She started small - very small: Undertreatment of mental illness

He had been a star as a student at Columbia University, with a 3.7 grade point average, and a lively wit that shone through his roles as sports editor of the newspaper, president of an a cappella group and actor in the annual student-written musical.

He had begun hearing voices years before, and had hidden from his family his struggles with mental illness since then.

His sister received the awful phone call on a Friday afternoon in March 2000: her 22-year old brother, Brian Malmon, had committed suicide.

So his sister, Alison Malmon, has started Active Minds, Inc., a nonprofit organization. She started small—very small: only three people came to the first meeting. Now they have 65 campus chapters, devoted to increasing awareness of mental illness. Active Minds seeks to ensure that everyone on campus knows what mental health services are available and when to use them.

Alison’s advice to people with troubled friends: “To help a friend that you’re concerned about, you should go and say, ‘I’m worried about you. Is everything OK?’, and walk them over to the counseling center.”

Read another of our mental illness stories, or Tamar Lewin’s source story in the April 25 issue of the New York Times.