Executive Summary

Background:

In the fall of 2021, at the direction of Indiana University President Pamela Whitten and under the leadership of the Chief Health Officer, Dr. Aaron Carroll, a strategic plan was unveiled to improve student mental health at Indiana University. Three task forces were named and focused on critical areas important to student mental health—Culture and Climate, Services and Support, and Policies and Protocols. These task forces met through the spring of 2022 to provide specific recommendations and proposed actions on how to implement the strategic plan’s goals on IU’s nine campuses and locations around the state. In partnership with mental health and student life professionals across IU, the newly formed Office of the Chief Health Officer (OCHO) spent the 2022–2023 academic year making the task force recommendations, now called the Student Mental Health Initiative (SMHI), a reality.

2022-2023 Progress Highlights:

During the first year of the SMHI Strategic Plan implementation, OCHO worked with external partners and internal partners on all IU campuses to dramatically increase students’ access to mental health services, improve faculty and staff ability to identify and aid students in need, and foster a culture of care throughout IU. Some of these efforts include, but are not limited to, the following :

• All IU students, including undergraduate, graduate, professional, and online students, now have access to free 24/7 virtual mental health services through TimelyCare, which offers scheduled counseling, psychiatric services, health coaching, a peer-to-peer community, and around-the-clock support care .
• The “Unboxed” campaign, which encourages students to open up about mental health, is visible on all IU campuses through digital and physical signage, a bus wrap, social media, and promotional materials, and directs students to a new comprehensive website designed to raise awareness and increase access to services ranging from Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS) to group therapy to financial wellness to food pantries across IU. Since the Unboxed campaign launch on October 5, 2022, the new student mental health website has had more than 20,000 unique pageviews, a 500% increase from the original website launch in January 2022.
• OCHO assisted each campus with creating their student mental health advisory councils; there is now a council on every campus. OCHO works closely with these councils and, along with conducting regular student surveys, collaborates on ways to ensure that IU is responsive to emerging mental health needs and concerns of students.
• The student group U Bring Change 2 Mind (UBC2M), which is an evidence-based student led and staff supported group dedicated to reducing stigma, now has active chapters on every campus at IU.
• Working with the National Council on Mental Wellbeing, OCHO has trained 11 mental health first aid trainers, who will expand IU’s ability to provide critical mental health training to faculty and staff. In 2023-24, the goal is to train at least 700 faculty, staff, and students.
• OCHO has also distributed more than 10,000 Care Cards offering common sense advice to student-facing faculty and staff who might encounter a student in need.

As we embark on the second year of SMHI plan implementation, OCHO will leverage its embedment in the Office of the Vice President for Student Success (VPSS) to expand efforts to reach historically underserved populations and continue improving the culture and climate, services and support, and policies and procedures impacting student mental health at IU. The following sections of this report outline our work and next steps in greater detail.