Health and Wellness
How Temple is addressing the mental health and wellness needs of our community
"The health and wellness of our university community is at the center of our care and commitment to each other, which is why we have made it a top priority."
Gregory N. Mandel
Senior Vice President and Provost
Laura H. Carnell Professor of Law
Caring for our community’s mental health and well-being is complex and unique to each individual, which is why our path forward must be flexible and responsive to those needs. After completing their evaluation and research, the Mental Health and Wellness Task Force has identified areas of priority as we begin to activate a more comprehensive and inclusive approach. We are advancing the Task Force recommendations through the following initiatives:
Implementing a new structure to support the Temple community
- Temple will create a new Health and Well-being Division, a single point of access for all health and well-being resources for students and employees.
- This Division will implement a communication strategy, improve digital resources, and enhance educational and professional development opportunities, with the aim to improve the overall experience for Temple community members.
Increasing resources, support and presence
- Temple will devote an additional $1M per year to support the mental health of our community, including investing in new positions for counselors at Tuttleman Counseling Services and at the new dedicated space for counseling at the Health Sciences Center.
- In addition, Temple will ensure support, training, and other mental health and wellness activities for affinity groups in collaboration with Temple’s IDEAL office and the JED Foundation.
- The Wellness Resource Center will expand its services and programs to include employees, as well as students.
Advancing partnerships and models for care
- Temple received a four-year grant to enhance strategy and activities specific to mental well-being and suicide prevention in partnership with the JED Foundation.
- As a first step in this partnership, Temple will send out a Healthy Minds Study Survey to students in February to better understand the mental health climate on our campus.
- As best practice strategies are implemented, Temple will create a co-responder model of crisis response by pairing a mental health professional with a campus safety officer.
Origins
One of the many lessons underscored by the COVID-19 pandemic is the importance of protecting and promoting the mental health and wellness of our students, faculty and staff. This is perhaps the most significant student issue confronting higher education today, and it also touches our faculty and staff in profound ways. It is not only reflected in data and research, but also in the stories that we hear each day from members of our community.
In recognition of this national crisis and its impact on our community, President Wingard launched a university wide Task Force on Mental Health and Wellness in February 2022. The task force examined and assessed the existing mental health and wellness infrastructure and programs, evaluated the infrastructure and programs at other universities and developed recommendations concerning the mental health and wellness needs of the Temple community. Their goal was to ensure that students, faculty and staff can focus on the essential mission of our university.
The Mental Health and Wellness Task Force recommendations focused on the following areas: