Board members and institutional representatives convene for a meeting of the Iowa Board of Regents at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

IOWA CITY — Before approving its state appropriations request in advance of the upcoming Legislative session, Iowa’s Board of Regents on Thursday tacked on another $1 million specifically for “extended mental health resources at our three regent universities.”

That $1 million addition will bring the board’s total ask to $39.3 million more than the $580.7 it received this year — or $620 million.

Regent Abby Crow — serving as the board’s student regent as she works as a University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics nursing assistant — suggested the appropriations-request amendment after regents met this week with student leaders across the campuses.

“A central point of our conversation was the need to extend mental health services and the benefits this will bring to students at our regent universities,” Crow said during the board’s meeting Thursday on the UI campus. “Student leaders also provided us with a unanimous letter imploring us as regents to support their efforts for expanded mental health resources and funding. And noted several excellent examples of direct impacts on programming and staffing that having extended funding could allow at each of the institutions.”

Board of Regents member Abby Crow contemplates on a series of comments from student body leaders on proposed tuition increases on June 14, 2023, at the University of Iowa Levitt Center for Advancement in Iowa City. (Geoff Stellfox/The Gazette)

This, Crow said, isn’t the first the regents have heard from students about the need for more mental health services at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and University of Northern Iowa.

“In light of these ongoing discussions, I would like to make a motion to amend the fiscal year 2025 state appropriations request to include an additional $1 million to support our university’s efforts for extended mental health resources at our three regent universities,“ Crow said.

The board — excluding President Michael Richards, who was absent for the meeting — unanimously approved the amendment and the full appropriations ask, without discussion, after Crow noted the students also asked to be involved in conversations going forward “regarding the specific allocation of this funding.”

“And offer their insight as to what specific mental health-related resources, programming, or staffing might be the most good at their respective institutions,” Crow said.

A UI-specific version of the National College Health Assessment — administered to thousands of students in the spring — found an increase in reports of self-harm, diagnosed mental health conditions, and students receiving services.

⧉ Related article: UI health assessment shows rise in energy drinks, vaping

Among UI undergraduates who responded to the spring health survey, 56 percent said they had at some point in their life received psychological or mental health services, up from 50 percent who said so in 2021. Nearly 38 percent reported receiving services within the last year, up from 33 percent in 2021.

UI graduate students reported similar increases. And both groups reported as their “top conditions ever diagnosed” as anxiety, depression, and attention deficit disorder.

Iowa State’s most recent national health survey from 2021 found 23 percent of its female respondents had experienced “serious psychological distress,” while 53 percent of women and 47 percent of men were “positive for loneliness.”

According to that survey, 27 percent of the female respondents were “positive for suicidal screening,” along with 23 percent of men.

The rest of the regents’ request of lawmakers in the upcoming session includes $14.8 million for “general university” dollars — breaking down to $4.5 million each for UI and Iowa State and $5.8 million for UNI.

That, UNI President Mark Nook said Thursday, is the most important part of his campus’ request, “so that we can hold tuition flat for a year and develop some differentiation in our tuition relative to others public institutions in the state.”

In states surrounding Iowa, Nook said, the cost difference between research-intensive campuses like UI and ISU and regional comprehensive universities like UNI is about $3,500.

Mark A. Nook, president of the University of Northern Iowa, listens to a series of comments from student body leaders on proposed tuition increases on June 14, 2023, at the University of Iowa Levitt Center for Advancement in Iowa City. (Geoff Stellfox/The Gazette)

“In 2017, that difference was $88 here in the state of Iowa,” Nook said. “We’ve grown that to just a little over $1,000. I’d like to continue to be able to do that. It will certainly help with enrollment trends. But it will more importantly help the people in Iowa have choices.”

In addition to that general education increase, all three campuses have made significant “special purpose requests” — including $10 million for a UI initiative to address rural health care needs; $10 million for an Iowa State STEM workforce program; and $2.5 million for a UNI initiative to increase educators across the state.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com

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Dr. Alexis Travis is the assistant provost and executive director of University Health and Wellbeing. The division brings together 11 departments focused on supporting faculty, staff and student health and wellbeing.

Looking back on my time leading the new University Health and Wellbeing team, which will reach one year in November, it strikes me that bringing together 11 units that focus on supporting the health and wellbeing of our Spartan community, together as one cohesive team, happened at exactly the right time. Together, we serve students, faculty and staff, including all geographical locations and MSU online community members. Our charge is to support all aspects of physical, mental and social health and wellbeing as MSU advances to become a health promoting university. Our new team structure has facilitated the health and wellbeing responses at MSU in partnership with the University Physician and the Office of Health Sciences.

As a public health practitioner, I have always prioritized mental health personally and professionally – some of my earliest experiences and understanding came from direct service roles as a caregiver to people living with schizophrenia and as a volunteer crisis counselor, at Childline UK and later at Long Island Crisis Center in New York. Since working with behavioral health teams in Massachusetts and Michigan, I’ve learned that emotional trauma is something most people carry to varying extents. Access to supports, services and individual and community resilience all play a role in how people navigate and recover from trauma. Since the events of Feb. 13, I’ve heard statements like: “The whole campus is a center for survivors in the wake of Feb. 13.” It’s not a literal fact, but it is an acknowledgement that we all need to be more trauma-informed as a community and understand the trauma which has been experienced at an individual and institutional level. All Spartans may not feel traumatized by recent events, and that is OK too; trauma is experienced uniquely by individuals.

For all Spartans, we know that looking after our minds and bodies and staying socially connected are important. It’s important to continue to make sure you get enough sleep, eat well and stay active. We know that people heal best together in community. UHW hosts a series of healing events to provide opportunities for people to enjoy time in relaxing beautiful spaces on campus and enjoy music.

We are also excited to launch Mindful STATE, a university wide program designed to help Spartans begin or deepen their mindfulness practice. The program features Spartan Voices, Spartans teaching Spartans about the benefits of mindfulness practice. Right now, Spartans can use meditation videos through the program that focus on stress, worry and feeling overwhelmed. In the near future the program will feature a website, social media engagement, mindfulness classes, community meditation events and QR codes in various campus locations. For more information, email spartanresilience@msu.edu.

Our team is also available for outreach at events upon request. We are able to provide counselors, therapy animals and other health promotion resources. We have a variety of services available for in-person, virtual, individual and group, routine and crisis support. New this year, Counseling and Psychiatric Services, or CAPS, will be offering a program called Togetherall, which is a free, anonymous online peer-to-peer mental health support community. The program will be available online all hours of the day. We look forward to bringing more events and resources to the MSU community that will engage mindfulness and relaxation to continue to build on our community resilience.

One of the most important things I want the campus community to know is that your wellbeing is unique to you. It may not look like your friends’ or colleagues’ experience or response and that is OK. We are here to support you in whatever ways feel comfortable and appropriate to you. If you have questions, please reach out to uhw@msu.edu.

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Robert Willett

rwillett@newsobserver.com

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UNC Shooting

The UNC-Chapel Hill campus and local schools were locked down Monday for three hours as police looked for an “armed and dangerous person” near campus. Here is coverage from The News & Observer.

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CHAPEL HILL

A growing number of UNC-Chapel Hill professors are calling for a task force to address the mental health of graduate students, a request brought on three days after the “senseless loss of a colleague” shot to death on campus.

The request refers to Tailei Qi, the 34-year-old charged with murder in the fatal shooting of his academic advisor Zijie Yan, as a “seemingly-struggling doctoral student,” and it pointed to a mental health epidemic in higher learning.

“We hear directly from many students who we supervise in laboratories, in research, and in classrooms that they are struggling — psychologically, physically, financially and academically,” said a statement circulating around UNC, signed first by psychology and neuroscience professor Keely Muscatell. “Graduate students are the lifeblood of universities… For all they do, we owe them our support for the mental and physical well-being.”

The basis for Qi’s depiction as “seemingly-struggling” was not immediately clear, but this is the second reference to mental health issues in Yan’s applied physics lab.

Earlier this week, Doug Chrisey, Yan’s former academic advisor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute posted a Facebook tribute to his former student, including this exchange:

“Yan mentioned to me in our last correspondence how one of his graduate students had a mental health problem causing delusions and he hoped he could graduate quickly and remain stable. He let his Department know of the situation. Graduate School in science research is a different kind of hard. Students feel great pressure and it often is mired in failed experiments or rejected manuscripts like the above. I wish people like Yan’s student could get the help they needed – a statement of the obvious.”

Yan was shot Monday afternoon inside Caudill Laboratories, sparking a massive search and campuswide alert that had many students locked down for more than three hours. UNC has transformed into a place of mourning since, with classes canceled and expressions of grief large and small.

By late Thursday afternoon, the call for a task force at UNC had 25 professors’ signatures. It refers to UNC’s own research, published in 2022, showing long-simmering mental health concerns grew worse on campus during the COVID-19 pandemic and racism protests of 2020.

A similar 2022 study conducted over 373 campuses showed more than 60% of students met criteria for at least one mental health problem, up 50% over the previous 10 years.

“We recognize the recent tragedy cannot be reduced solely to graduate student mental health,” the text of the petition says. “Clearly, change must be made in many directions, at all levels. What we as a university have the power to do in the here and now is address the needs of our graduate trainees.”

Addressing mental health on campus will take funding and openness to change, the text states, but the campus can benefit from its own experts in the relevant fields.

“We encourage the administration to make use of us,” it adds. “We are prepared to help.”

Josh Shaffer is a general assignment reporter on the watch for “talkers,” which are stories you might discuss around a water cooler. He has worked for The News & Observer since 2004 and writes a column about unusual people and places.

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LEXINGTON, Mass., Aug. 15, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — A new independent survey of more than 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students at nearly 60 institutions conducted by the Office of Planning and Evaluation at the University of Maryland School of Public Health (UMDSPH) reveals that 84% of students who received services say Christie Campus Health’s services helped them remain enrolled in school. The survey also demonstrates consistently high approval of the 24/7 Clinical Support Line, with an almost 90% satisfaction rate of the service. 

The survey, which was conducted in the spring of 2023, was commissioned by Christie Campus Health as part of its ongoing effort to measure the impact of and satisfaction with the mental health and well-being services it provides to colleges and universities. More than 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students at 59 institutions were surveyed, representing large and small public, private, research, HBCU, religious-affiliated, and military-affiliated institutions.

“It is crucial for companies that provide student mental health services to assess student perspectives on their offerings,” says Dr. Amelia Arria, Senior Advisor to Christie Campus Health and the Director of the Center on Young Adult Health and Development in the Department of Behavioral and Community Health at the University of Maryland School of Public Health.

“We are proud to continuously receive strong satisfaction ratings. It is important to us that students confirm that our services are helpful to them and can play a role in improving their mental health and well-being,” says Kaitlin Gallo, Ph.D., Christie Campus Health’s Chief Clinical Officer. 

Additional findings from the survey include:

• 96% of students report satisfaction with the psychiatric prescribing services provided through Christie’s virtual psychiatric prescribing clinics. Many students say that Christie’s psychiatric prescribing clinic offers access to medication and support that they would not have otherwise been able to access.
• Mindfulness and Meditation tools, offered through an exclusive partnership with Headspace, continue to have high adoption rates and a very strong satisfaction rate of 97% among students. Students say they were sleeping better, feeling calmer, and more focused because of the app.
• 90% find the Navigator program (remote care coordinators) helpful in seeking and accessing needed mental health services and other social support such as housing, food, or other academic support services.
• 92% of students report they were satisfied with the mental health provider from Christie’s counseling network who supported them.

Christie Campus Health’s complete continuum of care meets students wherever they are on their mental health journey, whether they are interested in self-assessments and self-guided apps or speaking to a clinician immediately. The services appeal to students who may be reluctant to access existing on-campus counseling services due to concerns about stigma, or who are seeking additional counselor diversity. Christie Campus Health’s offerings are free to all students, increasing access for underserved or lower income students, a critical benefit given growing concerns about income and health inequities.

About Christie Campus Health

Christie Campus Health is dedicated to improving the mental health and well-being of college students by helping colleges and universities expand the way they reach and support students. Christie’s services include a 24/7 Clinical Support Line, face-to-face and virtual counseling visits, clinically validated self-care resources, and student care Navigators. Partnering with colleges to deliver innovative, equitable and high-quality mental health services to students, Christie currently offers our comprehensive mental health platform to over 100 colleges and universities, supporting over 750,000 students nationally and internationally.

Contact: Teresa Verity at [email protected]

SOURCE Christie Campus Health

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