Every instructor will encounter students whose learning is being impacted by mental health concerns. Students may be very open about it: They want to be recognized as whole people and they see faculty as potential mentors with whom to connect. Coming to your class week after week, students may develop a sense of trust and connection with you—even in large lecture courses. You may see 300 students seated before you, but they will always only see one professor, speaking to them.
While the desire to address all of your students’ mental health needs may be commendable, it would be impossible for one person to fulfill. More importantly, most faculty are not trained or licensed to do so. What you can do, however, is to understand your role as a faculty member and the essential type of support it positions you to provide.
INTERVENTION
With respect to student mental health, your role as an instructor is to be an approachable person in a student’s life who can connect them to the mental health resources they need. At NYU, these resources are provided by the WELLNESS EXCHANGE, which NYU community-members may call at (212) 443-9999 (the number is on the back of your NYU ID card).
For a variety of reasons, students may not reach for services on their own. The following steps can help instructors navigate a conversation once a student has disclosed a mental health or wellness concern:
- Ask, “How are you coping with that?” The aim here is not to diagnose the problem, but to assess whether the student is implementing solutions or has accessed support.
- If the student explains that they are already in treatment with a therapist, continue to assess if improvement is occurring.
- If the student hasn’t connected with support or resources, or continues to struggle, say: “I am going to get a counselor to help us with this.” This signals that you are not passing them off to someone else, but will work with them to connect them with the Wellness Exchange.
You can then call the Wellness Exchange, which may subsequently reach out to the student directly. It’s important to clarify during such conversations with students that you can promise privacy, but not confidentiality. You will not disclose any information unnecessarily, but health and safety concerns may require you to contact health and safety resources.
Sometimes, students may not be willing to speak with you about their mental health concerns. Again, your responsibility is not to identify all students who are struggling in this way, which would be impossible: you may be teaching a very large course, for example. Even in a smaller course, you may not have known students long enough to notice changes in behavior or demeanor. However, for those cases in which you do notice something, you can reach out to the student or the Wellness Exchange.
Some of the potentially noticeable signs that a student is experiencing a mental health challenge include:
- Academic decline – sudden or significant drop in performance
- Social withdrawal – isolation from friends or activities they enjoyed
- Changes in behavior – excessive procrastination, irritability, mood swings
- Physical symptoms – medical complaints without a medical cause
- Substance use – increased use of substances to cope
- Emotional changes – expression of hopelessness, anxiety, depression
- Sleep disturbances – reports of insomnia or oversleeping
- Neglecting self-hygiene – appearing disheveled, unkempt, unclean
- Risky behaviors – reports of dangerous behaviors
At any point, if issues of imminent danger to anyone arise, please call 911 immediately and then Public Safety (212) 998-2222. If a student expresses thoughts to hurt him/herself or others without any visible plan or intent, call the Wellness Exchange at (212) 443-9999 and request an urgent assessment. If the student is not at imminent risk, but you are worried about the student’s or the community’s well-being, please reach out to the Wellness Exchange in order to seek advice on how to help the student.
PREEMPTION
Personal, social, and global stressors affect us all; we shouldn’t expect students to be an exception, whatever project due date or exam may be at hand. With this in mind, we can design our courses with a degree of compassion, transparency, and flexibility so that students may be better positioned to persevere through academic challenges even during difficult personal ones.
John Moran (Arts & Science), my co-facilitator during this fall’s TeachTalk on Engaging Student Mental Health, shared many strategies for making the classroom a supportive space. (You can watch our presentation in full on NYU Stream.) Here are a few:
- Send the message that student wellness is important to you—and send it early. You can include language in your syllabus such as the following:
Any student who may be struggling and believes their performance in this course will be affected is urged to contact the Moses Center for Student Accessibility to discuss academic accommodations. If mental health assistance is needed, call the Wellness Exchange at 212 443 9999. Furthermore, please approach me if you feel comfortable doing so. This will enable me to provide you with relevant resources or referrals.
- Learn student names and pronouns—and check in with them individually and collectively.
- Acknowledge challenging times and collective stressors in the world outside the classroom. This doesn’t require addressing such issues directly or talking about topics beyond your area of subject matter expertise—simply acknowledge that they are happening and that you know they may be affecting students in different ways.
- Communicate clearly. Articulate your expectations for the course, for assignments, for participation. This can reduce anxiety about how to succeed in your class.
- Be intentional in your course and schedule design. Spread the workload as evenly as possible throughout the term and build in flexibility with assignment types and due dates where feasible.
For more strategies on building community and connection in your course, check in with the educational development and instructional technology teams at your school, or reach out to the Learning Design team at the Office of the Provost (email them at teaching@nyu.edu). And for questions on how to support individual students with regards to mental health, remember the Wellness Exchange is always here for you.
Zoe Ragouzeos, PhD, LCSW, is the Senior Associate Vice President, Student Mental Health and Sexual Misconduct Support, and Executive Director, Counseling and Wellness Services for NYU.