Campus Conversations: Health and Wellness

In this episode of campus conversations, President Noland speaks with Dr. Alison Davis and Halie Darby about the importance of managing our health and well-being and the resources ETSU offers to help us do so.

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Transcript

• Campus Conversations Video Transcript

  Brian Noland: I'm Brian Noland. I have the honor to serve as the President of East Tennessee State University, and I'm excited to welcome you to the fifth edition of Campus Conversations. As we move through the close of the semester, this is a time of year when all of us have a lot on our shoulders. We're juggling not only the holidays, but finals and everything that comes with the wrap-up of an academic year. So it's timely that we talk today to Dr. Alison Davis and Halie Darby, who are front and center in this work. So Dr. Davis, if you could just give us a little bit of an overview about your role, the scope of the services that you provide, and how long you've been at the university.

   

  Alison Davis: Absolutely. So I've been here at the university since 2021 as an Assistant Director of the Counseling Center, also a double alum of ETSU, which I feel like is exciting. And I took the Director position earlier this year in July. So at the Counseling Center, we offer a wide variety of services to students. I think when students think about us, they think about individual therapy, and that's not necessarily the whole picture of what it is that we do. And there are tons of ways that we're supporting students, whether that be through groups, online resources, workshops; we even work with the CPA and wellness on a few things that I'm sure Halie will talk about. But in terms of kind of my role and my scope, I've been having a lot of conversations about well-being and what that looks like more broadly than even just being at the Counseling Center. So I think I've spent a lot of time collaborating with Halie and other campus partners on really figuring out how it is that we work together.

   

  Brian Noland: So thanks for that overview. You've been here since '21, providing now critical leadership for the institution. So tell us about your story. 

   

  Halie Darby: Yeah, so I joined ETSU in July of 2021 as well. But at the time, I was the Coordinator of Fitness and Wellness. So I was primarily overseeing personal training and group exercise, the physical wellness component that we typically think of when we think of well-being. And thanks to SGA, they actually voted back in 2018 to establish a wellness fee. And that came to fruition in 2022 with the establishment of Student Wellness within Campus Recreation. So I did have the opportunity to step into my current role, which is the Assistant Director of Student Wellness within Campus Rec.

   

  Brian Noland: So as we kind of transition in a post-COVID environment, there's been a lot of focus on the total student rather than just the academic outcome that occurs on a college campus. So talk to me a little bit about how you approach students and how the students gain the ability to approach you. Because while everyone knows we have a Counseling Center, they may not know how to approach the services that you provide.

   

  Alison Davis: Sure. And that's something that we've really been working a lot on is getting outside of the Counseling Center. It is really, really hard for students to walk through that door and to come see us. And often when we're at events, we kind of get avoided a little bit because students are worried about what it might mean if they come to talk to us. So a big part of that is doing Let's Talks in different spaces on campus so that students can access them in the places that they're most comfortable and really kind of dip a toe into therapy and what that may look like. Another really important trend is that students are wanting to talk to us less and are talking to peers or to faculty and staff members more and more about the struggles that they're having. So a huge part of what we're doing right now is trying to figure out how we build the capacity for student support through Train the Trainer models, which basically means how do faculty and staff from their role work with students who are struggling. And that goes beyond just maybe referring to the Counseling Center, but trying to figure out kind of what those appropriate boundaries are. And in terms of peer support, we're trying to get a peer support program off the ground so that students can meet with each other without any faculty or staff members and just talk about their experiences and feel seen and heard.

   

  Brian Noland: So let's probe in a little bit deeper there. I hold open office hours every Tuesday morning, and during many of my interactions with students, I quickly realize that I'm outside of my area of training and expertise. So how could I deepen my skill set if I wanted to take advantage of what you just referenced? How do I sign up for those learning opportunities? 

   

  Alison Davis: Yeah, so I'll pause and take a step back for a second and maybe let Halie lead into one of the active opportunities that we have on campus for some really formalized training, and then I can do some maybe behind-the-scene pieces.

   

  Halie Darby: Yeah, thank you, Alison. So currently within Student Wellness, we do offer mental health first aid trainings, and those are published on the master calendar for ETSU. So if you're interested in signing up for one of those, it's really easy to find the link and get registered on the Campus Recreation portal online. It does cost $24, but that only covers the cost of the certification. We don't make any money off of that certification. Our goal is just to spread mental health and well-being on campus. So it is a blended learning course. You'll need to complete less than two hours of online work, and then you'll be with us for about six hours in person to complete that certification.

   

  Brian Noland: So one of the things that's really fascinating is wellness is fully comprehensive. This isn't just physical well-being or mental health. It's how the two are interrelated and how the two are interconnected. So talk to us about how you model that with the students you work with.

   

  Alison Davis: Yeah, absolutely. So when students come in and they talk to us in the Counseling Center, usually they are very focused on mental or emotional wellness, right? So as we start to talk with those students, we step back, and we look at the bigger picture and we say, "Okay, how are things going academically? How are things with your family and your relationships, your connection on campus?" We ask about physical health and well-being, which tends to be the place that students drop off the map first, I think. So we really try to help them understand how they're functioning and existing as a whole. And I think one of the big pieces that we are really trying to focus on and other leaders on campus is helping students understand exactly what wellness is and how they can support that more broadly. Because when people are thinking about us at the Counseling Center, it's "When am I struggling the most? How do I go? How do I reach out for support?" But one of the things that I would love to talk more about is prevention and what our role in prevention is. 

   

  Brian Noland: So that's a softball. What's our role in prevention? What can all of us do from individuals who work on the administrative side of the equation to faculty? How can we as a campus really help to model what it is that you're wanting us to model?

   

  Alison Davis: Yeah, absolutely. So I think about this in terms of an analogy of a river. So we have this river that doesn't have a bridge. And when students are trying to cross this river, they're falling in, and they're getting swept downstream. And we're taking the moment to react and realizing that someone has fallen in. So we're rushing downstream to try to catch them and try to pull them out. And so people have started to kind of pile up further down the river, recognizing, okay, this is the easiest place for us to be able to get folks out. So pieces that are so important are getting more people earlier on to be able to help students come out of that river, out of that experience, finding other tools, resources to be able to reach out, you know, with nets or tree limbs, things like that to pull students out. But even better, why not build a bridge so that students don't have to go through that struggle of trying to cross the river and not really having a great opportunity to do that. And that's really what prevention is, is not focusing on students who are struggling, but trying to figure out how we build a solid foundation for students and go more broadly than just even their wellness and focus on well-being, which really gets into the systemic pieces. What is it that we're doing on a large scale that may or may not support students in getting across the river?

   

  Brian Noland: So we're at one of the most stressful times of the year. Everything is coming to a close. For faculty, that's wrapping up the semester, completing projects, getting grades done. For students, that's all of the projects that they've got to wrap up and finals. So what guidance, what advice do you have both for the faculty and staff side of the equation as well as the student side of the equation, that you could share? And particularly, I'd welcome that guidance as well because this is a time of the year when I know I'm going to struggle. 

   

  Alison Davis: Absolutely. So students who are struggling right now are looking to a wide variety of sources. So it's not just the Counseling Center. It's friends, it's family, it's faculty and staff members. And so I think we focus a lot on what our role of supporting students is, but not necessarily what our role in supporting ourselves is beyond that. So if we're really stressed and we have a lot going on, students are going to know that. They're going to know that we're struggling and maybe less likely to come to us. And so I think a really great place that we can broaden and expand our view of wellness is with faculty and staff so that they can structure their role and their interaction with students differently. So we're working on a few things right now, but I'm working on a written guide for faculty and staff for how to support themselves and to support students who are in distress. We are working on workshops, these trainings for mental health first aid. We recently released the Be There program, which is not a program that we created, but something that we're encouraging students to engage with. If you are the "mom friend" or the friend that people tend to come to, that's a really great resource for students to be able to use to build some of those skills. So it's online, it's free, it takes about an hour, and it's one of the better ones that I've seen that we're really excited about. So there are a few different places that we're trying to come at this from so that a person who is maybe not trained in mental health doesn't feel out of their scope so quickly and kind of have that panic response of, "I've got to get you to the Counseling Center in order for you to benefit." Because even though we think we are great and amazing and doing all these fancy interventions that we got trained for 10 years to be able to do, the thing that is most important for students is feeling heard, understood, listened to, and seen. 

   

  Brian Noland: So what are some of the things that you would encourage us to watch for in ourselves as we're moving through this time of year? I know I can watch my intake of Diet Pepsi, and as that Diet Pepsi moves up on a scale, clearly there's something wrong. But setting that to the side, what are the things that we need to be mindful of individually, and then what are the things that we need to be mindful of as it relates to our peers in the office or our peers in the classroom? 

   

  Halie Darby: Yeah, within Student Wellness, we've defined nine dimensions of wellness. So we really promote balance, and we approach well-being from a holistic standpoint. So even if you're tempted to go for that second Pepsi, maybe that's just what you need to feel better that day, and we can assess that later on. And when it comes to dietary suggestions, that would be outside of our scope of practice, but there is a dietitian within Sodexo that may be available to meet one-on-one with students virtually via Zoom. So we do always refer out to those resources, and that's one of the best ways that you can help students and help others that are in your office if you recognize that they may be struggling. When you come in and you ask, "Hey, how are you doing?" be prepared for that answer to not be "Great! You?" It's okay if the answer is "I'm not doing well," and then be prepared to have that uncomfortable conversation. Ask, "Why are you not doing well? How can I help? Is there anything I can do to support you?" And then be knowledgeable about our resources on campus to be able to share those. And if you're not knowledgeable, have one in the back of your mind where you know, "Hey, I can call Alison on the phone, and she's going to help to point me in the right direction." That would be the biggest advice that I would give.

   

  Brian Noland: So a question on access. If I realize that I'm needing some guidance and direction, but I can't physically get to campus, or I may be apprehensive about utilizing the services in person, how would I become aware of opportunities for telecounseling?

   

  Alison Davis: Yeah, absolutely. So we have all of our information on the front page of our website, and that's usually the place that students are most comfortable. We have recently made some shifts where if students want to make an appointment, they don't even have to call us to do that. They can schedule those first appointments online, which students have loved. They fill out all their paperwork, they get their appointment scheduled, and kind of go from there. We do have opportunities available to do those first appointments for our remote or distance learning students. You can do that via telehealth. You can do ongoing counseling via telehealth. That's just something that students have to express in their meeting that they have with us. Like I mentioned before, we also have kind of intro to counseling services like Let's Talk that you don't even have to come to the Counseling Center for. We have a Zoom option of that available, so it's kind of a double layer of protection where you're not even signing up for counseling. You're just reaching out to talk to somebody for support and resources.

   

  Brian Noland: So we've heard a little bit about some of the virtual options, but I know there's gotta be some things that we're doing in the wellness space that contribute and support. So talk to us a little bit about some of the other services that are available. Yes, and I know Alison mentioned earlier about the Train the Trainer model that we're going for, and that's something that we also have within Student Wellness. Our frontline of defense and support for the students are our wellness ambassadors, and they're student employees, so they're able to relate to their peers on the same level. They're all NASPA-certified peer educators, and they're mental health first aid-certified, so they're really able to have those conversations and provide the support needed when students are facing a mental health challenge, or if they just need some general support to get pointed in the right direction. One of the specific services that they provide are wellness consultations, and those are a 20- to 30-minute conversation where the student will sit down with a peer and go through some questions related to what they're experiencing and their overall well-being, and then they have a list of options that the student can choose from, essentially a menu for well-being to help the student find the right fit for them, and those can be facilitated in person at the Wellness Corner or virtually as needed.

   

  Brian Noland: Well, it's amazing the scope of services that we provide to our students, and as an institution that serves a significant number of first-generation students, thank you for the work that you do. You know, college is a place where students are going to try, fail, experiment, dust themselves off, but sometimes they need assistance, so thank you all for the assistance that you provide, and thank you all for joining us. This puts a wrap on episode five of Campus Conversations. Everyone have a great, great week. Godspeed, and go Bucs! 

East Tennessee State University was founded in 1911 with a singular mission: to improve the quality of life for people in the region and beyond. Through its world-class health sciences programs and interprofessional approach to health care education, ETSU is a highly respected leader in rural health research and practices. The university also boasts nationally ranked programs in the arts, technology, computing, and media studies. ETSU serves approximately 14,000 students each year and is ranked among the top 10 percent of colleges in the nation for students graduating with the least amount of debt.