Mental Health and Wellness

"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

Read a message from the Provost

To the Temple Community,

The mental 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. A dedicated group of faculty, staff and students have been working toward a shared goal to create a campus culture that better supports mental health and wellness. After research and assessment, the Task Force on Mental Health and Wellness developed thoughtful recommendations, organized into three primary areas of focus: culture and climate, services and support, and administration.

With these recommendations at top of mind, we are moving forward with changes and strategies that will incorporate a culture of wellness into the fabric of our community.

At the core of the Task Force’s recommendations are the structure and resources of our mental health and wellness support. To that end, we are making several immediate changes. First, we have established a new Health and Well-being Division, which will provide a clear point of entry for the broad health and wellness resources at Temple. Second, the university is dedicating substantial additional resources to our community’s health and wellness. The Health and Well-being Division's budget will be increased by $1 million dollars annually to support the expansion of mental health services for Temple students. Third, is a dedicated location for counseling at the Health Sciences Campus. Fourth, the Wellness Resource Center will expand its services and programs to include employees, as well as students.

As we build on the progress and improvements, this marks the beginning of a new chapter in our university’s response to mental health and wellness. We invite you to learn more about these important new initiatives that will help our community to thrive.

Sincerely,

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.

Students walking on Polett Walk on main campus

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.

Temple Flags and figure sculpture on campus

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.

Task Force Members

Co-chairs

Dan Berman, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies; Greek & Roman Classics, College of Liberal Arts
Melanie Cosby, Director of Diversity and Inclusion, Office of Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Assistant Professor, Center for Urban Bioethics, Lewis Katz School of Medicine

Faculty

Heath Fogg Davis, Political Science, College of Liberal Arts
Robert Fauber, Director, Psychological Services Center, Psychology, College of Liberal Arts
Lisa Ferretti, Social Work, College of Public Health
Van Hellerslia, Pharmacy Practice, School of Pharmacy
David Sarwer, Social and Behavioral Sciences, College of Public Health
Renée Tobin, Psychological Studies in Education, College of Education and Human Development

Staff

Stephany Coakley, Senior Associate Athletic Director, Mental Health, Athletics
Deirdre Culbreath-Walton, AVP HR Operations, Labor and Employee Relations, Human Resources
Mark Denys, Senior Director, Health Services
Valerie Dudley, Director, Multicultural Education and Training, IDEAL
Stephanie Ives, Dean of Students
Andrew Lee, Director, Tuttleman Counseling Services
Tony Reed, Former Chief Medical Officer, Temple Health

Students

Ava Hutchison, Criminal Justice, College of Liberal Arts
Fatema Kitabwalla, Neuroscience, College of Liberal Arts

Counsel to the task force

Anna Oppenheim, Associate University Counsel

The Mental Health and Wellness Task Force recommendations focused on the following areas:

Culture and Climate

These recommendations seek to create a campus culture that supports the mental health and wellness of students, faculty, and staff through improving communication strategies around mental health and wellness, continuing to build, improve, and encourage engagement with educational opportunities and professional development training in the area of mental health and wellness, implementing a more integrated approach to crisis response, ensuring support for affinity groups, and continuing to pursue revisions to academic policies and the academic calendar that support the well-being of our students, faculty and staff.

Services and Support

These recommendations are organizational or administrative adjustments in order to move our institution toward stronger and more comprehensive support for our community’s mental health and well-being through increasing financial support and staffing for Tuttleman Counseling Services, reviewing support levels and structures for other existing on-campus resources, and explore instituting a health insurance requirement for all Temple students.

Administration

These recommendations will facilitate and complement the recommendations to culture and climate and services and support through centralizing oversight of all health, mental health, and wellness activities, continuing assessment of needs and experiences with service provision, and developing and supporting Temple’s newly established partnership with the JED Foundation.