Mental health promotion partnerships for diverse urban college students: Mapping and mobilizing campus and community resources for educational success and wellness

Following highly publicized violent incidents by students identified as “distressed and distressing” yet refusing mental health services, college campuses are moving toward health promotion practice frameworks reaching a broader range of students. Commuter university students represent a growing population presenting unique challenges. Urban, primarily ethnic minority, immigrant, and working class commuter students often reject traditional mental health services, prefering to focus on their educational goals. They may be more responsive to help offered by peers or through student-centered campus outreach. A growing number of universities are turning to integrative mental health promotion frameworks and ecological settings approaches which mitigate risks and mobilize protective factors associated with positive educational and mental health outcomes. However, innovative, integrative mental health approaches require complex partnerships addressing diverse student needs while bringing together faculty staff and administrators across the campus and making bridges to diverse communities. This presentation describes an evolving partnership using a health promotion and public health framework and campus-wide dialogues between students, faculty, staff and administrators to develop wellness resources within University Health Services, across the campus, and in the student's communities. The two presenters, a faculty member in Clinical Psychology and the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Executive Director of Health Services who is a Nurse Practitioner, describe their collaboration using a student-centered, participatory research planning partnership. This interdisciplinary partnership resulted in design of a peer-resources navigator intervention integrating college peer support and Community Health Worker models addressing health disparities, and campus-wide commitment to wellness as promoting educational success.