Butler University Expanding Mental Health Offerings for Students

Butler University is adding to its already impressive list of student mental health offerings by joining MINDful College Connections (MCC), a shared-resource consortium of Indiana colleges and universities with the goal of improving the capacity of its member institutions to meet the growing need for mental health care services for their students. DePauw University, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College are MCC’s founding members.

Butler University’s participation in MCC allows its students access to a variety of mental health and wellness services through several vendors including:
● Mantra Health, a clinically informed telehealth provider for college students, offers additional access to counseling, psychiatric, and 24/7 crisis services
● Togetherall, which supports students’ mental health by creating a sense of belonging and connection through an online peer-to-peer support community monitored by licensed clinicians 24/7
● Nearpeer, a leading technology that helps to improve human flourishing and well-being by supporting greater community, connection, and belonging
● Titanium Schedule, a fully integrated electronic medical records system designed specifically for use by college and university counseling centers
● The Center for Collegiate Mental Health at Penn State University, an international practice research network of more than 750 colleges and universities dedicated to researching college student mental health; its mental health database serves as a primary resource for college student mental health

MCC also provides one full-time clinical counselor for Butler’s counseling center for additional counseling services and one full-time mental health and wellness educator for campus educational and prevention programming.

“Student safety and well-being will always be Butler University’s top priority, and joining the MCC consortium will elevate our current mental health support and services in a significant way,” Bridget Yuhas, Dean of Student Health and Well-being at Butler University, said. “We are committed to investing in resources that help our students navigate the academic, financial, and social challenges that have become more prevalent since the pandemic.”

Recent data from Inside Higher Ed’s 2024 Student Voice survey of 5,025 undergraduates, conducted by Generation Lab in May, found 40 percent of students say their mental health is impacting their ability to focus, learn and perform academically “a great deal,” and one in 10 students rate their mental health as “poor.” To address that reality, Butler has engaged with students in several mental health initiatives, including:
• Hosting the inaugural Student-Athlete Mental Wellness Summit, which equipped more than 500 student attendees with actionable knowledge and tools
• Implementing Nearpeer, an app for entering first-year and transfer students and their families to assist in building connection and belonging. Butler had one of the fastest and highest adoption rates in Nearpeer history
• Launching the Office of Student Advocacy, which provides crisis support and case management services for students who are experiencing personal challenges, distress, or trauma that impacts their social, personal, or academic goals
• Partnering with the Butler Giving Circle, which announced the selection of the Fund to Support Student Mental Health as its new priority partner. This partnership connected the donor group with a tangible avenue to support the well-being of current Bulldogs and, as a result of contributions made to the Fund, Butler is now able to provide on-campus psychiatric services at no cost to students. Group therapy options were also expanded for neurodiverse students, trauma recovery, and underrepresented students
• Hosting the “Out of the Darkness” suicide prevention walk on campus, in partnership with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. For the second consecutive year, Butler was identified as one of the top college campus walks in the nation
• Establishing “decompression rooms” in residence halls to help students with mood and behavior regulation as well as healthy stress management skill development

“The student demand for mental health services has never been higher—not just at Butler, but all across the nation,” Yuhas said. “It is incumbent upon all of us in higher education to provide students with the assistance they need, while doing all we can to address the factors that are impacting their mental wellness.”