Office of the Registrar

From: Division of Student Affairs

Dear OSU Faculty, Staff and Students,

Oregon State University is committed to raising awareness and addressing the growing importance of mental health wellness.

In 2020, the National Alliance on Mental Illness reported that one out of every five adults in the U.S. experienced forms of mental illness and that 6% of all adults experienced a serious mental illness.

On the nation’s college and university campuses, mental health is an increasing concern. Two out of every five undergraduate students – and nearly half of women students – say they frequently experience emotional stress, according to a survey published in March by the Lumina Foundation and Gallup. Additionally, this survey of 12,000 undergraduates indicated that 40% had considered dropping out of college in the past six months, citing emotional stress and personal mental health as the reason, more often than matters such as coursework or financial challenges.

Here at OSU, in the 2022 National College Health Assessment survey, 81% of student respondents reported experiencing moderate or serious psychological distress.

While these statistics may paint a picture of distress for many, we also want to highlight a commitment to mental well-being and care for one another that exists every day in the university community. One of OSU’s goals is a culture of belonging, collaboration, and innovation and we use these values to advance mental well-being in our community. This requires engaging everyone in the conversation, creating a culture of care where we all look out for one another, and providing services and initiatives to meet the mental health needs of our community and prevent distress before it occurs.

The university is continually expanding and improving mental health services and initiatives. Below are some examples of student and employee services and information that we hope you find helpful.

• Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) offers a variety of mental health services on the Corvallis campus, including: short-term counseling, support and therapy groups, and mental health promotion efforts. CAPS has recently expanded services to include Anytime Anywhere, a mental health platform that provides Corvallis, OSU-Cascades and Ecampus students with a variety of supports including real time chat and phone support, short-term individual teletherapy counseling appointments and educational content. Since its launch at the beginning of this academic year, this new program has reached over 2,000 OSU students and has provided counseling support for more than 500 students.
• On the Corvallis campus, CAPS has created multiple positions for mental health and wellness coordinators to serve the needs of Black and African-American and Indigenous students, LGBTQ+ students and veteran and military-connected students. These coordinators are in addition to counselors who are embedded in the colleges of Veterinary Medicine and Engineering, as well as OSU Athletics.
• Everyone can contribute to OSU’s culture of care by completing the online training Kognito: Recognizing and Supporting Students in Distress. This evidence-based training provides the OSU community with the knowledge and skills to have safe, supportive conversations with students experiencing mental health distress. Over 1,000 faculty and staff and over 16,000 students completed this training thus far.
• Student Health Services on the Corvallis campus has been able to expand its support of mental health care through a collaborative program where nurses, primary care providers and psychiatry professionals provide whole person care. Student Health Services also works closely with Counseling & Psychological Services to provide multi-disciplinary care that centers the needs of OSU’s gender diverse students.
• OSU Assist was created to provide students on the Corvallis campus, who are facing mental health challenges or experiencing other forms of distress, with immediate, compassionate crisis support through a multidisciplinary team that provides mobile crisis response and wraparound services.
• OSU-Cascades Student Health and Wellness is committed to connecting students with help and support on and off campus. Services include short-term individual and group counseling for current OSU-Cascades students as well as resources and services that address environmental, physical, emotional, financial, sexual, and social health.

Supporting the mental health care of faculty and staff also is a university priority and includes services such as Beyond Benefits, a 24/7/365 service that provides OSU employees with free confidential mental health and emotional support services, and counseling resources. 

We also are very pleased that the OSU Foundation, university stakeholders and donors see mental well-being as essential. The foundation recently launched a Student Mental Health fundraising initiative to support the availability and depth of vital mental health resources for students. This support will make a difference in the university community by helping to fund a peer support network for students, expanding faculty and staff trainings on mental health, and assisting OSU to create healthier and more inclusive classroom practices.

Supporting the mental well-being of all members of the university community remains a vital Oregon State University priority that we will continue to advance, strengthen, and share news of in the months ahead.

Sincerely,

Dan Larson, Vice Provost, Student Affairs

Heather Horn, Associate Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer