Building a Caring Classroom Learning Community

About

Mental health represents one of the most pressing issues facing higher education (Stebleton, 2019). For nearly two decades, researchers have been reporting ever-increasing numbers of college students experiencing mental health issues (Stebleton, 2019). The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these trends, introducing additional stressors into students’ lives (Abelson, 2020). Data from the 2020-2021 Healthy Minds Study (HMS) of more than 500,00 students at some 450 colleges and universities reported that nearly 40 percent—or some 8 million post-secondary students—reported experiencing a significant mental health issue (Eisenberg, et al., 2022). Today, suicide is the second leading cause of death among individuals aged 15-24 (JED Foundation, 2020). Also, research demonstrates that first-generation students, students who graduate from underresourced high schools, non-native English speakers, international students, post-traditional learners, and students from underrepresented groups such as Black, Indigenous, and Latinx, as well as students with other identities, including sexual and LGBTQ+, face additional challenges, barriers, and stress (Leshner & Scherer, 2021). Moreover, the stigma of mental illness is particularly powerful for many young people in these populations, thus exacerbating the problems (Leshner & Scherer, 2021).

While it is understood that the primary role of faculty is to bring their expertise to the classroom and that most faculty are not mental health clinicians, we (as well as our programs and departments) are on the frontline engaging with students on a daily basis. This gives faculty a unique opportunity to support students and build a culture of caring on campus.

This learning community helped instructors construct a classroom environment that supports the well-being and mental health of our students. Participants developed methods for incorporating life skills and resilience into their current course content and pedagogical practices. To facilitate this development, we partnered with the following non-profit organizations focusing on adolescent and young adult mental health. The JED Foundation is the largest non-profit organization focusing on the mental health of adolescents and young adults. The Steve Fund is the largest non-profit mental health organization focusing on the mental health of students of color. The Trevor Project is the only national mental health non-profit organization focusing on the LGBTQ+ community. The Healthy Minds Network at the University of Michigan is one of the nation’s premier research organizations contributing to adolescent and young adult mental health. Facilitators from each of these organizations will be participating in the learning community.

In 2018, The Steve Fund and the JED Foundation partnered to develop and promote the Equity in Mental Health Framework, a comprehensive approach to mental health promotion. This comprehensive approach includes seven strategic areas that should be addressed in any community-wide effort to support mental health, substance abuse, and suicide prevention (JED Foundation, 2021):

• Development of life skills
• Promoting social connectedness
• Increasing help-seeking behavior
• Identifying students at risk
• Providing mental health and substance misuse services
• Following crisis management
• Restricting access to potentially lethal means (JED Foundation, 2021)

This model broadly addresses four major thematic areas:

• Enhancing protective/preventive factors and resilience (life skills and connectedness)
• Early intervention (identifying those at risk and increasing help-seeking)
• Availability and access to clinical services
• Environmental safety and means restriction (JED Foundation, 2021, p.4)

The learning community focused on the first two themes.