University Climate on Mental Health

[Humulus_lupulus]

Hi, everyone! I am currently serving on a committee for mental health reform for my university as one of two graduate student representatives.

A little about the school:

• Large land-grant university in the midwest
• Lowest funding for mental healthcare in our conference
• One of the states with lowest funding for higher ed in general
• Merging primary care, counseling, and psychiatry (physically and administratively)

I am interested in getting some opinions and perspectives on mental health climate at other places, specifically:

• How stigmatized is seeking help for mental health concerns? Does this seem to vary significantly with departments/programs/advisors or even culturally/regionally among students?
• What sorts of mental health programming does the university or graduate school offer? (e.g., presence at orientation or resources fairs, workshops for stress management for grad students, university-wide events) How are these events typically announced to students, and do certain programs target undergrads vs. grads?
• Are there any mental health services provided specifically for graduate students (e.g. support groups, specialized counselors, etc)?

Any feedback you can give would be greatly appreciative and helpful in steering me with requesting services for graduate students!

[fuzzylogician]

Bumping this up because it's an important question. I wish I could remember the setup at my own PhD institution, but it's been too long ago. I can say something about the university I work at, if that helps, but it'll be from the perspective of a new employee, not a graduate student, so I assume that's not what you're looking for.  

From what I do recall: I can't remember students/friends ever talking about mental health concerns, though I am sure they existed. I think that there were resources for grad students that were separate from the undergrads (support groups, mostly, and the possibility for an off-campus psychologist, so you didn't have to run into your students at the doctor's office), but otherwise it was mostly shared. I think the first time I learned about these resources was when I first started to TA and had to deal with students with these issues.

[TakeruK]

Hi! I think I would be one of your counterparts at my school (I'm part of the student health committee, currently 3 students for grad students) and this is something we think about a lot too. I'll try to answer your questions:

On 4/4/2017 at 2:44 PM, Humulus_lupulus said:

I am interested in getting some opinions and perspectives on mental health climate at other places, specifically:

• How stigmatized is seeking help for mental health concerns? Does this seem to vary significantly with departments/programs/advisors or even culturally/regionally among students?
• What sorts of mental health programming does the university or graduate school offer? (e.g., presence at orientation or resources fairs, workshops for stress management for grad students, university-wide events) How are these events typically announced to students, and do certain programs target undergrads vs. grads?
• Are there any mental health services provided specifically for graduate students (e.g. support groups, specialized counselors, etc)?

Any feedback you can give would be greatly appreciative and helpful in steering me with requesting services for graduate students!

1. It's really hard to measure/quantize stigmatization. Everything at my school varies a lot between departments and in bigger departments, between research groups. We try to normalize seeking help for mental health, the same way you would see a optometrist for your eyes, a doctor for your health etc. Some ways we do this include publicizing general stats (e.g. 20% of our students meet with a mental health professional), reporting the number of students that self-report various issues (from the ACHA data), and talking about mental health regularly at events (see below).

2. The Counseling center is present at orientation, especially international orientation since mental health care can be even more stigmatized in other countries. There are several resource fairs University-wide several times a year that the Counseling Center participates in. There are also one lunch seminar per month, where we invite one psychologist to come to speak to students about a particular topic (e.g. stress management, time management, emotional control, social anxiety, etc.). Students get lunch, learn about a topic and get to meet a psychologist. It alternates between one that is from the school's Counseling Center and one that is from a practice in town (we often refer students to off-campus providers when they need regular, e.g. weekly/biweekly/monthly meetings).

These events are emailed to the whole student body, both grads and undergrads. The undergrads have their own support systems with Resident Associates and senior students serving as mental health liaisons. The undergrads live in various "houses" (think Harry Potter) and each one has a staff member from the Counseling Center that checks in on them every once in awhile. There are additional programming too, see below.

3. The other programming are mostly in the form of support groups. There is one for social anxiety, one for eating disorders and one for sleep disorders (off the top of my head). They aren't specific to grad students---we have a small student body and most things are open to both undergrad and grad students.

Finally, I want to add one more great thing that our school does. The grad students, in the past, specifically asked for specific coverage in our health insurance for mental health. Under our plan, in each benefit year, the first 25 visits to a mental health provider are fully covered (no copay), and visits beyond the 25th are only a $15 copay. The Counseling Center will also pay for transportation from campus to off-campus providers where necessary. I think this helps reduces the barrier for both undergrad and grad students to seek help.

Anyways, happy to answer more questions

[Humulus_lupulus]

I'm super appreciative of the feedback @fuzzylogician and @TakeruK! These are some great insights.

Feel free to keep it coming, everyone! This process will be a long one.