Hamilton Mad Students Collective breaking through stigmas and stereotypes

The Hamilton Mad Students Collective is a private peer support network designed to challenge discrimination and promote positivity surrounding mental health. The group was formed in 2012 as an extension of the former Mad Students Society.

The collective currently boasts 200 active members, and holds private weekly meetings where attendees can talk about their lives and experiences in a safe space, make connections with like-minded and supportive peers and share resources. 

The group also maintains a private online message board members can access and post to 24-hours a day, seven days a week. All current McMaster students are welcome to join (contact information is listed at the bottom of the page). 

The Daily News recently caught up with Alise deBie, coordinator of the Hamilton Mad Students Collective, to gain some insight into this unique student group. 

What exactly is a mad student? 

We mean “mad” as in madness, and we use the word for a number of reasons. The word “mad” is being reclaimed from the negative ways it has previously been used. It’s now employed in positive ways to name mad identities, cultures, communities, knowledge and social movements. For instance, Mad Pride has been celebrated in many countries around the world for more than 20 years, and there is a new academic discipline called Mad Studies. There’s even a Mad Studies textbook in Thode Library at McMaster (Mad Matters: A Critical Reader in Canadian Mad Studies). Madness is a non-medical word that recognizes the long history of mad people — a history that predates the invention of psychiatry and the associated terms mental illness and mental health. However, not all members self-identify this way.

How would you describe your members? 

Members of the Hamilton Mad Students Collective are at least 16 years old. They are students who are attending (or preparing to attend) any school, in any program, at any level of study. All members self-identify as having personally experienced madness, mental health disability, mental illness, significant spiritual or emotional distress and/or psychiatric and mental health systems. Some of us refer to ourselves as mad, crazy, service-users, psychiatric survivors, neuroatypical, mentally ill or disabled. 

How many active members are involved in the Hamilton Mad Students Collective? 

We currently have 150 members participating in our private, online discussions. Another 50 members are on our event mailing list. Our regular attendance at in-person or online meetings ranges from about 6-15 people, with various folks popping in and out at different times. There are many ways to participate, and members can choose what works best for them. Over the past year, we’ve tried to meet on a weekly basis.

What sort of activities or discussions take place at Hamilton Mad Students Collective meetings? 

There’s an overall theme of fun and playfulness in a lot of the stuff we do, which helps us foster a relaxed and supportive space for forming relationships with each other, building community and feeling less lonely. In the process of having fun, we end up talking about our lives and experiences. For example, during Reading Week a member hosted a cat therapy mad media book club gathering at her home. In December, we had a ritual to commemorate loss and new beginnings by burning various paper-based items in a fireplace. Members are also very enthusiastic about colouring and art, so crayons and paint are frequently involved. We talk a lot about loss, isolation, disclosure, discrimination, legal rights, accommodations, coping strategies, study skills, zombies, money, employment, family, mental health in the media, navigating school systems, accessing mental health services and living the lives we want. We celebrate our successes with stickers and “madulation” (mad congratulation) charts.

For students who are concerned about anonymity, how private are the meetings? 

We take privacy very seriously. In our meetings and on our mailing list, we regularly emphasize the confidentiality of all disclosed information. This is especially important as most of our members are not “out” about mental health experiences. In order to maintain a private peer space, I connect with all new members to ensure they meet membership criteria. Our meeting locations are never disclosed publicly, and our members can use an alias at meetings, on the mailing list and on the discussion board if they wish to remain anonymous. 

Why is it important for postsecondary students to connect with each other in person to discuss mental health issues? 

Experiencing mental health concerns can be incredibly isolating. Knowing that people like you exist on campus can be really comforting, and can help members feel less lonely and different. Members often talk about an increased sense of trust, safety, honesty and understanding among peers with mental health histories, and decreased feelings of shame or judgment. Personally, I’ve learned about my legal rights, academic accommodations that work for me and good mad memoirs to read since hanging out with other peers. Professional services are good, but there are limitations. My doctor is not going to come with me to get groceries and my counsellor is not going to help me get to class on a day I’m too nervous to get out of bed. But friends can do these things. Mad friends are especially good at this, because we understand what it’s like to feel lonely, scared, ashamed, sad and nervous. Peer support can help us develop a network and community so we don’t have to rely so much on individual people. It’s also really important that it’s mutual. Mutuality means I’m not just a recipient of service — I’m active in supporting my mad friends and asking them to support me.

What can be done on university or college campuses to help address common stigmas surrounding mental illness? 

Accessible and inclusive social and learning environments would really benefit all McMaster students, and help create a more welcoming and supportive place for everyone to participate and learn. These environments would help decrease mental health-related discrimination. For example, events such as Welcome Week can be difficult for those of us who prefer to interact in smaller groups or need restorative sleep. Also, courses can be designed to offer more flexibly around attendance and participation requirements and assignment deadlines, or even in terms of options for assessment and evaluation of learning. It’s also unfortunate that our lived knowledge as mad people and service users is infrequently used in curriculum. Instead, medical perspectives about mad students are often promoted as the only way to understand our realities.

How does one go about joining the Hamilton Mad Students Collective? 

Email hamilton.mad.students@gmail.com and we’ll connect people with our group or other resources. If email is difficult, interested students can leave a voicemail message at 289-768-4001 and I will call them back. Visit www.hamiltonmadstudents.ca for further information.