Holistic Mental-Health Care Can Earn Colleges a New ‘Seal’
By LIBB Y SANDER
MORE STUDENTS are com- ing to college with men- tal-health conditions, and
over all, students report higher levels of anxiety than in years past.
But as counseling centers face rising demand, their budgets tend to
grow only modestly or remain flat.
How, then, can colleges know if
they’re meeting students’ mental-health needs?
For years, the Jed Foundation,
which works to reduce emotion-
al distress and prevent suicide
among college students, has en-
couraged a holistic approach,
beyond offerings like traditional
counseling. Last week the founda-
tion rolled out a new certification
program aimed at helping colleg-
es create broader communities
that place a premium on mental
health.
A survey this year showed that 28
percent of counseling-center directors reported having accreditation from the International Association of Counseling Services.
In recent years, the Jed Foun-
dation and other advocates have
pushed for a community-based ap-
proach: training people who don’t
work in mental health to be vigi-
lant for signs of distress—or just to
know how to help. A financial-aid
official, for instance, might notice
that a student is acutely upset about
money. A dining-hall employee is
privy to students’ eating habits. A
campus security officer may be able
to recognize a psychotic break and
call an ambulance instead of the
police.
Still, a broader conception of
mental health and suicide prevention is starting to take hold,
says Gregory T. Eells, director
of counseling and psychological
services at Cornell University,
who has worked with the foundation as a consultant. Involving
all corners of the campus is vital,
he says.
“More and more institutions
are realizing that if you’re going to
educate the mind,” says Mr. Eells,
“you’re going to have to do something to address the health of the
mind, too.”
A SEAL OF APPROVAL
An Effort to Take Mental Health Mainstream
The Jed Foundation’s new JedCampus program encourages colleges to adopt a community-based approach
to student mental health. The plan involves seven main components.
Increase help- seeking behavior
Provide mental- health services
Follow crisis- management procedures Restrict accessto potentially lethalmeans
Develop lifeskills
Promote social networks
Identify
students
at risk
Suicide prevention, promotion of mental health
To apply for the JedCampus seal,
colleges must complete an 80-ques-
tion survey exploring the strategy
and scope of their mental-health
promotion and suicide prevention.
For a fee of $650, the foundation,
whose staff includes a psychiatrist
and a public-health professional, will analyze an institution’s responses and compare them with
best practices in the field.
The assessment will draw heavily on the foundation’s work several
years ago with the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, which identified effective strategies such as
teaching healthy living, promoting social networks, and making
the campus physically safe for students.
