Understanding Advocacy in the Field of Mental Health
Through the REAL Program, Public Health and Psychology double major Avery Munn ’24 got experience promoting and advocating for mental health services while interning at the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
By Shantala Jennings ’27
During the summer of 2023, Avery Munn ’24 (Psychology and Public Health) participated in an internship through the REAL Program at the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) in Denver, Colorado. Throughout the summer, she learned how to become an advocate and resource for mental health patients and came away with a better understanding of how the practice of psychology can be tailored to promoting community health.
Munn's passion for psychology began in high school. “In my senior year of high school, I took AP Psychology and immediately fell in love with the course,” she says. “I enjoyed learning about how people think and how the practical applications of psychology could be applied to myself and the world around me.” After joining Santa Clara University, she decided to continue her studies in psychology with the addition of Public Health as a complementary major. With the support of the Real Program, Munn was able to explore her areas of study outside of the classroom and learn more about how their intersections can combine in the field of behavioral health.
During Munn’s internship with NAMI, she learned the grassroot work of a nonprofit organization in the mental health sector and focused on creating tangible change in the local community. Munn gained experience in delivering mental health education program plans, organizing the logistics necessary to carry them out, and acting as a resource for people with mental health concerns. Some of her responsibilities included participating in the development, evaluation, and implementation of various mental illness programs; working with frontline workers and training them to have a more compassion based approach to mental illness; assisting in the preparation of the NAMI State Conference, which connected and prompted discussions between advocates in mental health and experts in other fields; and attending farmer’s markets to hand out resources to the public.
Munn's opportunity to assist residents in Denver, her hometown, was one of the most important aspects of her internship. As part of her experience, she spent a weekend working with the SMART program in Colorado. This program consists of support teams that respond to mental health emergencies and are made up of a police officer, social worker, and licensed therapist. “I got the chance to observe how these groups function to address various circumstances. I will never forget that—it was such a vivid and emotional event. It was amazing to see how the efforts for mental health advocacy from NAMI combined with provider training to support people in my community struggling with mental health.”
Munn emphasized that she could not have interned at the National Alliance on Mental Illness without the REAL Program. With funding from REAL she was able to support herself financially while helping individuals in her community and gaining experience that will prepare her for graduate school and the professional world of psychology and public health.