Category: mental health

  • Living HAPPILY in a World Without Meaning (Albert Camus)

    Living HAPPILY in a World Without Meaning (Albert Camus)

    Albert Camus’s philosophy of Absurdism provides a unique approach to the meaning of life. He explores the tension between humanity’s deep desire for meaning and the universe’s lack of answers, coining this contradiction as “the absurd.” His philosophy rejects nihilism and encourages us to embrace life’s limitations, living fully in the present and finding purpose through personal choices rather than ultimate truths. 

    In The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus likens life to Sisyphus’s endless task of pushing a boulder up a hill, only for it to roll back down—a metaphor for the repetitive, sometimes purposeless cycle of human existence. Instead of succumbing to despair, Camus suggests that we imagine Sisyphus finding joy in the struggle itself, symbolizing a resilient, defiant spirit.

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  • Asking students about the challenges they face

    Asking students about the challenges they face

    Increasing numbers of undergraduate students are either neurodivergent or living with a mental health condition, and in some cases both – but their voices aren’t being heard.

    Departments know that these students face particular challenges in their academic studies, but struggle with how to best support them, especially given pressures to do more with fewer resources. University lecturers are also growing more familiar with these conditions, either because of their own personal experience, or because of greater cultural awareness and openness around neurodivergence and mental illness. All of us in the MINOTAUR team have lived experience ourselves or loved ones living with neurodivergence and mental illness, which has informed our approach to this work.

    One way universities have tried to adapt to this change in their student populations has been by issuing support agreements through their disability services team, but these are often very general and don’t always address the actual challenges individual students are facing. We know that this lack of support is having a negative impact on student experiences and academic outcomes.

    Student voice

    The MINOTAUR project (Mental Illness and NeurOdiversiTy Academic sUppoRt), run out of the classics department at Royal Holloway, University of London, grew out of an EDI survey which identified a significant population of students in the department who were neurodivergent and/or living with mental illness. We then ran a series of student focus groups in summer 2023 to identify issues facing these students and solutions the department could implement in order to improve their experience as learners.

    As far as we know, it is the first time that focus groups have been used to ask this diverse community of students about their experiences during their degrees – within Royal Holloway, within our discipline, and quite possibly within HE. Certainly there are no easily visible parallel initiatives in the sector. The recommendations we made following these discussions have been simple and easy to implement, and we know they’ve made a great deal of difference to our student cohort.

    So, in an age where the student voice has become a critical part of university life, why do these students often go unheard?

    A literature review carried out this summer with the support of the RHUL School of Humanities Scholarship and Innovation Fund confirmed our suspicion that interventions for students with neurodivergence and mental illness are typically being done to students rather than shaped by them. This review sampled a wide range of work and resources aimed at supporting university and school students with ADHD, autism, other forms of neurodivergence and mental illness. These studies largely took the form of designing an intervention, implementing it, and considering its effectiveness. There seemed to be few attempts at co-creation, co-design, or co-production.

    However, our experience with the first stage of MINOTAUR suggests that not asking students to identify the challenges they are facing and how these might be addressed means we are missing some simple, low-effort, high-effect interventions that can offer immediate support. In the longer term, it also means that those who design interventions address the problems that they can see, not the problems that students are experiencing.

    Simplicity is a virtue

    Studies indicate that increasing self-knowledge and self-advocacy skills among neurodivergent students can contribute to positive academic outcomes. Through applying principles of co-design, we can empower students to take ownership of their learning while ensuring that any interventions address their real needs. This may be particularly impactful for students without a formal diagnosis, who may not be eligible for support within existing university systems. Co-design can also increase community buy-in to projects and interventions, which is essential as part of supporting a cohort of students who are more likely to become disengaged and isolated when facing challenges.

    One great example of this for MINOTAUR has been an intervention so simple that we wouldn’t have thought of it without talking to our students. As a department, we have a reputation for being supportive and understanding for students living with neurodivergence and mental illness, but as staff we had taken it as a given that our new students would automatically realise this. Last year, we introduced a simple slide titled “Neurodiversity in Classics”, to be shown at the start of each new module.

    It emphasises that we want students to be able to learn, and uses three bullet points designed to lower the barriers to our students’ learning. “Better late than absent” reduces the anxiety of being five or ten minutes late to a class session, which can throw off attendance for a whole term. “Tell us about the room” gives students permission to tell us about sensory disruptors; having to concentrate on processing an overwhelming physical stimulus, like a flickering light, that can distract focus from teaching. “We understand about stimming,” referring to repetitive physical actions often made by people with autism, makes it explicit that students can fidget and move in ways which help them concentrate rather than struggling to repress those habits for an hour.

    We simply hadn’t realised how much work our students were putting in to trying to meet expectations we didn’t have of them. Without consultation, we wouldn’t have known how effective this simple intervention could be – and it has made a huge difference to our students, especially first years joining the department.

    It’s all about participation

    Low-impact adjustments designed for neurodivergent students and students living with mental health issues can often be valuable in supporting the learning of neurotypical students too. Following the focus groups’ recommendations, many of us more systematically introduced a break in lectures to avoid students’ cognitive overload, and to allow them to refresh their minds around halfway through the lecture. Even if the evidence is only anecdotal at this stage, this small change seems to have positive effects on the entire cohort, fostering a more collaborative and open teaching environment, and reinforcing the class as a space of collective learning and teaching.

    Recognising that neurodivergent students, disabled students, and those with mental health conditions are experts because of their experience is critical to work against assumptions which, however unintentionally, disempower these groups. In line with trends around developing ethical practice as part of community-based participatory research, recent movements within disability studies seek to redress the imbalance within scholarship which has cast disabled people as subjects of research, rather than active participants with agency to engage in discussion and innovation: no research about us without us.

    Through proactively working with students, MINOTAUR recognises that higher education cannot meet the needs of this cohort without working with them collaboratively to produce interventions that are grounded in their student experience.

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  • Prioritizing Mental Health Support in Community Colleges: Key Data from 2023

    Prioritizing Mental Health Support in Community Colleges: Key Data from 2023

    Title: Supporting Minds, Supporting Learners: Addressing Student Mental Health to Advance Academic Success

    Source: Center for Community College Student Engagement

    The 2023 Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) and Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE) gathered essential data to guide community colleges in supporting student mental health and well-being. The surveys collected responses from 61,085 students at 149 community colleges in spring 2023 and 13,950 students at 61 community colleges in fall 2023, respectively.

    Key findings include:

    • Mental health concerns are prevalent among CCSSE and SENSE respondents. In the two weeks before taking the survey, half of CCSSE students and 47 percent of SENSE students reported feeling down, depressed, or hopeless for at least several days. Additionally, 66 percent of students in both groups felt nervous, anxious, or on edge for at least several days.
    • Approximately 26 percent of CCSSE respondents and 23 percent of SENSE respondents likely have a depressive disorder. Over half (53 percent) of students who identify with a gender identity other than man or woman have a probable depressive disorder, compared with 28 percent of women and 25 percent of men. Traditional college-age students (31 percent) and those with a GPA of C or lower (39 percent) are more likely to have a depressive disorder, compared with 19 percent of nontraditional-age students and 23 percent of students with a GPA of B or higher.
    • Overall, 32 percent of CCSSE respondents and 29 percent of SENSE respondents likely have generalized anxiety disorder. Among CCSSE students, 62 percent of those identifying with another gender likely have an anxiety disorder, in contrast to 36 percent of female and 25 percent of male students. Students identifying with two or more races saw the highest levels of generalized anxiety disorder, at 36 percent. Among SENSE respondents, traditional-age students were more likely to have generalized anxiety disorder, at 30 percent, compared to 23 percent of nontraditional-age students.
    • Over half of CCSSE respondents (56 percent) reported that emotional or mental health challenges affected their academic performance in the previous four weeks. 30 percent noted these issues impacted their performance for three or more days. Nearly two-thirds of women (63 percent) and almost half of men (47 percent) reported performance declines due to mental health issues, while 85 percent of students identifying with another gender faced academic impacts. Lower GPA students were more likely to report that mental health issues affected their academic performance.
    • Students with likely generalized anxiety disorder are twice as likely, and those with a depressive disorder are almost twice as likely, to report academic performance declines due to emotional or mental difficulties compared to students likely without these disorders.
    • 63 percent of students identifying with another gender reported that mental health challenges could lead them to withdraw from classes, compared to 39 percent of women and 29 percent of men. More than half of students with a GPA of C or lower (53 percent) stated they were at least somewhat likely to consider withdrawal due to mental health concerns, in contrast to 33 percent of students with a GPA of B or higher.
    • High percentages of students felt their college prioritizes mental health, yet about three in 10 CCSSE respondents and slightly more SENSE respondents said they wouldn’t know where to seek help if needed. Hispanic or Latino students were most likely among racial/ethnic groups to report not knowing where to turn for mental health support.
    • Over one-third of students with likely depressive or generalized anxiety disorders reported not knowing where to find professional mental health assistance if needed. Among CCSSE respondents who needed mental health support in the past year, 42 percent never sought help, with Hispanic or Latino students and men more likely than other groups to indicate they hadn’t pursued support. Approximately one-third of students with probable depressive or generalized anxiety disorders reported never seeking help.Many students cited limited resources as the main barrier to seeking mental health support. Students, especially traditional-age students and men, also frequently mentioned concerns about others’ perceptions and uncertainty about what kind of help they need.
    • Across all groups, students expressed a strong preference for in-person individual counseling or therapy over teletherapy and other support options.
    • Only 16 percent of CCSSE respondents considered it essential that their mental health provider understands their cultural background. However, students with another gender identity and Black or African American students were more likely to value culturally informed mental health support.

    Check out the full report on the CCSSE website.

    —Nguyen DH Nguyen

    If you have any questions or comments about this blog post, please contact us.

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  • Building a Connected Workplace: HR’s Role in Reducing Loneliness – CUPA-HR

    Building a Connected Workplace: HR’s Role in Reducing Loneliness – CUPA-HR

    by Julie Burrell | August 28, 2024

    Editor’s Note: This is the second of two posts that explore the loneliness epidemic and practical ways HR can help combat it in the workplace.

    Social bonds are as necessary to our well-being as a healthy diet, exercise and sleep, according to the Surgeon General’s 2023 report on the loneliness epidemic. The report recommends that workplaces make decreasing loneliness a strategic priority at all levels. Here is how higher ed HR can help prioritize social connection as a vital tool in supporting employee happiness and well-being.

    Increase Inclusion to Fight Loneliness

    Groups most at-risk for social isolation include “people with poor physical or mental health, disabilities, financial insecurity, those who live alone, single parents, as well as younger and older populations,” according to the report. Additionally, marginalized groups like the LGBTQ+ community may feel increased isolation.

    Your inclusion and belonging initiatives might be the natural place to begin strengthening social connection on campus. Foreground accessibility in these initiatives by asking:

    • Is social programming accessible for people with disabilities and people with mental health challenges?
    • Is your programming inclusive of people who are neurodivergent?
    • Are working parents, caregivers and remote employees unable to participate in on-site or off-hours socialization?
    • Is cost a prohibitive factor for socializing?
    • Are Employee Resource Groups or affinity groups supported in terms of budget and time within the workday?

    Making Connections

    Intergenerational Connections. Research suggests that making connections outside of our own age or social group may reduce the risks associated with loneliness. One inclusion strategy is to help bridge generational gaps by bringing younger and older people together, which also targets two of the most at-risk populations.

    Volunteering with community groups that serve young and older people can also be effective in helping employees forge intergenerational connections (bonus: volunteering enhances employee satisfaction and engagement).

    Campus and Community. Connecting with people of different social statuses has also been shown to improve well-being. How are leaders connecting with employees across campus in low-stakes ways?

    Also consider how partnerships with your leadership, health centers, research faculty and student groups can make the dangers of loneliness a campus-wide concern.

    How is your campus connecting with and enriching the larger community? According to the Surgeon General’s report, upward mobility is improved through relationship-building among people of differing socioeconomic status. (Register for our upcoming webinar to learn more about Duquesne University’s Minority Professional Development Internship Program, which was awarded CUPA-HR’s 2024 Inclusion Cultivates Excellence Award.)

    Hybrid and Remote Employees

    According to Gallup, fully remote employees report a higher level of loneliness (25%) than fully on-site employees (16%). At the same time, hybrid, remote and flexible work is an important strategy to retain top talent. And flexible work can be a boon to people with disabilities and neurodivergent employees.

    This means that special considerations should be made for those workers who may not be on site every day.

    Encourage online connections. Water cooler conversations are more difficult virtually. Consider establishing a rotating committee who can schedule casual chats online. Your internal communication tools, such as Teams and Slack, should have social spaces as well.

    Model setting boundaries between work and home. Hybrid and remote opportunities are important in maintaining work-life balance, but remote employees may feel like they’re always “on.” The Surgeon General’s report recommends that workplaces “put in place policies that protect workers’ ability to nurture their relationships outside work.”

    Beware of treating employees inconsistently. It’s important that managers find ways to boost face time with their remote or hybrid employees. For those employees who must be on site, provide what flexibility you can, such as summer Fridays off. Learn more about success in managing hybrid teams in Roadblocks to Supervision: Clearing a Path for Peer-to-Supervisors, New Supervisors and Hybrid Team Supervisors.

    Starting With HR

    Let’s face it: HR can sometimes feel like a lonely place. Whether you’re a CHRO, a department of one, or a member of a team navigating the increased scrutiny of a role in HR, you might feel like few people understand your own daily challenges beyond the CUPA-HR community. HR is so often tasked with helping others, but HR pros need support too.

    Raising awareness about the basic need for social connection might help you and your team reframe social connections at work from a luxury to a basic tool for retention and employee happiness. Socializing replenishes our emotional stores and our physical resilience. Leaders can model setting healthy boundaries at work and convey that self-care is not selfish, but rather a critical tool in the HR toolbelt. (Learn how to use “no” as a complete sentence in this on-demand webinar.)



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  • Making Sense of the Loneliness Epidemic – CUPA-HR

    Making Sense of the Loneliness Epidemic – CUPA-HR

    by Julie Burrell | August 21, 2024

    Editor’s Note: This is the first of two posts that will explore the loneliness epidemic and practical ways HR can help combat it in the workplace.

    Loneliness can be as bad for you as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, according to a Surgeon General’s report from last year.

    The report identifies loneliness as a national epidemic experienced by about one in two adults. Loneliness is “associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death.” That means human connection is as necessary for your long-term survival as food and water.

    Feeling isolated can also decrease general well-being. People who say they’re lonely are more likely to experience sadness, worry, stress, anger and physical pain, according to a recent Gallup poll. Their research shows that over one in five people globally feel lonely “a lot.”

    When Loneliness Is Worrisome

    Of course, we have all felt lonely sometimes, when changing jobs, getting a divorce, moving to a new city, or recovering from an illness. But when does a temporary feeling of loneliness become chronic?

    Chronic loneliness occurs when the feeling of isolation goes on for a long time and the inability to connect to other people is constant or prolonged. Chronic loneliness can occur even among very social people — you can still feel lonely in a crowd — and is often connected to self-doubt or low self-esteem.

    Taking Away the Stigma 

    Feeling lonely can come with a sense of shame. However, it’s important to understand that loneliness isn’t about who you are, but about a lack of deep social connection driven by factors in our sociocultural environment.

    Even though loneliness has been on rise since before COVID-19, the pandemic and recent political divisiveness have contributed to the epidemic. Social media is likely exacerbating the problem. People who report more than two hours of social media use a day are twice as likely to report feelings of isolation (versus people who use social media less than a half hour).

    The good news is that loneliness can be addressed in part by deliberately strengthening engagement in our workplaces, communities and other social networks.

    While workplace changes alone won’t combat political and social divisions, it’s still a key starting point for helping to decrease loneliness — especially considering how much time we spend at work. When implementing programs targeted at the loneliness epidemic, it can be best to frame your efforts as a positive: increasing social connection.

    One Small First Step

    Efforts to boost connection may help increase employees’ job satisfaction. The Surgeon General’s report stresses that “supportive and inclusive relationships at work are associated with employee job satisfaction, creativity, competence, and better job performance.” Connection at work prevents stress and burnout and can even be linked to fewer missed days of work after injury or illness.

    In the next post in this two-part series, we’ll focus on concrete steps that higher ed HR can take to combat loneliness at work, including for hybrid and remote employees.

    But you can take a meaningful first step by making a small personal change, such as tracking how much time you spend on social media, practicing short mindfulness sessions, or scheduling one phone-free lunch per month with a work friend. Even a positive interaction with a colleague you don’t know well, a barista or cashier, or someone in line with you at the coffee shop can have lasting mental health benefits by expanding your “relational diversity” — the variety of relationship categories you have daily.



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  • Neurodiversity at Work: Focus on ADHD in Women – CUPA-HR

    Neurodiversity at Work: Focus on ADHD in Women – CUPA-HR

    by Julie Burrell | August 5, 2024

    A full picture of neurodiversity in the workplace includes understanding how gender shapes employees’ experiences of neurodevelopmental disorders. Although they’re diagnosed at roughly the same rates as men, women with ADHD may be overlooked in conversations about attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Until fairly recently, ADHD was seen as primarily affecting children, with the typical view of someone with the disorder as a restless or hyperactive boy.

    Awareness about how ADHD can manifest differently in women — and how gender stereotypes play a significant role in diagnosis and treatment — can help foster a culture that uplifts neurodiversity and the skills that neurodiverse employees can offer an organization. Employees with ADHD bring unique strengths and perspective to their work, such as creativity, courage and hyperfocus.

    Here’s what HR needs to know about ADHD and how it can be different for women.

    Misconceptions About ADHD

    Rather than a set of behaviors, ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition affecting about 2% to 5% of adults, and falls under the same broad umbrella as autism spectrum disorder and dyslexia. A stereotypical picture of someone with ADHD is “a boy who can’t sit still and is disruptive in class,” according to Dr. Deepti Anbarasan, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at New York University.

    Women who receive ADHD diagnoses in adulthood may have struggled with inattention and executive functioning for much of their lives. Because girls and women with ADHD often present as inattentive rather than hyperactive, and because women often develop coping skills that mask ADHD, women often receive late-in-life diagnoses. By the time women reach adulthood, however, the rates of diagnosis are close to those seen in men.

    ADHD in women often presents as challenges with executive functioning, which can include difficulties with attention and focus, as well as emotional dysregulation, trouble with finishing tasks or juggling multiple tasks, and absentmindedness. Women with ADHD might also suffer from anxiety and depression, and even suicide attempts and self-harm. Some people with ADHD compensate by working extra hours during their personal time to keep up with their day-to-day work, causing added stress.

    A Strengths-Based Approach

    Though ADHD can pose real challenges at work, a strengths-based approach highlights the advantages that employees with ADHD bring to their jobs. In a recent study, for example, 50 adults with ADHD identified the positive aspects of living with the condition, including energy and drive, a high degree of creativity, an ability to hyperfocus, and traits such as resilience, curiosity, and empathy. The same study emphasizes that experiencing ADHD as challenging or beneficial depends on the context and sociocultural environment that a person is in.

    HR as a Leader in Neurodiversity

    Given how much context and sociocultural environment matters, creating a campus climate that supports neurodiversity is critical. HR can champion neurodiversity through awareness and well-being programs. Because ADHD often occurs alongside depression and anxiety, a holistic approach to well-being is recommended. (Learn how the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio gained traction with their mental health awareness campaign.)

    HR can also advocate for accommodations to support neurodivergent employees. For example, task separation is a common management strategy to help employees set their work priorities. In emails and written communication this might look like establishing clear parameters, breaking requests down into bulleted lists, and clearly spelling out instructions like “two-minute ask” or “response requested.” (For many more suggestions on how to uplift neurodiversity on campus, including practical tips for accommodations, read Neurodiversity in the Higher Ed Workplace.)

    There’s a business case to be made for a robust attention to neurodiversity: increased retention and productivity, reduced absenteeism, and developing employees’ strengths. Supporting neurodiversity also builds an appealing workplace culture, one that signals to employees that their whole person is valued.

    More Resources on Women With ADHD

    ADHD Is Different for Women, a podcast by the Harvard Business Review

    Duke Center for Girls and Women with ADHD 

    Women and Girls with ADHD from the organization Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD)



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  • Getting Organic Engagement in a Mental Health Awareness Program – CUPA-HR

    Getting Organic Engagement in a Mental Health Awareness Program – CUPA-HR

    by Julie Burrell | July 15, 2024

    Employers have enormous sway over employee health. That’s one of the major takeaways from the CUPA-HR webinar An Integrated Approach to Fostering Workplace Well-Being, led by Mikel LaPorte and Laura Gottlieb of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. They collected eye-opening data that helped them make the case to leadership for a mental health awareness campaign. In a Workforce Institute report they cited, employees say that managers have a greater impact on their mental health than their doctors or therapists — roughly the same impact as their spouse!

    In the webinar, LaPorte and Gottlieb discussed how their robust, research-driven suite of content is helping to normalize discussions of mental health on campus. They’re even being asked to present their well-being trainings at meetings, a sign that their push for mental health awareness is resonating organically.

    A One-Stop Shop for Mental Health

    The awareness campaign centers on their wellness website, which acts as a one-stop shop for campus mental health. (Right now, the site is internal-facing only, but the recorded webinar has rich details and example slides.) There, they organize their podcast episodes, articles and curated content, as well as marshal all the mental health resources currently available to staff, students and faculty.

    They’ve also found a way to make this initiative sustainable for HR in the long term by recruiting faculty subject matter experts to write on topics such as compassion fatigue. These experts are then interviewed on their quarterly podcast, Well-Being Wisdom. Tapping into faculty experts also ensures rigor in their sources, a significant step in getting buy-in from a population who requires well-vetted wellness practices.

    Getting Organic Engagement Starts With Leaders  

    LaPorte and Gottlieb have faced the typical challenge when rolling out a new campaign: engagement. Email fatigue means that sending messages through this channel isn’t always effective. But they’ve started to look at ways of increasing engagement through different communication channels, often in person.

    Direct outreach to team leaders is key. They regularly attend leadership meetings and ask different schools and departments to invite them in for facilitated mental health activities. (In the webinar, you can practice one of these, a brief guided meditation.) They’ve developed a leader guide and toolkit, including turnkey slides leaders can insert into decks to open or close discussions. Leaders are supplied with “can opener” discussion items, such as

    • “I made a difference yesterday when I…”
    • “Compassion is hardest when…”
    • “I show up every day because…”

    Not only does this provide opportunities to normalize conversations around mental health, but it also strengthens relationship-building — a key metric in workplace well-being. As CUPA-HR has found, job satisfaction and well-being is the strongest predictor of retention by far for higher ed employees.

    Campus leaders are now reaching out to the learning and leadership development team to request mental health activities at meetings. Some of the workshops offered include living in the age of distraction, mindful breathing techniques, and the science of happiness. For more details on UT Health San Antonio’s well-being offerings, including ways they’re revamping their program this fiscal year (think: less is more), view the recorded webinar here.



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  • Suicide Prevention and Awareness: Four Ways HR Can Lead the Conversation – CUPA-HR

    Suicide Prevention and Awareness: Four Ways HR Can Lead the Conversation – CUPA-HR

    by CUPA-HR | August 31, 2022

    This blog post was contributed by Maureen De Armond, Executive Director, Human Resources at Drake University.

    In higher education, we must plan for many worst-case scenarios, including tornados, fires, active-shooter situations, and, as we now know, pandemics. Among this wide range of difficult scenarios that could present themselves on our campuses at any time, suicide is one that deserves more attention and discussion.

    Like other scenarios, suicide prevention and planning should contain at least these components: awareness and prevention at the front end; crisis-response protocols to deploy in the moment; and post-incident support and debriefing.

    Here are four ways HR can take the lead on awareness and prevention efforts:

    Normalize Mental Health Conversations

    HR can set the example in normalizing conversations about mental health. From new employee orientation to leadership trainings to trainings offered during open enrollment, make mental health as normal a topic to discuss as being sick with the flu or needing rehab due to an injured back. We know that mental health carries a stigma; openly discussing mental health helps chip away at that stigma.

    Coordinate Messaging

    Tailor communications to your institution’s practices and use more than one channel for communication. If your institution sends newsletters, plan articles for each week of September. Consider emails as well. Be sure to provide your leadership teams with prepared messages and information they can share with their teams. Point them to helplines, training opportunities, reminders about EAPs, and tips for what to do and where to go if they or someone they know is having mental health crisis.

    Collaborative messaging sent from campus and community partners can also create a widespread impact. Consider reaching out to student services, the provost’s office, Title IX/Equal Opportunity, campus safety, student senate, faculty senate, student counseling, faculty subject matter experts, and your institution’s employee assistance program (EAP) providers and health plan partners to team up on mental health messaging throughout the month.

    Train, Train, Train

    Offer learning and development opportunities that focus on mental health awareness as well as suicide prevention. This fall semester, Drake University is offering Question, Persuade and Refer suicide prevention training in addition to Mental Health First Aid for Higher Education for faculty and staff. Faculty partners are facilitating these sessions. We’ve found that having faculty-led sessions can help attract faculty attendees, leverage internal expertise and offer faculty additional forms of service to the institution.

    Inventory Resources, Benefits and Policies

    Take a fresh look at your well-being/wellness programming. Does it appropriately address mental health? Explore what resources and trainings may be available through your existing EAP contracts. Does your health plan offer virtual doctor’s visits for mental health care? If so, shine a spotlight on those resources. Making mental health care as accessible as possible may mean more people will consider using it. Review sick, personal and other paid-time-off leave policies to ensure mental health is clearly addressed. This includes handbook and web language, too.

    While suicide awareness and prevention shouldn’t be a once-a-year conversation, September is a great month for HR to demonstrate leadership in normalizing conversations about mental health and suicide prevention and planning.

    Related resources:

    Reassessing Your Institution’s EAP: Steps for HR Pros to Increase Awareness and Accessibility (The Higher Ed Workplace Blog)

    HEERF Funds Can Be Used to Support Mental Health Resources (The Higher Ed Workplace Blog)

    Mental Health Month Focus: Higher Ed Campus Culture (The Higher Ed Workplace Blog)



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  • HEERF Funds Can Be Used to Support Mental Health Resources – CUPA-HR

    HEERF Funds Can Be Used to Support Mental Health Resources – CUPA-HR

    by Lakyn Whaley | June 7, 2022

    On May 19, the U.S. Department of Education released an FAQ document which confirms that Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) monies can be used to support the mental health of faculty, staff, and students. The document addresses commonly asked questions and provides specific examples on how some institutions have already used HEERF funding to improve their mental health programming and support.

    While the document notes that institutions generally have “broad flexibility” to use these funds to create and maintain mental health resources, it does offer several ideas for acceptable use of HEERF grants to help your campus get started. These include:

    • In-person mental health professionals
    • Telehealth
    • Wellness activities
    • Suicide prevention training
    • Peer support programs
    • Mental health hotlines
    • Screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment

    The performance period for the HEERF grants has also been extended and will now continue until June 30, 2023.

    CUPA-HR will keep members apprised of any updates related to HEERF grants.

     



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  • Reassessing Your Institution’s EAP: Steps for HR Pros to Increase Awareness and Accessibility – CUPA-HR

    Reassessing Your Institution’s EAP: Steps for HR Pros to Increase Awareness and Accessibility – CUPA-HR

    by Lakyn Whaley | May 2, 2022

    May is Mental Health Month. Throughout the month, be sure to join the Connect discussion in the General Discussion group to discuss challenges and successes, as well as pose questions and offer advice to higher ed HR peers on the topic of mental health. A Zoom discussion will also take place mid-May. Stay tuned for the link to be posted in the Connect discussion. 

    Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) are nothing new. In fact, 97 percent of large employers offer an EAP as part of their benefits package. Yet, the utilization rate of these programs is abysmally low, clocking in at an average of less than 5 percent even as concerns around mental health continue to grow. EAPs should be a key resource for struggling employees, so why isn’t anybody using them?

    Lack of Awareness

    Lack of awareness, on multiple levels, plays a large role in the underutilization of EAPs. Usually, employees are introduced to their organization’s EAP and other benefits during their onboarding process. However, the deluge of information new employees are exposed to during this time can easily wash out any memory of an EAP mention.

    In addition, there’s a general lack of awareness as to how EAPs function. People may form their own incorrect assumptions, such as thinking that participating in an EAP will incur an immediate cost or that EAP use will be reflected on performance evaluations, which keep them from accessing this benefit.

    Distrust and Stigma

    From grief counseling to connecting employees to legal resources, the situations that EAPs are designed to provide support for can often be deeply personal. Because of this, some employees may be concerned that personal details or other information related to their EAP access will be shared with their employers, since the EAP is an employer-sponsored program. Others may be hesitant to interact with EAPs due to the stigma surrounding mental and behavioral health topics.

    Accessibility

    If employees are aware and comfortable accessing their organization’s EAP, the next challenge they often have to surmount is the myriad steps required to connect with the resources and services they need. Many of the individuals who would benefit from using an EAP are already operating under higher levels of stress and may be more fatigued than their peers. This can mean that these employees are less likely to have the energy needed to engage with extended processes, even when they’re the ones who need it most.

    How Can HR help?

    It might feel like the issues listed above are too big for one department — and in some cases one person — to overcome, but there are steps you can take to help.

    Start by looking at your organization’s EAP from an employee perspective and map out the steps someone needs to take to access services. Ask questions along the way such as: How many steps are there? How do employees learn more about their EAP? What options are there for contacting someone? Might the hours of service be prohibitive to some? Are the services provided meeting a variety of needs? Note too where you notice the potential for confusion or frustration within the process and remember that if something can be simplified, it should be simplified!

    Once you’ve reassessed the EAP process, take some time to examine how your campus is talking about mental health in general. While communication about the EAP is necessary for program awareness, by itself it’s not enough to improve utilization. Double down on efforts to reduce stigma around mental health and mental illness. Creating a culture where employees feel safe to talk about their mental health and welcome to bring their whole selves to the table has myriad benefits — only one of which is improving EAP usage.

    Related resources:

    Mental Health Toolkit (CUPA-HR members-only resource)

    Destigmatizing Mental Health on Campus: What Can HR Do (Higher Ed HR Magazine)

    Right Direction – Free Turnkey Resources for Organizations to Address Mental Health in the Workplace



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