Yes, you really did see an elephant!
An elephant has been touring the campus and gate crashing lectures this week as part of a campaign to take the stigma out of mental health issues.
The 'elephant in the room' campaign is being run by the Students' Union and led by Rianna Gargiulo, the Union’s Welfare Officer. The campaign, which is backed by Time to Change, a project run by the charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, aims to end the discrimination and stigmatization those with mental health problems often suffer.
Rianna said the University’s Student Support Unit and its Student Life Centre were doing a good job tackling the problem: “Sussex has a higher than average number of students accessing counselling services. But this is partly to do with our campaigning and the availability of services here. Other universities do not have the same openness about the issue as we do here.”
Public attitudes to mental health issues have improved markedly since the Time to Change programme was launched in 2011. The latest National Attitudes to Mental Illness Survey said about 4.8 million people have improved their attitudes towards mental illness in the last three years.