May is Mental Health Matters Month

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May is Mental Health Matters Month! In May, people across the country come together to spread awareness about the importance of mental health and show their support for the issue. Each year millions of Americans face the reality of living with a mental illness and our students are no exception. In fact, community college students are more likely than their peers at four year institutions to be struggling with mental illnesses, but are less likely to access mental health services. It does not matter if a student is an 18 year old fresh out of high school, or a 41 year old parent attending community college to earn an associate degree – college is stressful for most students.

""Struggling with depression and anxiety while trying to balance academics, work and life can make a challenging academic experience even more difficult and providing support to these students in an online environment poses its own challenges. The OEI Online Education Initiative in collaboration with the California Community College Online College Counseling Network created courses specifically focused on mental health to address such challenges. Two courses are available – a course for general counselors and another for mental health counselors. These courses take a close look at the growing trend of distance mental health services otherwise known as e-therapy and the importance of such services being available to community college students. Course discussion and activities guide dialogue and live sessions facilitated by licensed clinicians in the field.

The newest course, Distance Mental Health for Clinicians, is happening June 4-24! By the end of this course participants will be able to summarize the importance of CCC distance mental health services, identify multiple forms of these services, identify legal and ethical challenges to such services and potential solutions, define and describe scope of practice at home institution. Mental Health for Non-Clinicians returns this summer from July 9-22! By the end of this course participants will be able to summarize the importance of mental health services, identify multiple forms of distance mental health services, identify students in need of such services, demonstrate effective referrals and identify appropriate resources. Show your support for mental health and enroll in a course today! Professional development credit is available.

Learn more about our upcoming courses for counselors!

Posted in Articles, counseling.

Nadia is a mental health counselor at San Diego City College.

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