Passaic County Community College – Mental Health & Basic Needs Resources for Community College Students

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Are You Being Rigorous or Just Intolerant?

From the Chronicle of Higher Education, May 2016:

I always took pride in being “a hard teacher.” I was rigorous but fair; my students didn’t need to be geniuses to succeed, they just needed to be “good students.” A good student attends class, sits attentively, participates in discussions, and meet deadlines. But after more than a decade of teaching, I realized that my idea of the good student was standing in the way of good teaching.

Click here to read more from the full article about how to promote mental health in the college classroom.

The College Custodian as an Unheralded Pillar of Student Support

From the Chronicle, August 2016:

Jeremy J. Reed knows what it’s like to wear work boots on a campus. As an undergraduate at Loras College, where he was a first-generation student heavily dependent on federal aid, he labored as a painter for the Iowa campus’s maintenance department.

With fond memories of the support and encouragement he had received from other blue-collar workers on the campus, he later decided to study custodians as a doctoral student in higher education and student affairs at the University of Iowa. For his dissertation, completed last year, he shadowed four long-serving custodians on their rounds at a large Midwestern public university, which his research protocol precludes him from naming.

The Chronicle caught up with Mr. Reed this week at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, where he is now director of admissions, to ask him about his custodian study. Following is an edited and condensed transcript of that interview.

Click here to read the full article and interview through your institution’s access to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Supporting Student-Athlete Mental Wellness by NCAA

From NCAA:

Student-athletes, coaches, and faculty athletics representatives play a critical role in creating an environment that supports the mental health and well-being of college athletes. That’s why the Sport Science Institute developed web-based educational modules to help normalize and destigmatize mental health help seeking for college athletes.

If you are an NCAA student-athlete, coach, or faculty athletics representative, the interactive modules will provide information to help you promote mental wellness and resiliency on your campus and to encourage and destigmatize help-seeking for mental health concerns.

Click here to access the education modules on the NCAA website.

Mental Health First Aid

Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) is an 8-hour course that teaches you how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders. The training gives you the skills you need to reach out and provide initial help and support to someone who may be developing a mental health or substance use problem or experiencing a crisis.

MHFA takes the fear and hesitation out of starting conversations about mental health and substance use problems by improving understanding and providing an action plan that teaches people to safely and responsibly identify and address a potential mental illness or substance use disorder.

For MHFA on college and university campuses, the National Council for Behavioral Health has developed Mental Health First Aid for Higher Education. To learn more about this population-specific module for MHFA, please click the links below to view an overview and agenda for the course.

Mental Health First Aid for Higher Education – Overview
Mental Health First Aid for Higher Education – Agenda

Are Campuses Ready to Support Students in Distress? [JED/Kognito]

Co-authored by The Jed Foundation (JED) and Kognito, this whitepaper highlights data findings from a survey of 65,177 faculty, staff, and students in 100+ colleges and universities to answer:

  1. How prepared are faculty, staff, and students to refer students to the appropriate resources?
  2. Is it part of the role of faculty, staff, or students to connect students experiencing signs of distress with mental health services?
  3. Are they already connecting students at sufficient levels?

Click here to view the whitepaper.

Community Consultation and Intervention: Supporting Students Who Do Not Access Counseling Services

Although the severity of psychological problems among college students and the demand for campus counseling services has increased, many students who could benefit from mental health services still do not access them. This article describes Community Consultation and Intervention, a program designed to support students who are unlikely to access professional help despite the best efforts of traditional counseling center outreach. Community Consultation and Intervention reaches into the campus community to intervene by advising faculty and staff who may be the only contact for a distressed student, taking on a nontraditional “student support” role in direct interactions with students, offering advocacy when university systems or other environmental stressors precipitate psychological problems, and providing case management and crisis intervention services on behalf of the university when troubled students are especially concerning and disruptive to their communities. The most novel element of the program—the student support role—is distinct from conventional counseling in that it privileges problem solving, support, advice, and advocacy over focusing on emotions and other traditional mental health interventions. Case studies and programmatic challenges are described.

Click here to access the full article, published in the Journal of College Student Pyschotherapy in 2008, through your institution’s access with Taylor & Francis Online.

Comparison Table of Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Training Programs by SPRC

This comparison table will help you find a gatekeeper training appropriate for your setting, the people you are trying to protect from suicide, and the people you want to train as gatekeepers. It is not a comprehensive list of gatekeeper trainings, but rather it includes the trainings in the Resources and Programs section of the SPRC website. It provides information on training objectives, audiences, training format and highlights, and links to the training developer’s website and the SPRC listing on the training.

Click here to view the full table, last updated July 2018.

Campus Connect | A Suicide Prevention Training for Gatekeepers

Developed by the Syracuse University Counseling Center, Campus Connect is a gatekeeper training program for college and university faculty, staff, and students. The experientially based training is designed to enhance participant’s knowledge, awareness, and skills concerning college student suicide. Specifically, Campus Connect aims to increase participant’s knowledge about suicide statistics, risk and protective factors, warning signs, and referral resources; to increase empathic listening skills, communication skills, and the ability to ask individuals if they are thinking about suicide; and to increase self-awareness concerning the potential emotional reactions gatekeepers may experience when interacting with students in crisis.

For more information, you can read the full description on the SPRC website.

JED Recommendations: Gatekeeper Training

IDENTIFY STUDENTS AT RISK:
GATEKEEPER TRAINING

Schools should look for opportunities to train campus community members to identify, reach out to, and refer students who might be struggling. Trainings can be online or in-person and presented in a number of different ways depending upon the population. JED recommends tailoring the training to individual groups when possible so that the information the group is receiving is most relevant to the individual. This is one of three major objectives in the Identify Students at Risk Domain.

Under this objective, schools can take the following action steps:

  • Develop, expand, or strengthen gatekeeper training program for campus faculty and staff in identifying, reaching out to, and referring students who may be struggling. This training should be mandatory for all faculty and staff. Include a broad range of campus participants in gatekeeper training, including:
    • Faculty
    • Academic advisors (academic risk or performance issues are often caused by mental health or substance use issues)
    • Deans and department heads
    • Student affairs administrators
    • Residence Life staff
    • Campus security
    • Campus support and office staff
    • Dining staff
    • Custodial and facilities staff
    • Transportation staff
  • Train students to identify, reach out to, and refer their friends/peers who may be struggling with mental health or substance issues.
    • Regular skill refreshers and reminders can be offered
    • Campaigns on campus can encourage peer support and help-giving
  • Develop and/or refine a protocol for reporting students of concern. Those who are trained should know how to support others in their community but appropriately refer and report concerns when necessary.
    • The reporting and response process should be formalized and documented and work collaboratively with the Behavioral Intervention Team (“BIT”) or Care Team
    • The protocol for reporting students of concern should be well-publicized
    • Data should be collected and analyzed on reports and response
    • Parents and families may also be educated on how to report their student and seek help if they are concerned about their mental health or substance use

THIS CONTENT CAN ALSO BE FOUND IN THE JED CAMPUS PLAYBOOK GUIDE.
To view all playbook resources related to Gatekeeper Training, click here.