The need to remain physically distant doesn’t have to mean a loss of social contact. Faculty members can create virtual drop-in opportunities during the week for students to discuss problems or concerns around coursework, study, academic or other challenges. You should emphasize that students are not alone and provide guidance and mentorship for anything in your realm of expertise: study skills, time management or handling anxiety related to new digital learning and communication formats. That includes everything from commerce to our careers, but we can still support teens and young adults in managing friendships and relationships, problem solving, decision making, and identifying and managing emotions in this new paradigm. We have all needed to adapt to new circumstances in our daily lives because of the COVID-19 outbreak. We recommend that colleges and universities work to: Now that more students have been engaged remotely - and will continue to be throughout any summer courses and perhaps even well into the fall at various institutions - it is important to deploy additional ways to implement a comprehensive approach during this period. Last, it includes making sure that procedures for handling a crisis are in place and that campus environments are as safe as possible by reducing access to potentially lethal means of suicide. It also involves leveraging and creating opportunities to notice when a student might be struggling and ensuring mental health policies and treatment services are comprehensive and well understood. This comprehensive plan focuses upon strengthening protective factors for student mental health such as developing student life skills and resilience, fostering connectedness and belonging, and promoting help-seeking behaviors.
This team oversees the development and management of a comprehensive strategic plan for supporting student mental health and reducing risks for substance misuse and suicide. It focuses first upon establishing student mental health as a campuswide priority and implementing an interdisciplinary leadership team that includes students, faculty members and administrators. This approach can play an instrumental role in creating a culture of caring and a mental health safety net around students. Through our JED Campus program, we have worked with more than 300 colleges and universities, representing over three million students, to help them implement an evidence-based Comprehensive Approach to Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention. Research shows that supportive relationships and feelings of connectedness to fellow students, family, friends, faculty members and mentors are protective factors that can help lower the risk for suicide and promote emotional well-being. Loneliness and isolation - which can be heightened during this period of mandated physical distancing - are significant risk factors for mental health challenges and/or suicidal behavior. However, the ways that members of college communities support each other during this time can help protect the mental health of young people, helping to reduce risks for suicide. The Jed Foundation, where I serve as executive director and CEO, was formed shortly after to address the growing challenge of college students across the nation struggling with anxiety, depression and other mental health issues.Īs the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts and brings significant stress to everyone’s day-to-day lives, it may also exacerbate existing mental health conditions among young people, many of whom have had to scramble to return home or find housing after sudden campus closings that require adapting quickly to distance learning technologies and settings. When Jed Satow died by suicide in 1998, he was just a sophomore at the University of Arizona.