SUNY Launches a Comprehensive Plan to Expand Access to Mental Health Services to Every Student
By Office of Communications & Marketing | Sep 25, 2020
MEDIA CONTACT: Holly Liapis | Holly.Liapis@suny.edu | (518) 320-1311
SUNY Partners with Thriving Campus, Connecting Every Student from SUNY’s 64 Campuses to Network of More Than 6,000 Licensed Mental Health Professionals
SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University Joins SUNY Upstate Medical University to
Become Tele-Counseling Hub, Drastically Reducing Wait Times and Increasing the Number
of SUNY Colleges Using Tele-Counseling by End of 2020
SUNY Makes Statewide Peer-to-Peer Assistance Hotline Operated at the University at
Albany Accessible to All SUNY Students
Launches #ReachOutSUNY Campaign to Shatter Stigma, Increase Participation in Free
Online Crisis Training Program as Pandemic Social Separation Increases Mental Health
Issues Among College Students
#ReachOutSUNY Video Available Online
Albany, NY – In response to a nationwide uptick in mental health and wellness needs among college
students due to the impact of COVID-19, State University of New York Chancellor Jim
Malatras today announced a comprehensive plan to expand access to mental health services
to every student at SUNY’s 64 campuses. The announcement was made from SUNY Downstate
Health Sciences University with SUNY Chairman Merryl H. Tisch, and SUNY Trustees Marcos
Crespo and Camille Joseph Varlack.
As part of this new plan, SUNY is partnering with Thriving Campus to provide every student from SUNY’s colleges and universities with access to a network
of more than 6,000 licensed mental health service providers. The mobile-friendly app,
already utilized at two SUNY campuses, breaks down a number of crucial, often overlooked
barriers that students frequently encounter in the process of reaching out for help.
By streamlining and simplifying what can be a stressful and overwhelming process,
and building synergy with local mental health providers, more students will be seamlessly
connected with the specific help they need, when they need it.
In addition, Chancellor Malatras announced that SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University
will join SUNY Upstate Medical University as a hub for tele-counseling for SUNY students.
The tele-counseling program offers cognitive behavioral therapy, consultative service
for clinicians, and crisis assistance provided by SUNY physicians, psychologists,
or nurse practitioners on a secure online platform. Upstate Medical currently serves
as the tele-counseling hub for students at 10 SUNY campuses, and SUNY Downstate will
provide services for an additional five campuses.
SUNY will also expand a peer-to-peer assistance hotline operated by the University
at Albany to all students across the entire SUNY system. Students do not need to be
in crisis to use this hotline. It’s a stigma-free, secure line for connecting about
emotional, social, and other life issues.
To accompany this expansion of services, Chancellor Malatras also launched #ReachOutSUNY, a public awareness campaign designed to shatter the stigma associated with mental
health struggles and asking for help, while educating students about available services.
The campaign will also encourage more faculty, staff, and students to take the free
online crisis training program Question, Persuade, and Refer (QPR) that teaches individuals
how to recognize someone who may be in emotional distress or having suicidal thoughts,
and how to appropriately engage and connect that person to resources that can help.
“For students everywhere, normal pressures associated with college are being compounded
by the weight of this unprecedented time, with the challenges and disruptions caused
by COVID-19 increasing levels of anxiety, stress, loneliness, and isolation,” said Chancellor Malatras. “With SUNY’s comprehensive Reach Out Mental Health Services Program, students across
the entire SUNY system will have access to critical services, be it internal tele-counseling
with SUNY medical professionals, an easy to use referral program to other local medical
professionals, a system-wide peer-to-peer support network, the campus crisis hotline,
and crisis prevention training. This has been a particularly difficult time and it
has taken a toll, so by expanding available student mental health support services—and
shattering the stigma that may be associated with seeking them out—students will be
able to get the support they need, be it a long-term treatment for a specific issue,
or when they just feel down and need someone to connect with.”
SUNY also has an active Student Mental Health and Wellness Task Force, which was established
to make recommendations to the SUNY Board of Trustees on how the system can make a
measurable difference in addressing the mental health needs of students and mitigating
the negative effects of behavioral health risks, including suicide. The task force
focuses on early interventions and explores existing practices and public health approaches
across the nation to address the mental health needs of SUNY students. The task force
is led by co-chairs SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University President Wayne J. Riley, M.D. and SUNY Oswego President Deborah Stanley, in consultation with Leah Wentworth, Ph.D., MPH, SUNY system administration’s Director of Student Wellness. The group is comprised
of system administration staff, campus presidents, counseling center and student affairs
staff, and faculty, as well as state and national mental health experts.
SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University President Riley said, “The coronavirus pandemic has caused a sea change in the way we assess and address mental
health and wellness needs for everyone. By connecting students early on to licensed,
mental health service providers through the Thriving Campus App, and providing access
to resources, students can get the help they need during particularly stressful periods.
SUNY Downstate is proud to join our sister campuses as a tele-counseling center for
students where we will provide interventions that can assist in mitigating challenges
our students face.”
SUNY Oswego President Stanley said, “The Thriving Campus App will expand the mental health services we offer and deliver
mobile access to students in need during this most difficult time as they navigate
living and learning amidst a global pandemic. Making such a resource available will
provide students with quick, reliable connections to a broad range of mental health
providers. As co-chair of the SUNY Student Mental Health and Wellness Task Force,
I am proud to work with Chancellor Malatras, Dr. Riley, and all our colleagues and
mental health professionals across the state to make a measurable difference in addressing
the mental health needs of students, creating greater understanding and breaking down
barriers associated with mental health. The Thriving Campus App reinforces Oswego’s
and all of SUNY’s focus on and support of mental health programming, staffing, and
services that are responsive to the health and well-being of our students and collective
campus communities.”
University at Albany President Havidán Rodríguez said, “UAlbany’s Middle Earth student volunteers have for five decades demonstrated the
power of students helping other students through common academic, social and emotional
challenges associated with college. Never before have the services provided by Middle
Earth’s volunteers been more essential, and we are thrilled that students throughout
the SUNY system will now benefit from their selfless commitment to assisting their
peers.”
SUNY Student Advocate John Graham said, “We cannot deny that college students across our nation are coming to campuses with
increasingly complex mental health and substance use related concerns. We can also
not deny the priority that we must place on addressing these concerns proactively
and comprehensively. The initiatives that our system is releasing today make a wonderful
contribution to this set of programs, and we look forward to harnessing the talent
across the State University of New York system as we move forward to address mental
health and substance use concerns over the next several months. A comprehensive approach,
which addresses the needs of not only the individual student but the entire campus
population, is the ideal strategy to respond comprehensively to mental health concerns.”
Dr. M. Dolores Cimini, University at Albany Director for Behavioral Health Promotion
and Applied Research, said, “The transition to college is perhaps the most significant life event faced by young
people in our society. To be confronted by the potential transmission of the Coronavirus
and the associated requirement to separate from vital relationships and supportive
connections can be stressful and even devastating. Having supports and an action plan
in place can offer a road map to keep affected students on track toward degree completion
and help them navigate this challenging time emotionally.”
Thriving Campus Application Expansion
Thriving Campus is a HIPAA-compliant web application that breaks down the barriers
to getting help by bridging the gap between campus counseling services and local mental
health and wellness service providers. Seeing the value of Thriving Campus at Purchase
College and SUNY Oswego, SUNY administration has secured funding to expand it system-wide.
When campus counseling centers determine that a student needs more specialized, long-term
care, the easy-to-access, mobile-friendly Thriving Campus App facilitates the handoff
to a licensed local provider. Providers manage their own profiles, posting up-to-date
information on their specializations and time availability. Their profiles are hidden
if they are not accepting new patients, breaking down a frequent barrier to services
by preventing students from reaching out, being turned down, getting frustrated, and
ultimately abandoning their search.
The Thriving Campus directories are customized by college. They also include a help
guide that provides tips on insurance and choosing a provider, as well as a voicemail
script that puts students at ease reaching out. Colleges can also utilize the app
to create custom provider lists based on specific treatment needs.
Creating a Second Tele-Counseling Hub
First piloted in 2018 thanks to New York State funding, the Student Tele-Counseling
Network (STCN) currently offers tele-counseling services to students at select campuses
through Upstate Medical University.
The program connects students to an Upstate Medical physician, psychologist, or nurse
practitioner on a secure online platform. Those professionals help with a wide range
of mental health issues, ranging from anxiety to depression to eating disorders. These
services are provided at a non-out-of-pocket cost.
By adding SUNY Downstate as a second hub to supplement Upstate Medical—SUNY will expand
the program to an additional five campuses by the end of this year. Ten campuses are
currently participating including, Binghamton University, SUNY Cobleskill, SUNY Morrisville,
Nassau Community College, SUNY New Paltz, SUNY Oneonta, Onondaga Community College,
SUNY Oswego, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, and SUNY Potsdam. The program drastically
reduces wait times for tele-counseling services.
Peer-to-Peer Assistance Hotline
The peer-to-peer assistance hotline established at UAlbany will now be accessible
system-wide. Students experiencing feelings such as loneliness, depression, anxiety,
or uncertainty can call the hotline to connect with a trained student peer. Students
do not need to be in crisis to use this hotline. It’s a stigma-free, secure line for
connecting about emotional, social, and other life issues. The phone lines are staffed
by peers trained to assess students’ well-being and, if necessary, link them with
the appropriate mental health services, academic or technological resources, or financial
assistance available at their respective campuses.
Since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, the Middle Earth hotline has been a key
resource for students at the University at Albany, with trained peers engaging in
more than 8,000 well-being calls with fellow students. The hotline is open 1 p.m.
through midnight Monday through Thursday, and operates 24/7 over the weekend, beginning
on Fridays at 1 p.m. and closing on Sundays at 11:59 p.m. during the fall and spring
semesters. The number is 518-442-5777.
Trained peers from the Middle Earth program will also offer virtual “hangout spaces”
over Zoom Monday through Thursday from 3 p.m.to 4p.m. during the UAlbany semester to provide an additional source of connection for students
in quarantine or isolation.
Crisis Text Line
These new, expanded services supplement SUNY’s 24/7 crisis text line, which was launched
in May in tandem with the New York State Office of Mental Health. The crisis text
line is a confidential text line available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Crisis counselors
are committed and carefully trained volunteers from across the United States. They
support students experiencing feelings of isolation, stress, or suicidality. Crisis
counselors use empathetic listening techniques, bringing texts “from a hot moment
to a cool calm”. With an emphasis on building rapport and trust, crisis counselors
help texters explore the issues, establish the texter’s goal, and collaboratively
problem-solve to come up with a plan for the texter to stay safe. To access the crisis
text line, students simply text Got5U to 741-741.
Crisis Prevention Training
Also, in May, and in partnership with the Office of Mental Health, SUNY launched an
online suicide prevention training. So far, 675 members of the SUNY community have
undergone an online Question, Persuade, and Refer (QPR) training that teaches them
how to recognize someone who may be in emotional distress or having suicidal thoughts,
and how to appropriately engage and connect that person to resources that can help.
Anyone can practice QPR in any setting, and it is appropriate in all relationships.
QPR does not require clinical training, only a willingness to listen, care, and help.
Members of the SUNY community may register by going to http://www.qprtraining.com/setup.php and entering "SUNY" as the organizational code.
About The State University of New York
The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive system of higher education
in the United States, and more than 95 percent of all New Yorkers live within 30 miles
of any one of SUNY’s 64 colleges and universities. Across the system, SUNY has four
academic health centers, five hospitals, four medical schools, two dental schools,
the state’s only college of optometry, and manages one US Department of Energy National
Laboratory. As of Fall 2019, more than 415,500 students were enrolled in a degree-granting
program at a SUNY campus. In total, SUNY serves about 1.3 million students in credit-bearing
courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs. SUNY
oversees nearly a quarter of academic research in New York. Research expenditures
system-wide exceeded $1.7 billion in fiscal year 2019, including significant contributions
from students and faculty. There are three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and one
in three New Yorkers with a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how
SUNY creates opportunity, visit www.suny.edu.
###
About SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University
SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University is the borough’s only academic medical center for health education, research, and patient care, and is a 342-bed facility serving the healthcare needs of New York City, and Brooklyn’s 2.6 million residents. University Hospital of Brooklyn (UHB) is Downstate’s teaching hospital, backed by the expertise of an outstanding medical school and the research facilities of a world-class academic center. More than 800 physicians, representing 53 specialties and subspecialties—many of them ranked as tops in their fields—comprise Downstate's staff.
A regional center for cardiac care, neonatal and high-risk infant services, pediatric dialysis, and transplantation, Downstate also houses a major learning center for children with physical ailments or neurological disorders. In addition to UHB, Downstate comprises a College of Medicine, College of Nursing, School of Health Professions, a School of Graduate Studies, a School of Public Health, and a multifaceted biotechnology initiative, including the Downstate Biotechnology Incubator and BioBAT for early-stage and more mature companies, respectively. For more information, visit www.downstate.edu or follow us on Twitter at @sunydownstate.