{"id":27066,"date":"2018-11-05T08:42:54","date_gmt":"2018-11-05T13:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=27066"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:57:22","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:57:22","slug":"hgaps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=27066","title":{"rendered":"Student club creates psychological \u2018first aid\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"From
From left, Joshua Langfus (graduate student adviser) and Lizzie Wilson (past-president of HGAPS) at the club’s weekly meeting at Howell Hall. (photo by Donn Young)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Under the guidance of faculty experts, a UNC-Chapel Hill student-based nonprofit produces content with free online mental health resources and easy-to-understand infographics. Projects have included content addressing the Parkland, Fla., school shootings and the Netflix series \u201c13 Reasons Why.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Junior Lizzie Wilson found the perfect fit for her love of undergraduate research and service in a UNC-Chapel Hill organization that disseminates online mental health resources vetted by experts to the people who most need help.<\/p>\n

Through the student club and 501(c)(3) nonprofit Helping Give Away Psychological Science (HGAPS for short)<\/a>, 50 students, including Wilson, have produced 500 pages of content \u2014 most of it available via the open-access platform Wikiversity. The content has accumulated 60.4 million page views in just 2\u00bd years.<\/p>\n

\"HGAPS
HGAPS members meet weekly over pizza in Howell Hall to brainstorm ideas and work on projects. (photo by Donn Young)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

HGAPS projects have included creating \u201cpsychological first aid\u201d resources for students and parents after the Parkland, Fla., school shootings. The Wikiversity page on dealing with a school shooting<\/a> tackles topics and offers resources, noting for example, what signs to look for one week and one month after a traumatic event.<\/p>\n

The students created\u00a0 \u201cWhat We Wish They Knew: 13 Reasons Why<\/a>\u201d in response to the complex themes of suicide, cyberbullying, sexual assault, substance use, grief and more raised in the popular Netflix show \u201c13 Reasons Why.\u201d The Wikiversity page is broken done by episode.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019m making an impact that\u2019s more than local; it\u2019s really global. I\u2019ve come to realize that there\u2019s no other club that I could have joined where I could do more,\u201d said Wilson, a psychology and biology major also pursuing a chemistry minor. \u201cReal people are accessing the information and getting help from the content we are producing.\u201d<\/p>\n

HGAPS grew out of the research lab of Eric Youngstrom,<\/a> a professor of psychology and neuroscience in UNC\u2019s College of Arts & Sciences who has always had a passion for \u201cbringing scholarly knowledge to the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

He co-founded the club with one of his graduate students, Mian-Li Ong, now doing a predoctoral clinical internship in San Antonio. In September, Ong received a Citizen Psychologist Presidential Citation from the American Psychological Association for his work with HGAPS. The organization has received eight grants from professional societies and foundations to support its work.<\/p>\n

Under the guidance of Youngstrom, students meet weekly over pizza in Davie Hall to work on projects, edit content and produce infographics. They typically host two larger \u201cedit-a-thons\u201d during the year, sometimes Skyping with outside experts.<\/p>\n

They partnered with one of Youngstrom\u2019s UNC system colleagues \u2014 Kurt Michael, Aeschleman Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Appalachian State University and an expert on suicide prevention \u2014 on developing the Wikiversity resources for \u201c13 Reasons Why.\u201d UNC students are also helping Michael and his students develop an HGAPS chapter at App State.<\/p>\n

\"HGAPS
HGAPS club member Paulina Ruiz. (photo by Donn Young)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWestern North Carolina has higher than average rates for suicide, and this was an opportunity to join forces to disseminate more accurate information,\u201d Michael said. \u201cEven though we are 180 miles apart, we share a lot of commonality in terms of our desire to have an impact on society. And students realize that their research can make a difference immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

UNC senior Emma Choplin worked closely on the \u201c13 Reasons Why\u201d page. She received a grant from HGAPS to attend the American Psychological Association convention in San Francisco in August, where she and other UNC students met with Helen Hsu, a Stanford University psychologist who consults with the show.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis experience has helped me to develop a better understanding of research, and professionally, I\u2019ve learned business and entrepreneurial skills, too,\u201d said Choplin, who is majoring in psychology and pursuing minors in neuroscience and religious studies.<\/p>\n

The team responded quickly to develop infographics and other resources that could be used before and after Hurricane Florence<\/a>. The infographics covered tips for how to help kids who are scared of storms and how to cope with issues such as posttraumatic stress, loss, grief and depression after a hurricane.<\/p>\n

This opportunity to focus on applied research has been very appealing to Hannah Kim, a UNC psychology and economics major who is also a Buckley Public Service Scholar.<\/p>\n

\u201cHurricane Florence was so local and hit close to home for a lot of people,\u201d Kim said. \u201cPeople on our team are passionate about helping people get the best information they can.\u201d<\/p>\n

University Research Week will be celebrated Nov. 5-9. For more information, visit http:\/\/undgrares2020.sites.unc.edu<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

By Kim Weaver Spurr \u201988 <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Under the guidance of faculty experts, a UNC-Chapel Hill student-based nonprofit produces content with free online mental health resources and easy-to-understand infographics. Projects have included content addressing the Parkland, Fla., school shootings and the Netflix series \u201c13 Reasons Why.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":27072,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,29,33,17,21,34,18],"tags":[24,25,26,1255,1256,329,36,37,38,1257,40,787],"class_list":["post-27066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-general","category-media-news","category-natural-sciences-mathematics","category-news","category-news-archive","category-undergraduate-education","tag-carolina","tag-college-of-arts-sciences","tag-college-of-arts-and-sciences","tag-hgaps","tag-hgaps-student-club","tag-psychology","tag-unc","tag-unc-arts-and-sciences","tag-unc-college-of-arts-and-sciences","tag-undegraduate-research","tag-university-of-north-carolina-at-chapel-hill","tag-university-research-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27066"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48965,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27066\/revisions\/48965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}