In July, a Washington Post article exclaimed what anyone in any university ecosystem already knew: Coronavirus has made already-stressed college students even more anxious and depressed. Adding the uncertainty of a global pandemic to the existing pressures of remote school work and exams, part-time jobs, and navigating future career-preparing opportunities is overwhelming. To combat this, the UMT LaunchPad has enacted two primary initiatives to help support its student workers.

Curry Health Center Mental Health Check-ins

This three-week series of meetings were designed and implemented by Molly Putnam and Jake Treece, two of the UMT LaunchPad student staff themselves and supported by University contacts from Morgan Slemberger. After transitioning home where they completed their spring semester the students were made aware of ‘Health Coaches’ offered by the UMT Curry Health Center. 

Molly and Jake jumped at the chance to invite these professionals to join 9-10 LaunchPad student staff for a one-half hour immediately after the LaunchPad’s weekly staff meeting. Following a brief presentation where the health center coach shared some topical strategies, tips and tricks, and outlets for more help, the students and their guest speaker had a brief discussion. During that time, students shared common challenges and struggles and what they found to be helpful.

“I think a lot of students are dealing with just the stress from spending all day in class on Zoom, and then more time working on Zoom, and before you know it, you’ve spent all day in your bedroom - whether that’s at home or in your dorm or apartment,” said Molly. “I remember in the first Health Coach series we talked about how to set up boundaries, how to manage anxiety, and the importance of routine.”

The first series included the following sessions:

• Session A - Resiliency (managing anxiety/depression/emotional fatigue) 
• Session B - Productivity (how to manage time, stay productive from home, keep our lives on track while staying mentally healthy)  
• Session C - Mental and physical health, self-care, how to continue this into the future

In recent weeks, the students organized a follow-up series on the transition back to school for Fall. This series was focused on how to stay mentally and physically healthy while being back among groups of students in the campus environment, how to say ‘No’ to gatherings that aren’t safe, managing relationships, etc.

This second series included the following sessions:

• Session A - Socializing safely during a pandemic
• Session B - Safely working out and staying healthy during a pandemic
• Session C - Staying productive and managing stress and anxiety

Elements Critical to Success

Reflecting on the experience and its impact, Molly and Jake identified two keys to the successful implementation of a program like this:

1. Be Thoughtful About Language and Mitigate Negative Interpretation. “Seeing a ‘Health Coach’ one-on-one might intimidate some students,” said Jake. “But inviting them to join a ‘Professional Development Session’ with a group feels much less serious. We also referred to the series as ‘Curry Wellness’ to eliminate any stigma of a problem.”

1. Make a Safe Space - For Now - and Form Relationships For Later. According to Molly, just creating the space to talk about these issues was helpful. Jake agreed, “Several students might have only had one or two questions - not enough to go and speak to someone but by having a safe space to ask them, they got critical information now and also built a relationship with a trained professional that they trusted and could return to later.”