Description:

Recently on a flight, I watched a safety video that stated one must first put their own oxygen mask on before beginning to help others. This led me to pose the question, why haven’t we adopted this mindset for mental health? As career services practitioners, our job encompasses educating, training, and advocating for students living with mental illness, which proves increasingly difficult as the student mental health crisis continues to grow. While advocacy is imperative, what are we doing for ourselves and our own mental health? Stressful work environments permeate into our personal lives; failure to practice self-care and establish work-life balance can negatively impact mental health. This SMARTtalk will discuss mental health in the workplace, provide examples of how to advocate for your well-being, and discuss how to support colleagues on their mental health journey. Mental health has recently become a priority as more and more of our students are struggling through mental health crises. Student-facing professionals, specifically career advisors, are the front-line support to offer students strategies, techniques, and referrals to ensure they are able to persist and be successful. There is a lack of both resources and conversation around support for advisor mental health. There are multiple pieces of training and sessions offered to discuss resources such as CAPS, suicide prevention training, and learning about trauma-informed practice in higher education, but again the lens is focused on our students. It’s imperative we address the impact advisors face when handling critical student cases. Mental health is a crisis affecting college campuses for both our students and our professionals. Let’s refocus and ensure we are also part of a vision of a healthier and supportive campus.

Audience:

Career Services

Level:

Emerging

Track:

Competencies & Skills

Type:

SMARTtalk

Main Speaker:

Lauren Shackleford, University of Michigan

Additional Speakers: