Mental health

1) Describe the mental health crisis for grad students in detail including imposter's syndrome, unique challenges

What has Davis/IGG done specifically to address these concerns?

2) Describe the different aspects of mental health, point to resources and student groups

IGG has begun working to support the efforts of UC Davis to create a culture of student mental health beyond the clinical setting that includes all members of the campus community who regularly interact with and support students. For example, IGG and the Plant Biology graduate group (PBI) gave the GGG205 rotations course a revamp in Fall 2019 to address wellness and give the 1st year students tools to improve mental health. For the first 5 weeks of GGG205 in the Fall, students in IGG and the PBI attended 5 wellness sessions led by Dr. Carolyn Dewa and Dr. Georgia Drakakaki. Each session covered different aspects of wellness such as how to deal with stress in a healthy way, self-care tools, identifying/changing cognitive distortion (e.g. imposter's syndrome), different conflict resolution methods, and more.

In the media and every day conversation, people often use the term "mental health" to describe emotional wellness, which is the aspect of mental health that allows you to accept how you are feeling and respond/react to those feelings in a healthy way. While emotional wellness is indeed a crucial part of mental health, in reality mental health is comprised of many separate but related and overlapping elements that can be considered in terms of your relationship with yourself, your daily life, other people, and the community.

From the Mona's weekly bulletin:

• Campus Mental Health Resources:

  1. Counseling services will be offering tele-mental health services during spring quarter. Tele-mental health means mental health care will be provided from a distance and is done over video using Zoom through a third-party platform that protects your privacy and confidentiality. Since all UCD counselors are licensed to provide therapy within CA, students who are also located within the state of CA and enrolled during spring quarter can meet with a counselor. For more information please visit: https://shcs.ucdavis.edu/online-visits •

  2. If you are in Crisis: Crisis counseling at North Hall from 9AM-4:30PM, Monday through Friday. You can also call 530-752- 0871 after hours and talk to a counselor. For Spring 2020, there will not be crisis counseling available at the Student Health & Wellness Center (SHWC). As it becomes a COVID-19 testing center in the upcoming weeks, we are minimizing the risk of contagion by providing crisis services in North Hall only.

  3. Suicide Prevention hotline is available 24/7 by dialing 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

  4. Crisis support is also available 24/7 via text messaging by texting "RELATE" to 741741.

For more information about navigating a mental health crisis, visit: https://www.nami.org/About- NAMI/Publications-Reports/Guides/Navigating-a-Mental-Health-Crisis SHCS' Health Equity Committee compiled a list of health and wellness resources for students, which includes how to access care, self-care resources and information for specific communities. You can also find the resource, along with Health Education & Promotion's printed resources and COVID-19 educational information (including ready-to-go social media posts), on the HEP Shared Google Drive: bit.ly/hepdrive.