Fostering a Campus Environment Supportive of Student Mental Health

Introduction

The Counseling Center recognizes that many of the conversations around student mental health take place outside of the Counseling Center—between students and professors, graduate student instructors, and lecturers. As faculty and instructors, you have an essential role in supporting student mental health on campus. A brief conversation between a student and a faculty member that encourages the student to get help can make all the difference in the world; an instructor who knows the resources on campus and shares that knowledge with a student can be the “tipping point” for that student to get the help they need. Additionally, emphasizing mental health information on course syllabi as well as other communications with students can normalize help-seeking and help students not feel alone. These are just a few ways to help—there are countless others. 

How Do I Use This Toolkit?

Thank you for what you do every day to support our students, and thank you for considering the resources and suggestions contained in this toolkit. This Faculty Toolkit was developed after conducting multiple focus groups and meetings with University of Michigan students, faculty, graduate student instructors (GSIs), and others, in which there was an expressed desire to provide faculty and other instructors with additional resources, creative ideas, and best practices for supporting student mental health on campus. We hope this resource will serve as a valuable guide in the following ways:

1. Helping you create a classroom environment that is supportive of student mental health.

2. Providing you with tips on how to identify and help a student who may be struggling with their mental health.

The strategies included in this guide are based on research, as well as ideas, techniques, and tips that University of Michigan faculty and students have found to be effective in supporting student mental health and wellbeing. However, not all strategies will be the “right fit” for everyone. Think of this resource as you would a toolkit—it provides a variety of strategies and ideas from which to pick and choose. When considering the tools you would like to try, consider your professional role, how you typically interact with students, and other factors that might influence what is most useful for you.

Acknowledgements

This toolkit has been adapted from the University of Michigan Counseling and Psychological Services. Illustration credit: Jude Boudon

U-M CAPS would like to acknowledge and thank the Baldwin Foundation for their generous support for this project. We are so thankful for your support of college student mental health and your commitment to a community of caring. Without you, this Faculty Toolkit would not be possible.

Thanks to the CAPS Student Advisory Board, a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate/professional students passionate about mental health. The CAPS SAB met over the course of an academic year and shared their student voices to provide vital content suggestions. 

We are grateful to the students, faculty, GSIs, and instructors who participated in focus groups and provided invaluable feedback and guidance in developing this resource. Thank you to the Michigan Community Scholars Program (MCSP) and the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (please refer to their Occasional Paper “Supporting Students Facing Mental Health Challenges” for valuable information on proactively supporting student mental wellbeing.

Special thanks to U-M School of Social Work alum, Carolyn Scorpio, for her time and dedication as Project Manager and to U-M Stamps School of Art and Design student, Jude Boudon, for their creativity and artistic talent with the illustrations. 

CAPS would also like to thank the University of Texas at Austin “Well-being in Learning Environments” Project for providing a model for this toolkit. 

For this second printing (October 2019), we are also grateful for the additional support given by the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, University Health Service, the Medical School, and the Sommers Family.