Nazareth University is launching a new mental health initiative with the intent of improving its student wellness programming.
The university is joining a nationwide initiative called the JED Campus program, through the JED Foundation, to fortify best practices for optimum student mental and emotional wellness.
“A couple had lost their son to suicide, so they started this foundation so that they can work with colleges and universities to make sure that they're doing everything possible in regards to suicide prevention,” said John Rigney, assistant director of outreach at Nazareth’s Health and Counseling Center.
The four-year partnership with the JED Foundation serves as a way to shape the university’s framework for mental health support programming while maintaining accountability.
The college is supporting its JED Campus program with a $300,000 grant awarded to it last year by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
“We're really operating from a preventative standpoint, right? And so we're equipping students with tools and resources so that, essentially, they don't reach a crisis situation,” said Kim Harvey, associate provost and dean of students.
The programming Nazareth already has in place includes peer-led groups such as Morgan’s Message for student athletes and skill-building workshops.
“We run a workshop called anxiety toolbox. It's a three-session workshop” Rigney said. “We basically work with students to identify things that are causing them stress and then how to work through it.”
While the toolbox workshop centers on self-awareness, another workshop called QPR focuses on intervening appropriately when someone else is struggling. It stands for Question, Persuade, and Refer.
“We're training them on what signs to look for if a student is struggling, or if a student may be feeling suicidal — what questions to ask and then how to refer them to the Health and Counseling,” he said. “We're not trying to have faculty and staff be therapists, just like CPR is not looking for them to be doctors. What we're trying to do is just let them know how to respond when they first see it.”
Having a robust set of preventative measures engrained in the campus climate sets up students for success in ways that reactive measures to a crisis can’t provide, Rigney said.
