Southern Illinois University in Carbondale is investing in a new dedicated team of first responders to provide care for students experiencing mental health challenges.
A $290,000 grant from the Illinois Board of Higher Education will fund training and support for a crisis response team to engage students during emergency calls. Student Health Services at SIU developed a response model based on best practices that ensures students, particularly those from vulnerable populations, receive immediate support and direct connection to appropriate treatment.
The grant is designed to expand and enhance the existing services mandated by the state’s 2020 Mental Health Early Action on Campus Act, which requires two- and four-year colleges to implement various preventative measures and clinical care services for student mental health, including increasing awareness of support services, creating partnerships for mental health services and implementing peer-support networks.
SIU leaders hope the new model, CAPS Plus, will both improve safety for students in critical moments and promote retention and success for students by connecting them with relevant support resources for ongoing care.
What’s the need: Rates of anxiety and depression, as self-reported by students, have grown over the past five years, with about one-third reporting moderate or severe anxiety or depression symptoms, according to the 2024 Healthy Minds study.
While a large number of college students experience poor mental health or have struggled with mental health challenges, connecting students with relevant resources when they need them remains an obstacle to timely care.
About one-third of college students say they don’t know where to seek help on campus if they or a friend are experiencing a mental health crisis, according to a spring 2023 Student Voice survey by Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse. Roughly one in five students said they have not received services for mental or emotional health because they prefer to deal with issues on their own or with support from friends and family, according to the 2023 Healthy Minds survey.
SIU’s Department of Public Safety responded to almost 50 mental health-related incidents in the past year. Student focus groups revealed that participants were aware of the ways encounters with law enforcement have escalated, sometimes resulting in death for the person in crisis. Similarly, past research shows that police involvement can exacerbate mental health challenges, and individuals from marginalized communities are less likely to trust the police.
“We recognize that those in crisis may benefit from intervention services not specifically provided by a law enforcement agency,” said Benjamin Newman, SIU’s director of public safety and chief of police, in an April press release.
A 2022 Student Voice survey by Inside Higher Ed found that about one-third of all respondents had “a great deal” of trust in campus safety officers, but only 19 percent of students who had negative interactions with police growing up said the same. Almost half (46 percent) of respondents said they felt safer with police on campus, but Black and Hispanic students were less likely to say they felt this way.
Over 38 percent of survey respondents also said they want colleges and universities to expand mental health supports to improve safety and security on campus, the most popular response.
Put in practice: The university’s Department of Public Safety and the Counseling and Psychological Services office created a collaborative response team to engage students who may need mental health support. Now, if an officer encounters a community member in crisis, a mental health professional is contacted to assist, Newman said.
The collaborative mental health response teams first started in February. The group includes the Department of Public Safety, Counseling and Psychological Services, clinicians, campus administrators, faculty members and external partners, including local emergency room staff.
Team members completed critical incident response and crisis intervention training, in which they learned to identify symptoms of mental illnesses, developmental disabilities, trauma, dementia and delirium as well as de-escalation techniques, intervention steps and transition to treatment services.
Additionally, dispatchers receive training on how to screen and de-escalate calls that could involve mental health concerns so they can effectively alert the crisis team.
In addition to using the grant funding, the university also implemented a mental health and wellness fee for the upcoming academic year to support continued access to services.
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