HelioCampus Research
Growing Need for Mental Health Staffing and Resources on College Campuses
83% of institutions have increased student mental health support services post-pandemic
Data Insights: Summary of Key Findings
- 97% of respondents agreed that mental health is a hot topic on their campus
- 91% of institutions increased student mental health support services prior to COVID-19
- 83% of institutions increased student mental health support services in response to COVID-19; and
- 74% have explored using outside counseling services or platforms to supplement on-campus mental health resources
- Despite decreasing student enrollments from FY20-FY22, over 50% of Mid-Size, Smaller, and Smallest institutions increased their ratio of Student Mental Health & Wellness FTEs per student.
How Can Institutions Leverage Benchmarking Data to Inform Investments in Mental Health Support
What can be done to improve the situation for students, faculty and staff? A 2023 American Council on Education report stated, “The student mental health crisis is not just a counseling center issue. It is a campus-wide issue, and higher education cannot hire its way out of it—there are not enough counselors and not enough funds.”
Enter Institutional Performance Management.
Tapping into peer networks and applying the right metrics can result in information sharing that better informs budgeting and other future decision making. In short, collaborating with other institutions can help meet stakeholders’ needs in new but proven ways by doing the following:
- Evaluate the effectiveness of your student mental health and wellness initiatives: how satisfied are your students? How does that vary across different demographic groups?
- Evaluate employee turnover in Student Mental Health & Wellness roles at your institution. Identify strategies to promote employee retention.
- Connect with other higher ed leaders who have leveraged these solutions to see if it’s the right fit for your campus.
- Compare staffing levels to other institutions, and connect with your peers to share learnings and best practices
Innovative leaders at Temple University were able to do just this. Jaison Kurichi, Associate Vice President for Budget and Planning at Temple University outlined their work: “In fall 2022, Temple leveraged an insights analysis to better understand our labor spend and organizational structure for health and wellness services to students and employees at the university. Because we were able to benchmark data with peer institutions and be connected with members to learn more about their initiatives, Temple decided to invest one million dollars in a new Health and Well-being division that takes a holistic approach to promoting a campus culture of mental, physical and social wellness for all students, faculty and staff.”
About the survey
The survey includes participation from member institutions from HelioCampus’ Benchmarking Consortium. HelioCampus analyzed FY20-FY22 Administrative & Academic labor data from 68 member institutions across five university size categories. The November 2021 student mental health survey includes: N=37 total respondents and N=33 from unique institutions.
For more information regarding the survey, please contact: Kylie Johnson, Senior Director of Communications, kylie.johnson@heliocampus.com.
About HelioCampus
HelioCampus partners with higher ed’s most forward-thinking leaders, providing a unique set of tools designed to help them rise to the challenge of today’s high stakes. Through HelioCampus’s Institutional Performance Management products and services, higher ed institutions can tap into groundbreaking processes that enable them to deliver on their mission by driving enrollments, controlling expenses, and improving learning outcomes.
Learn more at http://www.heliocampus.com.
