Mental health help expands
SUNY plan, app meant to aid students during time of added stress
Citing a nationwide uptick in mental health and wellness needs among college students due to the impact of COVID -19, State University of New York Chancellor Jim Malatras on Sunday unveiled a plan to expand access to mental health services at SUNY’S 64 campuses.
SUNY is partnering with Thriving Campus to provide every student from SUNY’S colleges and universities with access to a network of more than 6,000 licensed mental health service providers, according to the announcement made with SUNY Chairman Merryl H. Tisch, and SUNY Trustees Marcos Crespo and Camille Joseph Varlack.
The mobile-friendly app, which is already used at two SUNY campuses, breaks down a number of crucial and often overlooked barriers that students frequently encounter in the process of reaching out for help.
By streamlining and simplifying the process and building synergy with local mental health providers, more students will be seamlessly connected with the specific help they need, when they need it, according to SUNY officials.
“For students everywhere, normal pressures associated with college are being compounded by the weight of this unprecedented time, with the challenges and disruptions caused by COVID -19 increasing levels of anxiety, stress, loneliness, and isolation,” Malatras said. “By expanding available student mental health support services — and shattering the stigma that may be associated with seeking them out — students will be able to get the support they need, be it a longterm treatment for a specific issue, or when they just feel down and need someone to connect with.”
The state university system will also provide its own virtual counselors through a new partnership between SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University and SUNY Upstate Medical University. The telecounseling program offers cognitive behavioral therapy, consultative service for clinicians, and crisis assistance provided by SUNY physicians, psychologists and nurse practitioners on a platform.
Upstate Medical currently serves as the telecounseling hub for students at 10 SUNY campuses, and SUNY Downstate will offer services at five more campuses.
SUNY will also expand a peerto-peer assistance hotline operated by the University at Albany to all students across the entire SUNY system.
The stigma-free, secure line enables students to connect for social and emotional support.
“Ualbany’s Middle Earth student volunteers have for five decades demonstrated the power of students helping other students through common academic, social and emotional challenges associated with college. Never before have the services provided by Middle Earth’s volunteers been more essential, and we are thrilled that students throughout the SUNY system will now benefit from their selfless commitment to assisting their peers,” University at Albany President Havidán Rodríguez said in a statement.
SUNY also operates a 24/7 crisis text line, which was launched in May in tandem with the New York State Office of Mental Health.
Malatras also launched #ReaCHOUTSUNY, a public awareness campaign designed to educate students and faculty on how to reach out and ask for help.