The nursing science division at Indiana University South Bend has been awarded a grant through the Valinhos Foundation to launch a student mental health initiative.
Called “HealthConnect: Promoting Wellness through Comprehensive Mental Health Education and Service,” the three-year initiative aims to help faculty, staff and students better respond to mental health and substance use challenges.
“We’ve had a great partnership with IU South Bend in past efforts to address the mental health and well-being of the student community,” Julie Veldman Harris, executive director of the South Bend-based Valinhos Foundation, said in a news release. “We are confident the HealthConnect program will advance the foundation’s mission to prevent mental health challenges, increase the availability of care, and leverage evidence-based mental health care in the local community.”
The initiative aims to train and certify several faculty, staff and students who will then train hundreds of additional people over three years. Key aspects of the effort are sponsoring an annual self-care resource contest, funding student-created wellness initiatives, and emphasizing the development of faculty and staff as mental health champions.
“Training will be embedded into the undergraduate and family nurse practitioner curricula to ensure that all students receive comprehensive, evidence-based mental health education,” said Jenny Deranek, associate dean of the Vera Z. Dwyer School of Health Sciences.
The amount of the grant was undisclosed.
IU South Bend will lead the development of HealthConnect in collaboration with Indiana University to create a program model that can be applied across IU’s nursing programs statewide, the university said.
About 7 out of 10 students say they have struggled with mental health since starting college, according to a report earlier this year by U.S. News & World Report and data intelligence firm Generation Lab.