Saturday, May 11, 2024
5/11/2024
The Healthy Tigers project benefits the 22,000+ racially diverse students at Towson University (TU) by training administrators and students on mental health and illness. The project aims to (1), educate the campus community on mental health awareness and response through mental health first aid, crisis de-escalation, and suicide prevention trainings, and (2), remove mental health stigmas and treatment barriers by providing trauma-sensitive programs for students. The Mental Health First Aid Training (MHFA) will provide faculty, staff and students the resources to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental disorders in order to provide initial care to students in distress. The TU Counseling Center will lead suicide prevention training called Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) to peer educators, Housing and Residence Life (HRL) staff and Towson University Police Department (TUPD) officers, annually. Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) is an adjunctive clinical treatment for managing the symptoms of anxiety, acute stress, PTSD, and will be used in training Campus Recreation and Counseling Center staff. In addition to TCTSY, Trauma-Informed Weight Lifting (TI-WL) intends to transform weight lifting in an effort to both promote and facilitate healing for trauma-impacted individuals, and will be a supplementary training methodology for Campus Recreation staff. In addition to removing stigmas and treatment barriers, the yoga and weight lifting programs serve as a treatment in general, which help to decrease depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbances. These trainings, coupled with digital education campaigns, will increase the awareness of the resources and services available to address mental health symptoms both on and off campus, provide an expansive approach to educating the campus community, and lead to programming that will improves students’ emotional and physical wellbeing. The project intends to train 108 people per year in MHFA (324 by end of project), and five MHFA instructors by the third year. All HRL resident assistants (n=152) and health peer educators (n=50) will be trained annually in QPR, and 11 TUPD officers will be trained over the three-year period of the project. There will be eight professionals trained in trauma-sensitive yoga by year two and four trained in trauma-informed weightlifting by year three of the project. Following the completion of the TCTSY and TI-WL training, two programs per semester will occur, reaching 100 students in its initial year. While the project co-directors will be leading the initiatives, this project will be a campus-wide initiative as part of the university’s goal of enhancing student well-being through education, programs, and services. A beneficial ally and support to this project will be the 34 members of TU’s JED Campus Team. The campus team is a nationwide initiative of The Jed Foundation (JED) designed to guide schools through a collaborative process of comprehensive systems, program, and policy development with customized support to build upon existing student mental health, substance abuse, and suicide prevention efforts.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
