Message from the Office for the President: May is Mental Health Awareness Month

Dear students, faculty, and staff,

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. I am writing to call attention and awareness around our needs and efforts in this area and to renew our commitment to being a part of the solution. I also want to highlight some of the incredible examples of resilience within our community. These stories are inspiring, and I hope you will read them. If you are struggling, you are not alone. The University is here to support you and I encourage you to reach out to a faculty or staff member, or your campus health clinic, for help.

• Paths to Resilience: See how we’re cultivating resilience and support at the University of Minnesota.
• Pioneers in wellbeing: The Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing advances whole-person health and wellbeing.
• Visions of self-care: University of Minnesota students share what keeps them balanced and happy.
• Beyond recovery: Learn about a U of M Medical School graduate who used his experience to focus on addiction medicine.

I also want to take this opportunity to give you an update on the first year of the President’s Initiative for Student Mental Health (PRISMH). The PRISMH task force consists of faculty, staff, and students from across our five campuses. They are applying a rigorous public health lens to their work reviewing the University’s mental health-related services, programs, policies, and academic practices to recommend where we can improve, supplement, or transform our offerings.

These opportunities, which will guide next year’s work, include promoting seed grants for research, development of a multicampus proposal to transform University of Minnesota learning environments in ways that support student mental health, and finding opportunities to address the needs of diverse populations.

Finally, if you haven’t already, please check out You@UMN. It is an excellent, free, personalized wellbeing portal for students. It provides online tools such as tips to manage anxiety and stress, as well as campus resources for finding purpose and connecting to campus, academic success and career preparedness, and physical and mental health.

Be healthy, safe, and well.

Warm regards,
Joan Gabel