MDC Mental Health and Wellness

DESCRIBE YOUR PROJECT

“Despite mounting mental health problems among students at community colleges, fewer than 13% provide psychiatric services for students. By contrast, 56% of four-year colleges and universities offer on-campus psychiatric services (American College Counseling Association, Jan. 2012).” Being distressed, physically or mentally, directly impacts the decisions, actions, and outcomes of students. Community college students are even more susceptible to stress and anxiety due to additional problems that come with being commuter students (working full-time, having a family, etc.). These issues can be alleviated by having someone to talk to and a place to learn methods to de-stress and cope with any mental health barriers. Our proposal is to create a group that has the resources and information accessible to students who seek mental wellness or who may be dealing with mental distress, while also being connected to their college community and given the resources to become civically engaged.

Our proposal is to create a group that has the resources and information accessible to students who seek mental wellness or students who may be dealing with mental distress. We would accomplish this by recruiting 10 American Dream Scholars and 10 members of the Psychology Student Association and train them during a two day weekend retreat. The purpose of the retreat is to build their capacity to organize campaigns through leadership. As part of that training, the recruits will create and implement a campaign to create an MDC Mental Health and Wellness Club & Student Support Group. This club will implement initiatives around positive psychology, meditation, goal setting, communication, leadership, motivation, and civic engagement.

Where does your project take place?: Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus

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