Mackenzie Drazan is Teaching Everyone About Mental Health
Here’s how her experiences have shaped her passion for mental health awareness
Mackenzie Drazan is a 20-year-old Polisci major who founded TEAM, Teaching Everyone About Mental health. Here’s what happened when we interviewed the Trinity sophomore.
Mackenzie speaking at a mental health charity event with her mother
What is TEAM?
TEAM is a website dedicated to the friends and family of those suffering from mental health issues. Ultimately, it is support for the support.
What was your motivation behind starting TEAM?
My sister passed away from depression this past October, and before she passed away she was very dedicated to mental health — more the science, exactly, of what she was going through.
And through her struggles, my family was really in the dark as how to help her — because the mental health topic is something that is really shoved under the rug, primarily due to stigma. I wanted to create a resource to help friends and family of those who are suffering from a mental health condition. As one out of every four people struggle with a mental health condition at any point in their life, almost every person knows someone who is suffering. I wanted to provide a resource for them.
What was the process of getting the website up and running?
This past spring, I came up with the idea and I was planning on using the summer to create the website. I told my aunt, who works at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, and she told a colleague who ultimately mentored me. The Palo Alto Medical Center connected me with so many different people within Stanford and other big researchers in the field, to really create something that could help people.
How has TEAM grown since you started it?
It’s really grown so organically on it’s own, just because of how relatable this problem is to everyone. It’s so chronic and absolutely everywhere, that so many people have such a close emotional connection to this topic. There’s a huge demand for more resources, more help, more funding for this area.
The demand for it is so steep — that has been the secret weapon. Everyone needs this.
What are next steps with TEAM?
This fall, I was connected with a few people who are very interested in reprogramming the site from the backside. It’s not as effective as it could be, though to the user it works.
The site is rigged to be global. The most creative feature is creating a Yelp!-like feature for therapists and different treatment options. You can type in your zip code or your city, and the website will give you a list of the different therapists, treatments, or programs in your area and there will be reviews on those different centers. It decreases the learning curve to help you get the right fit faster with the right program.
Our next step is creating a mobile app that will assist the treatment process. It’s a multi-user platform where you can basically select a team of people who can see the app – its an organizational feature that will increase efficiency, as well as collecting data. The goal is to make the whole treatment process more efficient.
What is one common misconception about adolescent mental health?
Depression has different spikes, and in terms of more suicidal cases, it’s quite common in the 12 – 25 age-range. Suicide rates increase a lot in this range. Preventative health care at this age is crucial–the faster you can diagnose and treat, the higher the chance you can live with the condition.