.
Because of this, Riddle said, “Others may feel less inhibited to express their mental issues and obtain proper treatment.”
Still, Lorenzen, the mental health counselor, urged people of all ages to be social-media literate.
“There are some really wonderful and credited people out there who know what they are talking about,” she said.
On the other side, however, there might be an unqualified influencer who “just wants to talk about depression.”
There’s a large range of information out there, and sometimes people don’t know how to filter that information, she explained.
In the digital age, it’s easy for anyone to create compelling media, which can make it difficult to know whether information is credible, according to Common Sense Media, a nonprofit offering resources for digital media literacy education. Thinking critically, determining whether a social post is meant to be persuasive and recognizing an influencer’s goal or point of view can help social media users better process good information from the bad.
Lorenzen also encourages individuals to not only think about what they read online but listen to their own internal works and build a relationship with their own emotions.
“[With] all of this information pouring in, not paying attention to what’s going on internally means we are missing out,” she said. “Our bodies and brains are working together for our own good – even if it looks strange.”
Alexie Zollinger wrote this story as a journalism student at Salt Lake Community College. It is published as part of a collaborative including nonprofits Amplify Utah and The Salt Lake Tribune.
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NOTE TO MEDIA PARTNERS PUBLISHING WORKWe also request organizations include the following text either at the beginning or end of the story text:
This story is jointly published by nonprofits Amplify Utah and [Your Media Organization's Name] to elevate diverse perspectives in local media through emerging journalism. Alexie Zollinger wrote this story as a journalism student at Salt Lake Community College. For more stories from Amplify Utah, visit amplifyutah.org/use-our-work.
Old-timey music plays in the background as a housewife in a dress greets her clean-cut husband in a 1950s-style kitchen.
As they sit down at the kitchen table, the husband falls into a coughing fit, and a narrator pops up in the background: “What Johnny doesn’t know is that he’s contracted polio. It only takes one person infected with the polio virus to bring disease into your home.”
The film — created by students at Spy Hop Productions’ Kahlert Youth Media Arts Center — serves as an allegory for vaccinations in the time of COVID-19, while also reminding the public of diseases that nearly have been eradicated through immunizations over the decades.
“Vaccines were safe back then; they are safer now,” the video concludes. “Vaccines are the world’s biggest asset against disease.”
More than $74,000 from the CDC Foundation — a private, nonprofit organization that partners with the private sector to promote public health — funded Spy Hop students’ production of the film, posters and an interactive video game.
To share the students’ work locally, Spy Hop partnered with the Salt Lake County Health Department, which plans to share the film, posters and game via social media, community partners and at local outreach events.
“In public health communications, we see art as a tool that helps us turn information and hard data into narratives and images,” said department spokesman Gabriel Moreno. “This is significant because we can leverage arts and digital media to create a common language ... to reach and engage our audiences.”
With $2.5 million in national funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC Foundation provided grants to 30 arts organizations nationwide to build COVID-19 and influenza vaccine confidence in their communities.
“This tool is especially important to us in public health communications when trying to increase COVID vaccine confidence and uptake,” Moreno said.
Students completed the projects as part of Spy Hop’s “Vax to the Max” project. With the help of professional mentors, the students worked in different areas — film, music, audio, graphic design and game design — and were able to gain experience within their respective media spaces.
Students in charge of the PSA video, for example, filmed on location in the basement of a Sandy hotel. They had one day to shoot, which forced them to work efficiently.
“It was a really tight space,” said audio student Soraya Wainwright, who recorded sound during filming. “Having 20 people in one tiny room was super, super busy. It was crazy but really fun.”
As the video’s script went through changes, the film students said, the idea came up to center on the 1950s and polio. The concept originally was to feature a brief flashback to the ‘50s, but they decided to expand it to draw parallels with a virus that primarily afflicted older generations.
“We had to figure things out on the fly,” said student Ceci Davis, a casting producer on the film.
Students from Spy Hop’s audio and music program also wrote the film’s score, making the project collaborative across Spy Hop’s disciplines.
“We listened to ‘50s music and then ... came up with different melodies and beats,” Wainwright said. “We recorded the guitar, drums and piano all in-studio.”
Design students illustrated the graphic poster, with William Wainwright, Soraya’s brother, coding a desktop video game from the ground up using the Unity game engine. The game, published on the game-hosting site itch.io, allows players to act as a vaccine antibody and neutralize pathogens in their way.
As of July 7, 62% of Utahns were fully vaccinated and 29% had received a booster, according to the Utah Department of Health and Human Services.
“I hope [our work] can provide people with more education,” film student Abigail Tello said.
Spy Hop — at 208 W. Harvey Milk Blvd. (900 South), Salt Lake City — will showcase the film, poster and video game Saturday, July 16, at its monthly block party, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Spy Hop will also provide food and beverages, as well as free vaccinations and testing.
Cristian Martinez wrote this story as a journalism student at Salt Lake Community College. It is published as part of a collaborative including nonprofits Amplify Utah and The Salt Lake Tribune.
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NOTE TO MEDIA PARTNERS PUBLISHING WORK
We also request organizations include the following text either at the beginning or end of the story text :This story is jointly published by nonprofits Amplify Utah and [Your Media Organization's Name] to elevate diverse perspectives in local media through emerging journalism. Cristian Martinez wrote this story as a journalism student at Salt Lake Community College. For more stories from Amplify Utah, visit amplifyutah.org/use-our-work.
As students headed back to campuses this fall, many carried the weight of the last 18 months on top of the stresses that come with a new academic year.
Talking through these issues with a licensed therapist early, mental health experts recommend, could stave off more serious issues for students as responsibilities increase over the semester.
A recent survey by Inside Higher Ed found 65% of the college participants rated their mental health as “fair to poor” but only 15% are seeking help through services provided by their schools.
“Therapy ... is still surrounded with much stigma,” explained Claudia Cioni, a clinical mental health counselor at the Center for Health and Counseling at Salt Lake Community College.
Cioni said clients often wait to seek therapy until they are emotionally overwhelmed, which she says is “like being in the middle of a tornado…you only see things swirling around and don’t have perspective of what is outside.”
Feeling emotionally overwhelmed hinders good solution seeking, Cioni said.
“The mind-brain has mechanisms to protect us from being overwhelmed and it starts by reducing its own capacities, like cell phones when they go into emergency functioning – close apps to continue operating but minimally,” she said.
Anxiety and depression can make it harder to learn, retain and reproduce information, which can make school and work more difficult.
And COVID-19, she noted, has put many in survival mode: “We go [to therapy] when much of living is compromised and many areas of our lives are damaged already, unfortunately; and this condition makes healing longer and painful.”
“Therapy ... is still surrounded with much stigma,” explained Claudia Cioni, a clinical mental health counselor at the Center for Health and Counseling at Salt Lake Community College.
Reasons for not seeking therapy include a lack of access, the stigma with respect to mental health and the financial burden.
“I’ve always hesitated to seek out counseling because of cost,” said SLCC nursing student Tamra Rachol. “Unfortunately, that only compounded my issues and I found unhealthy ways to cope with the stress in my life.”
Rachol took advantage of the services provided by the Center for Health and Counseling at Salt Lake Community College during the pandemic.
“Now that we’re back on campus, sessions are just $15, anywhere else it can run you $80 to $150 an hour. I’m so grateful SLCC offers this service for a price I can afford,” said Rachol, noting that she has prioritized taking care of her mental health.
Colleges and universities in Utah offer students low-cost sessions with licensed providers to help with issues including anxiety, depression, grief, sexual trauma and medication management. The fee at SLCC, for example, covers a one-hour session, and students experiencing financial hardships can apply for a fee waiver. Insurance is not necessarily required.
SLCC alum Eric Jensen, who transferred to the University of Utah last year, appreciated the accessibility of counseling services.
“For me, knowing that the counseling center was there...got me in the door,” Jensen said. “I think a lot of students don’t use it because they are hesitant about how it works … all the same rules apply, it’s all confidential, nothing goes to the school from the counselor.”
Jensen said seeing a therapist at SLCC helped influence his behaviors elsewhere and noted that going to therapy becomes like any skill, “the more you do it, the more you kind of get out of it.”
Jensen credits the sessions at SLCC for helping him identify some of his struggles and learning strategies to get through them.
“College is stressful. Students have a lot going on…and having someone to run those things by and someone to talk to was just really helpful,” Jensen said.
Since leaving SLCC, Jensen has continued therapy through an independent counselor.
Rachol thinks the expertise a therapist offers will always have a place in her life.
“It provides a perspective that I can’t find anywhere else,” she said. “The counseling center has helped me work through past trauma. They have given me the tools I need in order to cope with my anxiety and triggers. Not only do I see a difference but so does my family.”
Amie Schaeffer wrote this story as a journalism student at Salt Lake Community College. It is published as part of a collaborative including nonprofits Amplify Utah and The Salt Lake Tribune.
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We also request organizations include the following text either at the beginning or end of the story text :This story is jointly published by nonprofits Amplify Utah and [Your Media Organization's Name] to elevate diverse perspectives in local media through emerging journalism. Amie Schaeffer wrote this story as a journalism student at Salt Lake Community College. For more stories from Amplify Utah, visit amplifyutah.org/use-our-work.
Since 2021, Salt Lake Community College’s Queer Student Association and the Gender and Sexuality Student Resource Center have worked together to host a Lavender Graduation for queer graduates — until this year.
The Lavender Graduation ceremony takes place on numerous college campuses each year to honor LGBTQ+ students and allies. However, when the GSSRC started promoting its event, they were told to stop.
Peter Moosman, the GSSRC coordinator, shared some of the reasons and frustrations that led to the cancellation.
“HB 261 happened. HB 261 banned exclusive things. [The bill] even mentioned graduation celebrations, you know, really targeting,” Moosman said. “So, with the Gender and Sexuality Student Resource Center pivoting … from an LGBT resource center [and] a women’s resource center … to a resource center for all students through the lens of gender and sexuality, we figured we could pivot our [Lavender Graduation] to a GSSRC grad, and that would satisfy HB 261, allowing us to still host our event.”
HB 261, the “Equal Opportunity Initiatives” bill sponsored by Rep. Katy Hall, R-South Ogden, “prohibits an institution of higher education, the public education system, and a government employer from taking certain actions in engaging in discriminatory practices.”
Moosman said the “Dear Colleague Letter” — a letter from the Department of Education and the presidential administration for education — states that any event, program, or resource exclusively catering to a specific race is deemed discriminatory and prohibited by law. Moosman argued that because the letter specifically discussed race, it shouldn’t have applied to the GSSRC.
The center mentioned that the Division of Student Affairs streamlined all small graduation celebrations but thought that the GSSRC would be justified in moving forward with their Lavender Graduation, since it differed from the DOSA event on May 2.
“[Lavender Graduation] was more intimate and connective, and we still felt that part of this national tradition. Part of the GSSRC’s tradition was holding this [event], and so we wanted to continue to do that,” said Moosman.
The last SLCC Lavender Graduation was held on April 24, 2024, in the Student Forum on the South City Campus. Food was provided and games were held in the courtyard. Recent legislation caused the cancellation of the ceremony for 2025. (Michael Nelson)
Kathie Campbell, the associate vice president for Student Success at SLCC, said that due to restrictions, the college wanted to pool resources and hold a combined celebration that involved all clubs.
“We really felt compelled, based on the law, to say, ‘Now we really need to get everybody under this umbrella,’” said Campbell.
Marjorie Wilson, co-president of QSA and a biology major, said that the celebrations can still be held without them being identity-based.
“There is the further complication that HB 261 will mean that the school can’t be spending money on identity-based graduation ceremonies,” said Wilson. “I think celebrations should be fine.”
Wilson wanted to adapt the language of the ceremony name to keep the graduation. The Lavender Graduation was going to be renamed to the GSSRC graduation to comply with the bill.
“We thought about how we make changes to language we use in a way that can … just provide clarity for people who are curious, and not as informed, and looking in from the outside — that this is a center that truly is, and always has been, welcoming to all students. It’s for everyone. Everyone has a gender. Everyone has a sexuality,” said Wilson.
Kai Lyon, co-president of QSA and an environmental science major, believes Lavender Graduations are part of a larger context regarding queer history.
“I think it’s really important as a historical celebration — teaching people about this type of [circumstance], and how we have been oppressed in the past, and how we need to remember ways that we can show each other support without necessarily breaking the rules,” shared Lyon. “That’s really what angers me, because it feels really like they’re saying, ‘even though you’re not breaking the rules, you can’t do that.’”
Wilson felt the sudden cancellation added unnecessary stress to students.
“It’s up to students to say, ‘Hey, wait, like, whoa, hold the reins. Let’s talk about this. Let’s see if this is necessary. Let’s see if this makes sense. Let’s see if this is supporting students,’” said Wilson.
Though everyone is adapting to the changes that bills and regulations have placed on higher education, the disconnect in communication has left students frustrated. Wilson argued for a communication model where students are involved sooner, before discussions happen and to gather feedback.
Campbell said the immediate response required from colleges regarding the new laws caused some disconnect with the messaging to the student leaders.
“We should have at least said, ‘Hey, this also impacts this.’ It should have [happened], right? We’re here for students. That’s why we do what we do,” said Campbell. “Our intent never was to cancel anything. We never want to cancel celebrating student success.”
Lyon expressed frustration over the disconnect.
“People above make these decisions without ever asking … and expecting us to put in the work to fix it,” said Lyon. “I just feel like the communication is often too little, too late.”
In an Instagram post, the QSA shared how SLCC’s Student Affairs canceled smaller graduations in favor of a single “combined” celebration, which doesn’t allow for personal plans and aspects that smaller celebrations can.
The QSA started a student-led email campaign to petition for the allowance of smaller cohort graduations. The club also opened a survey to hear from fellow students about the issue, letting students submit responses anonymously.
Wilson said some of the survey responses have already shown that smaller graduations motivate students to finish school.
“I am already hearing from students that these ceremonies help them to stay in school and help them to even conceptualize that they can really do college and be a graduate, but also to find the cohort of people that they interact with regularly,” said Wilson. “And being able to look forward to that small acknowledgement.”
According to some of the survey responses, smaller graduations are beneficial to students who may not want to come out to their families at a large public gathering.
“Students want their family to be able to come to like, the major graduation, but they want to be celebrated more openly with friends on a smaller basis,” said Wilson.
To protest HB 261, Fernando Rodriguez Camarena, president of the Native Indigenous Student Union, joined with other clubs to hold the "We Write Our Own Stories" graduation event in April.
“Normally, we would do separate events — but because of lack of money, lack of people helping us and with [the presidential] administration currently right now, making students feel unwelcome [...] because of the immigration laws that are starting to happen. A lot of us feel down,” he said.
Camarena said the goal of the collaboration was to support one another and create a community among the clubs. After learning the GSSRC wouldn't have its own celebration, he invited them to join the combined event.
“When I heard that Lavender wasn't happening or they're not sure it's going to happen, I didn't want to leave our queer students alone,” said Camarena.
While the "We Write Our Own Stories" event was initially intended for cultural groups, he invited all identity-based clubs, emphasizing the connection between queerness and culture.
“It's not just being queer — your culture, your history and just your background and your family all have something to do with it. Finding queerness is your own thing. But being queer often intermixes with other sources,” said Camarena.
Although the GSSRC supports the NISU, they declined to participate in the cultural celebration, feeling it did not encompass their goal of reinstating the Lavender Graduation.
Pearl Ashton wrote this story as a student of Salt Lake Community College.
