Lessons in Supporting the Mental Health of Students

By Kristie Seelman, Ph.D. (Associate Professor, School of Social Work)

Back when the pandemic first hit the U.S. during the Spring semester 2020, I was teaching a policy class in which students submit brief logs summarizing the work they’ve been doing on a major project and questions they have along the way. When classes moved fully online during the pandemic “lock-down,” I had several students who began using these posts in ways I rarely see– sharing their feelings of overwhelm and stress, loss of hope, and worries about even passing the class. That was one of the indicators to me that the barriers students (and faculty) would face during this time would be beyond anything I had seen before and require purposeful attention to comprehensive student well-being, including mental health.  Add to that a major (and contentious) Presidential election and a significant worldwide movement to challenge ongoing systemic racism impacting Black and Brown bodies, and we can understand that the stress and strain experienced by students and faculty go beyond what is seen in a “normal” year.

As someone who has been teaching in the field of social work for 10 years, I wanted to share some of my insights about ways we can better support students’ mental health through how we approach teaching. Beyond my teaching experience, I have a research emphasis on the LGBTQIA+ community, so I have a familiarity with mental health issues particularly impacting this community as well as how the impact of systemic marginalization may affect students with these identities.

This year, one of the major factors for our students has been increased stress – many GSU students typically face multiple demands for their time and energy beyond their coursework, such as caregiving responsibilities, jobs, and health issues. In many cases, these demands have only been heightened this year- for example when students or their close family members are engaged as frontline workers or are diagnosed with COVID-19; when they feel the deep impact of systemic racism as represented by the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and countless others and the lack of justice and healing; and through their deep investment in the outcomes of the presidential election.

Sometimes students may directly tell faculty that they are mentally struggling. However, at other times, we may have to “read through the lines” to get a sense of how students are feeling or prompt some self-reflection to get at this issue.

Some of the signs I look for as a teacher that indicate a student may need more support or be struggling with their mental health include:

• Complete disengagement – a student stops attending class, logging into iCollege, or turning in assignments, without communicating with faculty.
• Low sense of self-worth / sense of hopelessness – in class discussions or activities, a student struggles with naming anything positive about themselves, or perhaps expresses a feeling of total hopelessness (about the class, their future, etc.).
• Difficulty dealing with ambiguity and trusting themselves – a student has difficulty making independent decisions about their work and may over-communicate with faculty – such as sending multiple emails in a short span of time asking for clarification, reassurance, and confirmation. This could also show up as students repeatedly asking the same questions of faculty and being fearful of engaging in assignments that call for creativity or that are more open-ended.
• Focusing only on “perfection” & avoiding risks – a student primarily worries about performing perfectly rather than learning from mistakes and taking risks. This can include asking for faculty to look at drafts of very minor assignments or discussion posts, or reacting angrily around minor point deductions and reasonable constructive criticism.
• Body language indicates severe tension, fear, or discomfort – when teaching in-person, body language can also signal that something deeper is going on for a student, such as a student strongly gripping a desk or looking deeply uncomfortable (although, of course, learning involves moving outside of our comfort zone to some extent!).
• Communication – sometimes a student may communicate with words or tone that suggest something else may be going on outside of their classwork. Students might speak with a very flat affect or with extreme emotion. When students write updates to me about their work on a project, phrases like “I’m drowning” or “This is hopeless – I give up” can indicate that something larger may be going on.

Over time, I’ve tried implementing a few strategies to help support students’ mental health through my approach to teaching:

• Social-emotional check-ins – regardless of what content I’m teaching in a particular day, I often open with a general check-in with students. In-person, that might mean asking how they’re feeling that week, how they’re reacting to certain world news, or doing a silly ice breaker together. At other times I might play music or share a funny video. If I notice that a particular student shows signs of stress, overwhelm, or sadness, I try to reach out & ask how they’re doing – they generally seem to appreciate the question, regardless of how they’re doing.
• Learning strategies for meeting the needs of all students – although I’ve been teaching for a long time now, I find it important to continually work to improve my teaching, including learning about recent knowledge and best practices for meeting the needs of students of all backgrounds and identities, particularly those from marginalized groups. For example, I’ve learned over time how important it is to give students the space to share their pronouns, if they wish, as a strategy for not assuming we always know someone’s gender by appearance alone.
• Reliable and clear communication – with online classes, because the students don’t see me in-person where I can remind them about what’s due, I create a weekly course announcement in iCollege – reminding them what they’ve been working on & what’s ahead. I’ve found that this helps give students clarity and calms their worries a bit. However – keep these messages succinct– students get overwhelmed by over-communication and too much information!
• Low stakes assignments – I often build in drafts and small assignments into my courses – often times activities that help build students’ skills for a larger final assignment. I sometimes make these activities “low stakes” in terms of grading – that is, if a student is showing effort on a draft, they receive full credit (100%), which helps reduce anxiety about perfection and can reinforce and reward certain behaviors, such as drafting over several weeks rather than several hours in one day.
• Modeling vulnerability – it can be incredibly scary to admit our own faults, struggles, weaknesses, hurts, and mistakes. If I want students to feel like they can come to me and be vulnerable about their mental health needs, I find it important that I also model that vulnerability to students – such as admitting when I’ve been wrong as a teacher, or sharing stories about difficulties I’ve faced and how I’ve sought support. This can also mean having class conversations about mental health, violence, victimization, and oppression.
• Providing information about resources – I regularly remind students about resources available to them, such as Panther Pantry and the Counseling Center… to the point where they probably think I’m a broken record! But, I’d rather they have the information when they need it.
• Challenging catastrophizing statements – sometimes students, just like faculty, easily go from 0 to 100 on the worry scale, thinking that missing a small discussion board will mean they fail the entire course or that they won’t graduate. I try to help them keep things in perspective and prompt them to do a reality check about the impact of missing an assignment or losing a few points here and there.

While these strategies can help better support students, I still find it helpful to draw a boundary – faculty are not and should not be students’ therapists. If a student is struggling in a way that is impacting their day-to-day life and ability to function, faculty can refer them to counselors on campus or in the local community to help provide mental health support.

When I think back to my own time in college or graduate school, the faculty who meant the most to me had an “open door” policy – they made themselves available to support students and were willing to talk to me beyond discussions of class content, while still recognizing the boundaries of their role in relation to me as a student. I try to emulate that approach as a teacher today.