For the first time in his life, Paul Burns woke up at 4:30 a.m.
But when his alarm rang Thursday, the 21-year-old UF psychology junior said he was energized, ready to catch a charter bus to Tallahassee. The trip — about 12 hours in total — was designed to give Gainesville residents the opportunity to lobby for better mental health services in Florida.
“We had a diverse group of viewpoints on mental health in Florida, and that’s what we’ve been talking to these lawmakers about,” said Burns, who also serves as an Awareness Wellness Ambassadors Reaching Everyone ambassador with the UF Counseling and Wellness Center.
The group, made up of 40 local members of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, fundraised in order to make the trip to the state capital. There, they joined 20 other alliance members to speak with legislators about the struggle to find funding for mental health resources.
“The goal is to fund services in the community, outpatient-intensive treatments,” said Terrie Mullin, the president of the Gainesville NAMI chapter. “Bottom line is that what we have been encouraging and stressing is services so that a person doesn’t have to go into the hospital.”
For Lauren Kirkley, 18, the priority was drawing attention to the limited number of mental health services on college campuses, including UF.
“Other universities often have either similar or worse situations,” the UF political science freshman said. “So UF is in a bad situation, but it’s not specific to UF.”
The group brought signs with pictures and phrases like “Prevention Not Detention” and “Stomp out Stigma” to the capital. They also met with legislators, including Clovis Watson, Alachua County’s representative.
Burns, who also gave a speech at a press conference about suicide prevention among students, said he felt the trip was quite productive, and he appreciated how receptive the legislators seemed to be.
“It was a very good atmosphere,” Burns said.
About 60 people pose for a photo in Tallahassee on Thursday. The group traveled to the state capitol to lobby for better mental health services in Florida.
