Project Lead: Dan Clay

Funding Approved: Fiscal Year 23
Project Status: In Progress  
Funded amount: $700,000 over three years

The Higher Education Mental Health project aims to create a more positive mental health environment for students, faculty, and staff by using recent, research-based models focused on prevention, intervention, and postvention of mental health issues. 

Activities to date (as of June 11, 2025):

• Implemented a statewide survey of staff and faculty wellbeing/mental health and student distress management to assess understanding of role and skill level and identify needs.
  •  1,153 people at community colleges across the state responded to the survey. Staff at Iowa analyzed and presented Phase 1 data to community college and private college/university partners. 
  • Phase 2 had 1,144 responses. Staff analyzed and shared data with community college and private college/university partners. 
• Built and launched a one-stop shop website for mental health resources at Iowa. The site was later integrated into the Well-Being at Iowa website. 
  • There have been nearly 230k visits to the website since its launch. 
  • A series of mental health and wellness related stories in Iowa Now have generated around 58k reads. 
  • Featured mental health screening programs on the website and made those resources available to staff and faculty. 
• Developed and implemented a number of trainings for faculty and staff to develop skills in mental health and suicide prevention support for students, particularly those in distress.  
  • More than 2,000 staff and faculty have completed the Kognito Distress Intervention and Suicide Prevention Program.
  • The Working with Students in Distress Master Class includes 8-hours of in-person training that provides faculty and staff the language and skills to navigate challenging interactions with students. The initial offerings have been completely full, with 58 staff and faculty participating in the training so far. 
  • A total of 10,112 participants participated in 217 presentations from March 2022 through May 2025. 
  • Partnered with Livingworks ASIST to provide suicide intervention skills training on campus in spring 2024.
• Expanded programming to other state of Iowa campuses including Grinnell College, Western Iowa Community, Coe College, and Marshalltown Community College.
  • Held workshops at Iowa Western, Hawkeye, Marshalltown, and Southwestern community colleges. 
• Piloted mental health support programs for faculty and staff who fall outside the charges of current services.  
• Developed the Mental Health Champion Award to recognize students, faculty, and staff who are working to help the university accomplish its goal of embedding mental health into a supportive campus culture. 
• Developed the Higher Education and Mental Health and Wellbeing Track for the 2023 Iowa Best Summit. A total of 185 people registered for the track, which included 14 programs or sessions.
• Developed and implanted Snackable Skills workshops and accompanying videos on several subtopics within the Working with Students in Distress Master Class, which were engaged with by 144 people. Trainings include:
  • QPR Training
  • Productivity without Pressure: Strategies to Overcome Productivity Guilt
  • Working with Students in Distress
  • I’m Sorry That Happened: Talking About Tough Topics When You’re Not Sure What to Say
• Developed the CampUS newsletter as a method to share out news on the Scanlan Center for Mental Health
• Started an Obermann Center Workgroup on Reconceptualizing the Mental Health Crisis in Higher Education and presented on the collaborative work at the NCORE Conference in June 2024.
• Submitted a paper on the Working with Students in Distress Master Class to the Journal of College Student Mental Health. 

Next Steps:

• Integrate services and trainings into ongoing campus operations.
• Developing an in-house replacement for Kognito, which was sunsetted in spring 2025. The new tool, C.A.R.E.S. (Connect, Acknowledge, Respond, Engage, and Support) is on track to launch in late 2025.