They’re available into the evening for good student access, and the service also offers 24/7 phone counseling. “The Grafton and Boston health sciences campuses historically referred students offsite for support, but several years ago we contracted with an outside provider to bring onsite counselors to the Grafton campus. “Mental health is a serious issue in veterinary medicine, as it is for caregivers in human medicine,” said task force member Barbara Berman, assistant dean for student affairs at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. The cross-campus collaboration fostered by the task force has already played an important role in enhancing services on the Boston health sciences campus. The task force found that while students face different stressors-an undergraduate may be anxious about making friends in the dorm while a graduate student may experience conflict with her spouse-they share a need for timely, convenient, affordable clinical services and supportive academic and community environments.
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Subgroups focused on specific issues surrounding undergraduates, graduate and professional students, and clinical care models. Task force members also pored over information from other institutions to identify benchmarks and best practices. Community members also offered anonymous input through an online tool. A key piece was the Healthy Minds survey, a confidential web-based tool that examines mental health among students at participating institutions nationwide, and for the first time included the Grafton and Boston health sciences campuses, as well as the Medford/Somerville and Boston SMFA campuses.ĭozens of listening sessions-small group meetings and one-on-one conversations with student organizations, affinity groups, faculty, and staff-gave stakeholders opportunities to weigh in. The task force relied on empirical data and qualitative information. The task force’s charge was both broad and deep: examine the state of student mental health on campus assess mental health services and related resources review Tufts policies and practices and develop actionable recommendations-no easy task for an institution with undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools on four Massachusetts campuses. The faculty, staff, and students who served on the task force and the many others who offered thoughtful input have laid an excellent foundation for what will be an ongoing effort.” We must be sure we understand our students’ needs and are doing the very best we can to provide support on all our campuses. “Anxiety or depression can impair academic performance likewise, academic difficulty can lead to mental health issues. Arkin Professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Tufts School of Medicine. “As a university, Tufts has a responsibility to support each student’s intellectual, personal, and social development, which are very much intertwined,” said Monaco, who co-chairs the task force with Paul Summergrad, Frances S. Many of the report’s recommendations have already been implemented. On October 10-World Mental Health Day-the task force released its report, which concludes that while significant efforts to meet student needs are in place, Tufts must implement a broader, more strategic suite of mental health and wellness services. Monaco in December 2016, it has been actively examining the issue and possible responses. Demand for urgent appointments and the number of students with significant, ongoing mental health needs are both rising.Īlthough the reasons for the trend aren’t clear-and may reflect in part a welcome reduction in stigma surrounding mental illness-Tufts’s Mental Health Task Force has been tackling the challenge. The Counseling and Mental Health Service serving the Medford/Somerville and Boston SMFA campuses has seen a significant increase in student usage and now sees more than 25 percent of the students on those campuses each year. And like their peers across America, they’re seeking treatment and support services in record numbers. On any given day, students across Tufts experience a range of mental health concerns. candidate whose spouse is hospitalized develops severe anxiety as licensing exams loom. Following the euthanasia of a feline patient, a veterinary student just starting clinical service becomes increasingly despondent. A first-year undergraduate, living away from home for the first time, struggles to manage a previously diagnosed bipolar disorder.
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