University Counseling Center awarded grant to bolster mental ...

The University Counseling Center (UCC) was recently awarded $306,000 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Garrett Lee Smith Campus Suicide Prevention Grant program. The grant will support the creation and implementation of the new ND Cares project, which will expand upon existing mental health and suicide prevention initiatives at Notre Dame.

Authorized by the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act passed by Congress and funded in 2004 after Senator Gordon Smith lost his son to suicide, the grant program funds suicide prevention efforts in states and Native communities and on college campuses.

ND Cares will support the University’s nearly 13,000 students and allow the University to prioritize early intervention, cultivate a culture of care and support, and create a campus culture that recognizes student well-being as a necessary foundation for academic success. Aligned with the University’s Catholic, Holy Cross mission to foster the holistic development of students’ mind, body, and spirit, ND Cares involves students, faculty, and staff working together to ensure a comprehensive approach to mental health and well-being within the Notre Dame community.

“Students often perceive the University to be indifferent to their mental health struggles. If the University’s goal is to support holistic student development and well-being, we must address this perception,” said UCC Director Chris Conway. “While high-functioning and among the brightest in the nation, Notre Dame students are not immune to the current mental health crisis that is impacting this generation of young adults. The GLS grant provides us the opportunity to be innovative in our approach, leading to the creation and launch of the ND Cares project.”

ND Cares will work to execute two foundational goals: Establish a zero-suicide framework, and cultivate a campus-wide culture of mental health awareness.

The zero-suicide framework focuses on early intervention practices and the expansion of referrals for mental health screenings within the UCC, University Health Services, and the Center for Student Support and Care. It also addresses 2023 National College Health Assessment data that show what impacts Notre Dame students most are stress, anxiety, and depression.

“Intervening at the first signs of distress, whether through brief, on-site interventions or referring a student to the UCC or another department within Student Health and Wellness, is so important to caring for our students’ short- and long-term mental health needs,” Conway said.

The second goal of the project includes the development of programs and collaborations among various campus partners to contribute to every student feeling valued, supported, and empowered throughout their mental health journey.

Most notably, the UCC will partner with the Office of Military and Veteran Affairs (OMVA) to offer mental health outreach programs that promote mental health literacy and foster a greater awareness of resources available to veterans, military-affiliated students, and Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) students. Currently, 591 military-affiliated students are enrolled at Notre Dame, with 280 students active in ROTC. The UCC and OMVA will also meet quarterly with local US Department of Veteran Affairs resources to increase collaboration and reduce barriers to referrals.

“By partnering with our colleagues in the UCC, we hope to create an environment among our military-connected students in which they are encouraged to seek the mental health resources they need to thrive holistically in the Notre Dame community,” said Ken Heckel, the director of the OMVA. “Additionally, by reaching out to local Veterans Affairs resources in the Michiana community, we intend to broaden the range of services of our eligible students, ensuring they are able to access the network of support available to them.”

Approximately 43 percent of Notre Dame students who participated in the most recent National College Health Assessment survey indicated they did not believe the University prioritized students’ health and well-being, and 38 percent of survey participants believed the climate of the University did not encourage free and open discussion about students’ health and well-being.

The UCC, through ND Cares, hopes to more thoughtfully address these statistics through offering mental health literacy and online training programs for faculty and staff, and through a McDonald Center for Student Well-Being peer-support pilot program designed to help students build resilience skills, manage the stress of an elite academic environment, and learn how to recognize when to seek help for themselves or their friends.

Additionally, the UCC has created a Suicide Prevention Coalition to advocate for GLS grant activities on behalf of underrepresented students. Representatives of the coalition include students, faculty, and staff from key student-facing areas such as Student Health and Wellness, Campus Ministry, Residential Life, and Diversity and Engagement; student support programs such as the Transformational Leaders Program; student-led groups like Student Government; and members of the academy.