Going on Instagram stories, you can see videos of people dumping buckets of ice water on themselves, tagging USC Mind along with the hashtag #SpeakYourMIND.
These videos are a part of a new ice bucket challenge happening ten years after the original challenge for ALS.
Different from the ALS challenge, this new one is called Speak Your Mind—as in the hashtag—and is dedicated to spreading mental health awareness.
Challenge founder Wade Jefferson and the University of South Carolina revived the ice bucket trend with a twist of nominating those whom you feel comfortable talking about your mental health.
The challenge and its hashtag have been shared thousands of times among college students and celebrities like Payton Manning and Today show hosts.
USC’s Mental Illness Needs Discussion club partnered with the nonprofit Active Minds to further the mission by donating ice bucket funds to mental health resource funding.
In a statement Active Minds founder and Executive Director Alison Malmon describes feeling joy from seeing the viral trend.
For her, she loves “to see youth and young adults take an iconic viral moment and breathe new life into it for mental health advocacy is incredibly powerful. It’s proof that when young people rally together with passion and purpose, they don’t just raise awareness—they ignite a movement. This is how we create a new era of mental health.”
The partnership between the MIND club and Active Minds is a joint effort in creating awareness and breaking stigmas around mental health.
Active Minds reports 67% of young adults with mental health struggles, like anxiety or depression, do not seek medical treatment.
Kent State’s Project Coordinator for the Center of Public Policy and Health Diane Patel says this societal stigmatization is why some reject treatment or have a lower likely hood of pursuing it.
The challenge brings hope that these numbers can change through the visual symbolization of the challenge.
The number of shares and people the challenge has reached reflects this possibility.
Donations can be made at the link in the bio of the MIND club’s Instagram page, and once nominated participants have to include the hashtag #SpeakYourMIND in addition to nominating their friends.
Nikki Gasiewski is a KSTV Reporter. Contact her at [email protected].