Administrators are making similar
efforts at other institutions. In the past
five years, universities around the US
have announced task forces—generally
composed of administrators, faculty, staff,
and students—to monitor and make rec-
ommendations about undergraduate and
graduate student mental health.
In 2016, one such task force, at Johns
Hopkins University in Baltimore, con-
ducted listening sessions and a mental
health survey of more than 2,300 stu-
dents. The following year, the group
issued draft recommendations, solicit-
ing feedback from university students,
faculty, and staff; last February, they
released a final report. Task force co-
chair Daniele Fallin of the Johns Hop-
kins Bloomberg School of Public Health
says that such reports help identify
barriers to improving mental health.
At Hopkins, “it was very clear that we
needed better awareness of what’s avail-
able, so that people can be better coaches
and advisors to their own graduate stu-
dents,” she says.
UBC’s Howard, meanwhile, along
with Susan Porter, the dean and vice pro-
vost of graduate and postdoctoral stud-
ies, is working with the university’s coun-
seling services to address the immediate
mental health needs of graduate students.
They are currently testing two programs:
one to help departments identify and
alter parts of the training process that
tend to present mental health challenges
to students, and another to provide coun-
seling specifically for grad students. Por-
ter and Howard have also worked to offer
mental health support at atypical loca-
tions—the university library or hospital,
for instance—so that graduate student
teaching assistants can avoid uncom-
fortable encounters with their studentsat the normal counseling service sites.
Off campus, grad students have access
to 24/7 counseling services via phone or
video chat that they can use when they’re
doing fieldwork or learning a technique
in a lab abroad.
Despite these initiatives, university
involvement in graduate student mental
health varies widely, and there is little
in the way of a unified effort to address
the issues across the academic spectrum.
According to a survey of graduate deans
conducted by the Council of Graduate
Schools (CGS), an organization of about
500 institutions in the US and Canada,
many administrators have concerns that
their universities are not doing enough
and that faculty might not be as pre-
pared as other staff to direct students
in crisis to appropriate resources. Por-
ter and others, meanwhile, emphasize
the ongoing need for long-term cultural
change to improve the mental health
environment in grad schools.
Nonetheless, interest in possible solu-
tions is building, says Hironao Okahana,
who led the survey and is the CGS associ-
ate vice president of research and policy
analysis. The council has convened two
meetings with sessions on graduate stu-
dent mental health within the last year
to facilitate connections among people
working with students, and organizers
are planning another such session for the
council’s annual meeting in December.
The University of Kentucky’s Nathan
Vanderford, a coauthor of the 2018 study,
says that funding organizations, such
as the National Science Foundation,
could also make a difference by requir-
ing attention to graduate student mental
health, in the same way they’ve made
training in responsible research conduct
mandatory for recipients of train-
ing grants. “There needs to be a bigger
push to make [graduate student mental
health] a priority,” he says, “because
institutions are going to continue doing
what they’re doing unless they’re moti-
vated to do something else.” gAbby Olena is a freelance science journalist
based in Carrboro, North Carolina.CAREERS
HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT GRAD STUDENTS
Check in:If you suspect someone is struggling with a mental health issue, don’t stay
silent, says Emily O’Hara, a licensed independent clinical social worker at the University
of Minnesota Twin Cities. “We get asked the question all the time from faculty and staff,
‘What if I say something, and it makes it worse?’ [But] if you see something, say some-
thing, and worry less about saying the right thing.”
Listen: According to Maggie Gartner, former executive director of student counseling
services at Te x a s A&M University, the most supportive faculty “listen to their graduate
students. They give them time, and that’s a precious gift because faculty don’t have that
much time either.”
Destigmatize help-seeking: David Sacks, a psychologist in Nashville, Tennessee, compares
graduate mental health support to that provided by a sports coach. “No one talks about the
stigma of getting a coach to help with your strength and conditioning. It doesn’t mean you’re
admitting you’re physically weak when you hire a personal trainer,” he says. “We figure this is
something you do if you want to maximize your potential.”
Monitor mental health in your program: “You need to have a monitoring system
because often otherwise you just have anecdotes and isolated events, and you have no
idea how stressful the environment is,” Frederik Anseel, a psychologist at Kings College
London, tells The Scientist.
Consult the experts: Mental health professionals are eager and willing to speak with
faculty or staff members who have concerns about a student, says Gartner. “I don’t
know a counseling center director who does not encourage consulting.” She tells faculty
and staff, “Yes, you should call me. We will help you deal with the situation.”