Increasing Mental Health Resource Education for Graduate School Students, Faculty, and Staff

The declining mental health of graduate students is a large concern nationally, with University of Utah students demonstrating higher depression and anxiety than the national average. Many university resources available to recognize and prevent mental health problems are underutilized. Through this scholarly project, the project coordinator developed a mental health toolkit to increase the utilization of University Counseling Center's (UCC) outreach presentations to graduate students and increase the knowledge of mental health resources in graduate students, Directors of Graduate Studies (DGS), faculty, and staff. Methods: The first objective of this quality improvement project required recognizing key stakeholders and underutilized resources through the completion of a needs assessment of the University of Utah graduate students, DGS, and UCC liaisons. This assessment included data analysis of the Healthy Minds 2017 survey administered to graduate students by the University of Utah. The second objective involved the development of a mental health resource toolkit for the DGS to disseminate to students, faculty, and staff. Objective three involved the dissemination of the finalized toolkit, which was completed through a presentation to Graduate School DGS and Advisors in February 2019, as well as the distribution of the presentation in electronic format to departments unable to participate in the live presentation. Finally, objective four included the evaluation of the use and success of the final toolkit through analysis of distribution and use of the components of the toolkit. Results: Twenty-five DGS completed the DGS pretoolkit needs assessment questionnaire, and 12 counselors completed the UCC Liaison Questionnaire. The needs assessment and data from the Healthy Minds 2017 survey demonstrated that graduate students at the University of Utah had decreased their utilization of mental health resources throughout the entire university despite having adequate resources. The DGS and UCC Liaisons report graduate students and faculty need increased mental health education as well as awareness of resources already in place. Barriers to mental health resources include knowledge, student time, and social/cultural stigma. The finalized toolkit was presented to approximately 40 DGS and electronically disseminated to 85 DGS. The UCC completed seven new mental health promotion presentations (MHPP), and 22 departments enrolled in recurrent MHPP reminder emails with the UCC. Data Analysis: REDcap, Excel, and SPSS compiled frequency and descriptive statistics of all data. The project coordinator used qualitative analysis theme description for analysis of the UCC Liaison Questionnaire. Conclusions: Providing education about mental health to graduate students will decrease barriers to access. Increased mental health education to DGS increases utilization of UCC outreach mental health promotion presentations. The dissemination of the toolkit and ongoing outreach among stakeholders will produce project sustainability.