Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eCampus News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

4 student mental health apps to ease stress

More colleges and universities are turning to technology–including web portals and student mental health apps–to address anxiety, mindfulness, and well-being.

The YOU at College portal is one such resource for student mental health. Created by Grit Digital Health and Colorado State University (CSU), the well-being web portal promotes student mental health, health, and success. After its fall 2015 launch at CSU, 81 percent of surveyed first-year students said they felt they were better able to manage their stress because of the YOU tool.

The portal is customized for each individual campus and personalized to the specific needs of each student. It proactively focuses on three critical areas of student life: academics, physical/mental health, and purpose/connection. Students create a confidential profile and receive content and information on available campus resources that help them navigate the college experience according to their individual needs.…Read More

Here’s an innovative way to help students handle stress

Depression on campus is an ongoing issue that colleges must face. According to the American College Health Association, the number of students who report ever being diagnosed with depression has more than doubled since 2000, from 10 percent to 22 percent in the spring of  2017.

But Dr. Paul Granello, an associate professor of counselor education at Ohio State University (OSU), is trying to turn those numbers around with his creation, the Stress Management and Resiliency Training (SMART) Lab. “We keep losing people to suicide on college campuses around this country,” he says. “The stress of the college student has gone up significantly.”

An idea is born
A few years ago, Granello, whose wife is an OSU professor who counsels students in the college’s suicide prevention program, was looking for additional ways to prevent suicide. Treatment programs for anxiety and depression had been sufficient, he says, but preventative programs—before students get to crisis mode—were lacking. So Granello developed a SMART lab that pairs wellness coaching with biofeedback. The biofeedback, provided by HeartMath, offers scientifically based tools and technologies to empower students to self-regulate their emotions and behaviors to reduce stress and unlock intuition.…Read More