Student Health tables for Wellness Week
Students took advantage of free narcan and heard about other Wellness Week events.
By QUINTEN SEGHERS & ZACHARY WHALEN
Students gathered around the Student Health tent at the Trojan Farmers Market Wednesday to ask questions, get bananas adorned with Student Health stickers and Narcan, and learn about the other resources Student Health offers.
Student Health workers are at the market every Wednesday. This week marks the inaugural Wellness Week, a collaboration between Student Health and the Undergraduate Student Government. The organizations elected to hold Wellness Week in February, when students have time to explore available resources before midterms season.
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Resources available at the tent included advice on healthy relationships, icebreakers for getting to know people and information on what to do during a dental emergency. Minne Ho, Student Health’s strategic advisor and executive director of communications, said she hoped the tent would help students learn about Student Health’s array of resources.
“We’re available to answer questions [having] to do with mental health services, relationship advice and services for survivors,” Ho said. “We have all things related to how to create healthy relationships, express your boundaries and understand what it means to have really healthy consensual relationships.”
The tent offered free Narcan, provided by Student Health’s partnership with graduate students in the Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and USC’s student chapter of the American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists. Students can visit the Student Health tent to learn about Narcan and its uses and can access it for free from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Engemann Student Health Center.
Student Health workers are at the Trojan Farmers Market every Wednesday, offering advice on healthy relationships, icebreakers for getting to know people and information on what to do during a dental emergency. Student Health also used the tent to advertise mental health resources to students. (Shruti Shakthivel / Daily Trojan)
Sophia Dettweiler, a well-being and health outreach ambassador for Student Health and a sophomore majoring in health promotion and disease prevention studies, said it is important for students to take advantage of everything Student Health has to offer while in college. She also said it’s essential to carry Narcan on hand.
Dettweiler said Student Health would also use the tent to advertise its mental health resources to students, including the “Thrive Guide” — an overview of round-the-clock mental health resources including Oasis Chat, Uwill and Nod, which are available for students who may not be ready to see a counselor in person.
The guide also includes a list of healthcare facilities in the Student Health Insurance Plan network that are open longer than Engemann or the Health Science Campus’ Cohen Student Health Center.
“After-hours care resources are really helpful,” Dettweiler said. “A lot of students run into situations where they just don’t know what to do and this guides you through what you have available at any hour in the day.”
Chichi Okeke, a senior majoring in public health as well as health and the human sciences, visited the Student Health tent and won hand sanitizer, candy and a keychain from the tent’s prize wheel. She said she visited the tent to refresh her knowledge of the resources Student Health provides.
“I come [to the Farmers Market] every week; I love it,” Okeke said. “I read all the materials they give us and I do think it’s really important. Even though not everyone will read the materials, it might make [them] stop and think for even a little bit about the things they’re seeing.”
