Developing a campus mental health resource plan

Abstract

There has been an accelerated increase in the number of college students experiencing psychological distresses. The variance of the distresses are causing college campuses across the United States to realize the need for organized campus-wide collaborative mental health plans as part of their emergency management operations plan. In this article, the authors outline a method for developing a mental health resource plan (MHRP). Our plan is designed to aid in decreasing emergent and nonemergent mental healthrelated incidents and serve as a guide for addressing distressed students, faculty, and staff. Addressing mental health issues in college campuses across the nation is gaining widespread attention due to recent tragic mental health-related incidents. In an effort to support the initiatives that address mental health on college campuses, in 2008 and 2009, the US Department of Education granted a total of 19 million to us and 42 other higher education institutions to develop, review, or improve campus-based all-hazards emergency management plans, which includes addressing and assessing the mental health needs of students who are at risk of causing harm to themselves or others. As a partial result of this research effort, the authors present a generalized methodology for developing a college campus MHRP that can be used to prevent, prepare, respond, and recover from mental health-related emergency events.