Mental health is a reoccurring issue on college campuses across the nation, and the same holds true with UNI. With two suicides occurring last semester, now is the time to improve mental health more than ever.
Mental Health Plan
Mental Health Awareness Event
There are a lot of different mental health initiatives being developed for campus. Some include UNI Residence Hall Association health and resource fair, the One is Too Many program for faculty and administration awareness, and an honors think-tank project creating a video for UNI Now. These are great initiatives that will have an impact across campus on their own, but organizing a mental health awareness event can showcase them all.
We envision a week-long event with a variety of programs for each day that highlights different aspects of mental health or health in general. One day could feature a speaker about veterans and post-traumatic stress, while another day could inform students how to address depression in college. Not only would we work with the Student Wellness Services, Counseling Center, and Student Health Center, but we would also encourage collaboration with student organizations and community resources, such as Black Hawk County’s National Alliance on Mental Illness.
The second goal for this mental health awareness event is to launch a visibility campaign. This would provide students with visual objects, wrist bands or awareness ribbons, that represent support for mental health on campus. We are looking into ways where NISG can sponsor national events on campus, one being Active Minds’ “Send Silence Packing” event. Whether these visual campaigns are small or large, the goal is to provide students with constant reminders, that as students, faculty and staff of UNI, we are stronger together.
Ultimately, this event is designed to increase awareness of the vast array of resources on campus, highlight current initiatives at UNI and in the community, and increase student awareness and support of mental health.
UNI ID Emergency Resources:
We want to add emergency resource contacts to the back of the UNI ID. Currently, the university provides four emergency contacts through the MyUNI App that can only be accessed with a smartphone. By adding those numbers and a few others to the back of your ID; students, faculty, and staff can have immediate access to critical contacts. We are initially proposing UNI campus police, the 24/7 security escort service, the Student Health Clinic, the suicide and sexual assault hotlines, and a spot for your RA on call (potentially using a removable sticker) as UNI’s emergency resources.
In order to accomplish this proposal we will work with the Department of Residence to approve a design and finalize the list of contacts. Our goal is to implement this change for the fall 2016 incoming class.
