The Alumni Magazine for Worcester Polytechnic Institute. (WPI)
Issue link: http://wpialumnimag.epubxp.com/i/277771
40 Spring 2014 The two students were members of the Student Support Network, or SSN, an in- novative and nationally recognized mental health program at WPI that teaches stu- dents how to assist fellow students who are struggling with depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues. Along with several hundred other students on campus, these two were the proud owners of grey hoodies with the SSN logo on the back— three stick fgures holding up the letters W, P, and I, above the words "We've Got Your Back" – which are issued to everyone who has completed the six-week SSN training. They had practiced for this very situation in role-playing exercises, and their mission was to steer the struggling freshman to the campus Student Development and Counseling Center (SDCC) to talk with a counselor. Schleier was startled, but touched: Someone noticed? She decided to follow up on their sug- gestion. After working up the nerve to ask a friend to go with her, Schleier and her friend made the walk over to West Street House to the SDCC. It was a turning point in her life at WPI. "Without that counseling center, I don't know if I'd still be at this college," she says today. Out in Front Schleier's journey from isolation to reconnection is, happily, not an unusual one at WPI. Since SDCC director Charlie Morse and his team trained the frst team of 30 student SSN members in the fall of 2007, the network has grown to become an integral part of a cam- pus that Morse calls a "caring and engaged community, where we look out for one another." Students who might have previously walked past the West Street House oblivious to what was inside are now on a frst-name basis with center staff, either from their SSN training or from visits to talk. The total annual number of SDCC consults—visits when a stu- dent comes in either for advice or to share a concern about a fel- low student—have tripled over the past few years, from 100 in 2010 to about 300 in 2013. The percentage of WPI undergraduates who come in for counseling visits has risen since 2007 from 8 percent to about 12 percent—a signifcant increase in a student body that is 70 percent male, since men traditionally do not seek out mental health services as readily as women do. College is a stressful, challenging time, and counseling centers have long battled the stigma our culture attaches to seeking help for mental health issues. At WPI, Morse and his staff have made an end run around that stigma: The open discussion of mental health is now the cool thing to do. Students are nominated by faculty, staff, and other students to be invited for SSN training—though you can also request to take part—and so it has become something of an honor to be asked, and a sign that you are considered a campus leader. There are waiting lists for every SSN train- ing session, and as Schleier puts it, the grey sweatshirt is now "the most coveted hoodie on campus." Train- ing is also now provided for inter- ested faculty and staff. "We're training about 100 stu- dents a year," Morse says. "That re- sults in about 400 students on campus who have been trained at any given time. And what they get is an honest, open, and prag- matic discussion about the way people struggle with mental health concerns—frst, how we all struggle with mental health concerns; second, when they should be concerned; next, what they should do in the moment; and fnally, what are referral resources on campus, how to get help." The program has garnered national attention, including a New York Times profle in 2011 and a JedCampus seal award given last year by the Jed Foundation, a nonproft dedicated to suicide preven- tion—one of only 30 JedCampus seals given that year. Just as important, what began at WPI in 2007 is now spreading to colleges around the nation. Since creating the SSN, Morse—who has been with the SDCC since 1993 and assumed the role of director of counseling in 2005—has written journal articles about the program and presented talks on it at national conferences of college counsel- ing center directors. With a second round of federal funding, SDCC staff was able to create a free SSN guidebook available to any college upon request, and about 200 copies have been distributed. To date almost 20 colleges have developed their own version of the Student Support Network (see sidebar). Innovate Empathy Great ideas often just sit around waiting to be discovered. Charlie Morse's innovation may seem somewhat obvious in the rear view mirror, seven years later—of course, we should train students to look out for one another—but the remarkable fact is that no one else was SDCC director Charlie Morse and his team of students have become an integral part of campus life. WPI_spring14_features1.indd 40 3/9/14 12:12 PM