Ideas for Faculty
- Add the mental health statement to your course syllabi.
- Download the “Recognizing Distress” folder and poster for easy access to info about helping those at risk.
- Add link to OSU Suicide Prevention Website to your own, your department, or your program website: https://suicideprevention.osu.edu/
- Recognize that even before the pandemic, there was a significant rise in mental health struggles among all college students.
- Among BIPOC students, this increase was even more pronounced. Experts agree that mental health challenges will be exacerbated for BIPOC students in the current environment. Therefore, it is essential that faculty continue to increase and improve their cultural competency in the classroom and that all faculty and staff prioritize BIPOC well-being, creating an environment of support and care for our BIPOC students.
- Mental health affects nearly every discipline. When appropriate, assign course readings and assignments or include course lectures or examples that include discussions of mental health, and include the importance of suicide prevention and reaching out to those in distress.
- For example, students in dentistry might discuss reasons why some people with some mental health disorders may have a more difficult time accessing dental care. Those in chemistry or biology can discuss the role of neurotransmitters in human thinking. Students in political science might discuss how the mental health of past political leaders has changed world events. In other words, there are many ways to include this important topic.
- Consider ways to use breakout rooms during synchronous courses as one strategy to help students interact and connect, as well as to help them initiate study groups as a strategy to help promote interaction outside of the classroom.
Ideas for Faculty & Staff
- Encourage your department or college to participate in RUOK? Buckeyes, the anonymous, online screening program for depression and suicide. RUOK? Buckeyes is offered, free of charge, to Graduate Students, through the OSU Suicide Prevention Program: https://suicideprevention.osu.edu/ruok-buckeyes/
- Hold important conversations with Graduate Students about work/life balance and the importance of maintaining strategies to promote mental health during Graduate Studies.
- Seek ways to balance flexibility with reasonable accountability
- There is no single ‘right’ answer to help students who are struggling academically because they are struggling with mental health concerns. Remember that mental health issues should be treated the same as other medical issues, and reasonable accommodations should be made, within departmental and university guidelines.
- Explicitly promote wellness and self-care throughout the semester
- Consider regular check-ins at the start of class or during known times of high-stress, such as during exams.
- Highlight the benefits of self-care, such as adequate sleep, proper diet, and regular exercise.
- Normalize academic struggles. Help students recognize that feeling challenged is not the same thing as “feeling like a failure.”
- For some high achieving students, facing academic challenges that cause them to struggle is new, and it can seem overwhelming. Consider ways to structure learning in the course in ways that promote a growth mindset and frame academic challenges as an expected and normal part of the learning process, while recognizing that when these challenges overwhelm their capacity to cope, there is help available.
- Create and promote wellness and self-care activities for members of your staff.
- Consider regularly check-in with staff about their current workload and ability to successfully manage their tasks.
- Support employees’ efforts to get help.
- For example, when appropriate, offer a flexible work schedule so that employees can attend therapy or counseling appointments.
- For example, when appropriate, offer a flexible work schedule so that employees can attend therapy or counseling appointments.
- Promote OSU resources that support student wellness and mental health, including the use of the OSU Student Wellness APP
Ideas for Students
- Download the “Recognizing Distress” folder and poster for easy access to info about helping those at risk.
- Follow The Suicide Prevention Program on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, @osureach).
- Follow Buckeye Campaign Against Suicide on Social Media – and get involved! https://suicideprevention.osu.edu/outreach/student-involvement/#buckeye
- Apply to become a PRO (Peers REACHing Out): https://suicideprevention.osu.edu/outreach/student-involvement/peers-reaching-out-pros/
- Use opportunities in classes and in social groups to speak up for & advocate for mental health & Suicide Prevention
- If your class assignments have some flexibility in their topic, or your residence hall is looking for a theme for a display, or your student organization is looking for a issue to learn about for an education session, why not focus on Suicide Prevention?
- Help break down mental health stigma by getting facts and information into the hands of other students: https://suicideprevention.osu.edu/
- Post messages on social media that promote positive messages about mental health and Suicide Prevention.
- Schedule a mental health awareness/suicide prevention event for your student organization.
- Be an advocate for mental health and Stand up and speak out! Research shows us that the most powerful way that college students have their opinions about mental health and suicide shaped and influenced is by their peers!
Ideas for Everyone
- Know your local crisis hotline numbers and have them readily available: https://suicideprevention.osu.edu/get-help/
- Include something in your email signature that lets people know you are committed to Suicide Prevention & Mental Health
- Ex.: “Buckeyes Reach Out”, “Helping to Create a Campus Culture of Care”
- Encourage others to sign up for a Reach Out: An Online Education & Advocacy Session: https://suicideprevention.osu.edu/reach-out/
- If you’ve been through one of our REACH® trainings, keep wearing your pin, displaying your certificate, and putting your credentials as a Certified REACH® Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper on your resume or CV. If you haven’t yet been through our REACH® training, make sure you sign up to attend one of these 90 minute in-person trainings, as soon as your safety and schedule permit: https://suicideprevention.osu.edu/reach/
- Follow The Suicide Prevention Program on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, @osureach).