The Graduate Student Council and Counseling and Psychological Services are collaborating on new programming to address graduate student mental health needs.
At its February meeting, the GSC executive board focused on increased mental health support in its plans for the new semester, The Herald previously reported.
These efforts follow the release of a draft of the GSC’s Graduate Student Strategic Initiative. The GSSI highlights graduate students’ desire for better support surrounding mental health and wellness, including resources specifically designed for graduate students, programming to address work-related stress and social support to foster a stronger graduate student community.
Kathryn Thompson GS, GSC president, described several new programs the Council is working to implement. These programs include increased graduate student representation and inclusion in conversations surrounding campus mental health and a staff representative from CAPS who will meet exclusively with graduate students and is specifically trained to address their needs. Thompson also noted that the ability to book appointments with CAPS online to protect student anonymity and privacy is currently being developed.
Thompson said graduate students have increased need for mental health support, noting the longer amount time many graduate students spend at Brown as a result of their increased responsibility from managing work, research and classes.
“Anxiety and depression (are) very high ... within the graduate community because of the unique circumstances” graduate students face, Thompson said. “Academic life, and especially grad student life, is full of ups and downs, and so, sometimes, graduate students just need (additional) help recovering from those downs.”
Recently, campus organizations have made efforts to better incorporate graduate student needs into mental health programming. In an email to The Herald, CAPS Director Will Meek described recent developments to address graduate students’ mental health needs, including adding “two graduate student representatives from the strategic planning group to (the) CAPS Student Consultation Board effective immediately.”
“All of these things make access better for grad students as well as the rest of our students,” Meek wrote. “They are just flat-out good ideas.” Meek also said that an anonymous feedback form is currently being developed for students, which would serve as another means of expressing their opinions, needs and concerns.
Thompson describes the GSC’s advocacy for graduate student mental health as representative of the collective needs and desires graduate students have expressed. “GSC gives a voice to graduate students,” she said. “We are very much a collective that is speaking for the entire graduate student body,” adding that leaders in CAPS and campus life “can really make a change. ... GSC is there to provide the pressure.”
Jack Walker served as senior editor of multimedia, social media and post- magazine for The Herald’s 132nd Editorial Board. Jack is an archaeology and literary arts concentrator from Thurmont, Maryland who previously covered the Grad School and staff and student labor beats.
