Mental Health

Mental health concerns are on the rise among university learners. As faculty and instructors at Rollins, we will continue to encounter learners in our classrooms, our labs, and on our research teams who are coping with diagnosed and undiagnosed mental illness as well as those who do not meet criteria for diagnosis but feel overwhelmed, sad, unmotivated, lacking in self-confidence, and many who continue to carry the chronic traumas of marginalization and oppression. While mental health services and wellness programs are available campus wide, these are not always easily accessible and available. You are in the unique position to connect with learners across various learning environments on a regular basis and thereby have the opportunity to serve as an important partner alongside other support services in our school and on the Emory campus. To do so effectively, consider the following:

Help yourself before you can help others

Like many of your learners, you may also carry professional and personal stressors that can leave you overwhelmed and exhausted. Teaching, mentoring, and attending to learners’ diverse needs in an authentic way can be emotionally draining. It is important to have a self-care plan for your own mental wellbeing so that you can support your learners. What your self-care entails will vary for each individual. Here are some basic resources available to you at Emory University:

Emory+YOU: Faculty Staff Assistance Program

Emory+YOU: Wellness

Emory+YOU: Your Work Life

Center for Faculty Development and Excellence 

Address Mental Wellness Through Course Design and Implementation

Designing and implementing a rigorous and inclusive learning environment can facilitate mental wellbeing for both yourself and your learners. The guidance below offers principles of course design and implementation to prevent adding undue anxiety and stress while also considering ways to address rising or existing tensions that could prevent learning. 

• Trauma Informed Teaching: the table below outlines 7 principles of trauma-informed teaching along with suggested applications in the classroom (Carello, 2020a). As you review this table, you may find it helpful to ask yourself, for each of the principles, these Self-Assessment Questions (Carello, 2020b). Be intentional about designing courses where learners feel connected, empowered, and where seeking support is normalized. 

• Microaggressions: Be prepared to respond to microaggressions and other insensitive comments so that the burden doesn't fall on your learners to respond. Consider including guidance in your syllabus or relevant discussion-based assignments, on how learners may handle incidents of microaggression when these arise in peer discussions. For example, you might prompt learners to consider and discuss the following at the start of the semester:
  • What might be some ways in which you could respond to a microaggression/ insensitive comment made by a peer in your team?
  • What might be a word/phrase you could use to pause the discussion and consider what just happened?
  • What are some ways in which you would respond if you were made aware that you were the person who made the offensive comment?

• Pause for reflection and wellness practices: during times of high stress/tension such as midterms and finals, or when racial incidents and other social crises arise in our community or the media, take time to pause at the start of your class for a few minutes of mindfulness, deep breathing, individual journaling, and acknowledgement of the heaviness of emotions. As you feel comfortable, it's ok to share ways in which you are struggling, to normalize difficult experiences.  

• Check-in with students: consider opportunities to take the pulse among your learners throughout the semester. Mid-term course evalutions are built into the Canvas system and administered to your learners automatically. However, some learners may already struggle long before the mid-semester time point. Anonymous electronic surveys earlier in the semester may reveal areas where course adjustments can be made. Being available through in-person or virtual office hours and maintaining open communication with learners is also important to build trust and rapport.  

Educate Yourself About Student Intervention and Support Services

• This comprehensive RSPH Student Support Toolkit lists all the resources available at RSPH and on the Emory University campus for Rollins students in times of crisis. Familiarize yourself with these resources and consider posting them on your Canvas course site.

• In this presentation, Drs. Yang and Raper from CAPS and Campus Life, provide additional context regarding rates of mental illness on our campus compared to national rates as well as helpful differentiations between normative developmental experiences and mental health needs. Lastly, the presentation focuses on the Recognize-Relate-Refer framework for connecting learners to mental health support services described below and augmented with additional resources available at Rollins. 

Recognize: A faculty or staff member is often the first person to recognize a learner in distress and then reach out. These noticeable signs of distress can include, but are not limited to, academic problems, interpersonal problems, and behavioral problems. 

Relate: We encourage you to speak directly to learners when you sense that they are in academic or personal distress. Openly acknowledge that you are aware of their distress, that you are sincerely concerned about their welfare, and that you are willing to help them explore their options. Not all learners will be receptive to your help. In some of these cases, to ensure a learner is safe, a referral to Student Intervention Services (404.430.1120) may still be warranted. If you are unsure how to proceed, reach out to Joanne Williams, Assistant Director for Student Engagement at 404-683-5404 or Kara Brown Robinson, Senior Associate Dean for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs at klbrow2@emory.edu.

Refer: Making a student of concern referral to Student Case Management and Intervention Services is simple. You can call 404.430.1120, email sisteam@emory.edu, or use the web form located on the website http://success.emory.edu/index.html. All referrals are kept private to the fullest extent possible by law and are consistent with university policy.

 

References

Baez, J. C. and Marquart, M. (2020). Webinar: Trauma-Informed Teaching and Learning Online, Webinar series to support faculty who are new to teaching online. Columbia University School of Social. 

Carello, J. (2020a). Examples of Trauma-Informed Teaching and Learning in College Classrooms. https://traumainformedteaching.blog/resources/ 

Carello, J. (2020b). Creating Trauma-Informed Teaching and Learning Environments: Self-Assessment Questions for Educators.