As researchers<\/a> who study mental health<\/a> and mentor graduate students, we believe critical changes need to be made at universities to better support students like Sara. Some of these changes can be made by individual graduate students and faculty, while others require larger institutional changes by graduate programs, departments and the universities as a whole.<\/p>\n We believe the culture of silence surrounding mental health in academia needs to be changed into a \u201cculture of access\u201d around mental health<\/a>. This involves starting with the assumption that graduate students with mental health concerns are expected and welcomed in academia, not aberrant cases that need to be dealt with.<\/p>\n It also pays to seek out mental health first aid training<\/a>, which has been shown to improve knowledge, attitudes and behavior<\/a> regarding mental health.<\/p>\n Even as society struggles to normalize conversations about mental health, students may still find it difficult to reach out for help<\/a>. As was the case for Sara, students may feel they aren\u2019t in bad enough shape to need help. They may also worry about being judged by their community, may want to handle things on their own or may not have the time or money for services.<\/p>\n One way students can help each other is by reaching out to students who seem to be struggling. We personally know students who only sought care after a concerned peer reached out.<\/p>\n Some barriers, like stigma, may be particularly acute for certain groups. For example, a forthcoming article in the Journal of Adolescent Health found relatively modest variation in mental health problems among students of different races and ethnicities, but that students of color were much less likely to be diagnosed or to seek help. That study \u2013 by Sarah Lipson and colleagues \u2013 found that Asian and Asian-American students are particularly unlikely to seek and receive treatment.<\/p>\n Universities must make sure mental health care for all graduate students is accessible and affordable. Students can call on their universities to enact the specific recommendations put forth in the Equity in Mental Health<\/a> framework.<\/p>\n Improving graduate student mental health requires reducing harassment, including but not limited to sexual harassment<\/a>.<\/p>\n A recent National Academies report concluded that 20 to 50 percent of women students \u201cencounter or experience sexually harassing conduct in academia<\/a>.\u201d The unacceptably high rates have direct consequences for mental health: sexual harassment increases symptoms<\/a> of depression, stress and anxiety.<\/p>\n Reducing harassment in academia will require institutional change. There are specific red flags<\/a> that signal that institutional change is needed, and there are specific actions that individuals, graduate programs and universities can take to enact that change. These include being clear about what constitutes sexual harassment and having trainings that focus on changing behaviors, not beliefs.<\/p>\n Research indicates<\/a> that support from co-workers helps academic staff members cope with work-related stress. Graduate students could benefit from peer support, such as writing groups<\/a> run by trained peer facilitators. As one example, students at the Cooperative Research Centre for Mental Health developed Write Smarter: Feel Better<\/a>, a peer mentoring for Ph.D. students that focuses on productivity and mental health. Graduate students can create such groups and graduate programs can support peer facilitator training.<\/p>\n New research that combined and analyzed data from earlier studies of stress reduction techniques<\/a> points to specific programs that could improve student mental health.<\/p>\n Except in the case of relaxation training, short stress reduction courses of eight weeks were as effective<\/a> as longer courses. This suggests that graduate students would benefit from seeking out such courses and that universities should implement them. The benefits of such courses could be realized in just half a semester.<\/p>\n As one study<\/a> put it, it\u2019s normal in the world of science and academia to view the \u201cideal scientist\u201d as one who \u201cgives priority to work, has few outside interests or responsibilities, and pursues research single-mindedly.\u201d High work demands are a major cause<\/a> of poor graduate student mental health and work-family conflict was the strongest predictor<\/a> of psychological distress in one recent study of Ph.D. students.<\/p>\n Work-related stress is associated<\/a> with burnout and poor mental health, and excessive work demands drive overwork and poor work-life balance. Overwork can also reduce productivity, driving \u201cpresenteeism<\/a>,\u201d where people are present at work but not productive, as well as high levels of turnover and negative attitudes towards work.<\/p>\n Thus, graduate students, faculty, and staff must recognize that overwork comes at a substantial personal cost. A guide<\/a> to creating supportive environments for academics with mental health conditions notes that we must \u201cavoid supporting or valorizing behaviors that erode mental health, such as working extremely long hours, or making the job more important than anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n Some graduate students who face mental health issues will need to take medical leave. At present, departments and programs treat each individual case as a crisis that needs to be dealt with. But given the prevalence of mental health conditions in academia, it should be expected that such needs will arise regularly. For that reason, we believe consistent mechanisms to support students who take medical leave should be created.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, in many places, stipend support<\/a> for students is removed if they take medical leave. This means that students might be financially unable to use medical leave to address their mental health. Graduate students should advocate for mechanisms to support students who need to take medical leave, and administrators should work on enacting those changes. Creating fellowships for students who need medical leave would help students get needed help.<\/p>\n In the end, Sara left academia and is thriving elsewhere. For her, academia wasn\u2019t a healthy place. Perhaps if more programs adopted the strategies shared here, graduate school would be a healthier place for students like Sara, improving their experience and making it so that society does not lose out on their contributions. Authors:<\/strong> Meghan Duffy<\/a>, Professor, University of Michigan<\/a><\/em>; Carly Thanhouser<\/a>, Behavioral Scientist, University of Michigan<\/a><\/em>; and Daniel Eisenberg<\/a>, S.J. Axelrod Collegiate Professor of Health Management and Policy, University of Michigan<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sara did not expect much to come from her visit to the university\u2019s counseling center, but she was concerned enough about the dark thoughts she\u2019d been having that she decided to go anyway. As she sat in the waiting room after turning in the patient questionnaire, she thought: \u201cIt\u2019s probably not a big deal. I\u2019m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":30457,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[661,645,675,610,619,520,521,522,243],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ace-college","category-discourse","category-grad-school-ace-college","category-grad-school","category-mind","category-university-of-michigan-ann-arbor","category-university-of-michigan-dearborn","category-university-of-michigan-flint","category-health"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/mental-health.jpg",830,533,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/mental-health-224x144.jpg",224,144,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/mental-health-300x193.jpg",300,193,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/mental-health.jpg",830,533,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/mental-health.jpg",830,533,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/mental-health.jpg",830,533,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/mental-health.jpg",830,533,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"The Conversation","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/author\/the-conversation\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Sara did not expect much to come from her visit to the university\u2019s counseling center, but she was concerned enough about the dark thoughts she\u2019d been having that she decided to go anyway. As she sat in the waiting room after turning in the patient questionnaire, she thought: \u201cIt\u2019s probably not a big deal. I\u2019m…","featured_media_src_url":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/mental-health.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}1. Fight the culture of silence<\/h2>\n
2. Expect reluctance<\/h2>\n
3. Address sexual and gender-based harassment<\/h2>\n
4. Create peer support networks<\/h2>\n
5. Reduce student stress and anxiety<\/h2>\n
6. Recognize that overwork comes at a cost<\/h2>\n
7. Help graduate students who need to take leave<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/100922\/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic\")
<\/p>\n