University seeks ongoing input on mental, emotional health

Weekly surveys are key part of COVID-19 planning process



As the university develops plans during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is seeking ongoing input from faculty, staff and students about mental and emotional health. Below, members of the Mental and Emotional Well-Being Committee answer questions about the university’s efforts in this area.

When did the university begin the weekly mental and emotional health survey, and why?

A baseline faculty and staff survey was sent out by President Caslen on Aug. 25; the student survey went out Aug. 31. A weekly survey began Sept. 4.

University leaders want to create the best workplace and learning environment while providing for everyone’s physical and mental safety during COVID-19. The Future Planning Group is charged with understanding how COVID has impacted our students, faculty and staff, specifically in regard to their mental health. The Mental and Emotional Well-Being Committee, part of the Future Planning Group, is charged with discovering existing mental health and wellness services; designing new approaches to make existing services and programs more relevant to current circumstances; and determining the best methods to communicate services, programs and activities to all students, faculty and staff.

Furthermore, it is imperative to understand any disparities in impact, experiences, and emotional and mental well-being based on important demographics to truly capture how COVID is affecting people and to make the best recommendations to university leadership.

The end product will include: (1) a list of links to services, programs and activities; (2) an active communications plan over the course of the semester to share these links with students, faculty and staff; and (3) recommendations for new services and programs to ensure the mental health and emotional well-being of our students, faculty and staff. To this end, the committee has developed a new resource website that lists all the existing services and initiatives aimed at wellness on campus.

Changes in the weekly survey results are intended to feed into the metrics of the university’s COVID-19 dashboard, specifically in indicator No. 10, Campus Impact on Operations. This is why it's so important that people get in the habit of taking the survey regularly.

What are some of the key things that you ask in the survey?

The baseline surveys of students and employees were exhaustive and covered current emotional state, the impact of COVID-19, coping strategies, top stressors, likelihood to participate in programs about mental health and best methods, and satisfaction with current mental health resources.

The weekly survey is short; it can be answered in under five minutes. It addresses confidence in the university’s health and safety plan, ability to cope with current stress load, perceived mental health, and any impacts within the last week. There are also demographic questions included to help further understand disparities in impact and mental health among the Carolina community.

Survey results are completely anonymous. Have you had any concerns raised by people who fear they might not be? If so, how do you address those?

Yes, the surveys are completely anonymous. There have been some qualitative comments, specifically in the baseline survey, that asked about anonymity. Since it is anonymous, we have no way of tracking who made the comments. So, unfortunately, we can’t follow up — but, that’s also the purpose of an anonymous survey. Participants do have the option of “prefer not to answer” on specific demographic questions if they feel it may somehow be tracked back to them.

What types of things have you learned from survey results so far?

Both students and faculty/staff report concerns about their mental health.

COVID-19 has far-reaching effects on emotional well-being, including stress and anxiety, depression and isolation, but also on financial stability, and concerns about health and safety.

The committee feels like it's important to name the pain that people are experiencing. The qualitative comments have really helped to contextualize the overall impact to people’s lives; that COVID has impacted people’s relationships with their families, and their ability to balance work-family responsibilities, especially for working parents. It is also important to acknowledge that some members of our community are struggling with the effects of racial trauma in addition to the global pandemic. For those who are struggling, we really want to increase the awareness of existing campus and community resources.

Not surprisingly, students report a strong desire for connection. Also, in spite of these effects, the results also suggest high levels of resilience, particularly for students.

Everyone — regardless of whether you are faculty, staff or students — is feeling the stress of this unprecedented moment. Everyone is feeling stressed, anxious and isolated.

How has that information been used to help inform university policy?

Changes in the weekly survey results are intended to feed into the metrics of the university’s COVID-19 dashboard, specifically in indicator No. 10, Campus Impact on Operations. This is why it's so important that people get in the habit of taking the survey regularly.

However, the committee is also pushing to create its own unique and independent space on the dashboard that focuses solely on mental health across campus, specifically on how individuals are coping with their stress and rating their mental health. The committee hopes this does two things: (1) normalizes how people are feeling in this present moment; that they are not alone in their feelings of stress and anxiety, but also we hope that it provides a more holistic view of where we stand as a campus; (2) provides a foundation for us to build upon in meeting the needs of the campus, which we have begun doing so by creating the resource page.

Do you tend to see differences in responses based on whether the individual is a faculty member, staff member or student?

Overall, we see similarities more than differences: Everyone — regardless of whether you are faculty, staff or students — is feeling the stress of this unprecedented moment. Everyone is feeling stressed, anxious and isolated.

However, we see important differences not only between faculty, staff and students, but also by important demographics like age and gender. Specifically, women are more likely to report having difficulty balancing work and life compared to men, and women are also more likely to report that their mental health has been impacted as a result of COVID, except for substance abuse.

Younger employees, particularly those 18-35, report greater stress, anxiety and loneliness, as well as greater concerns about job security, compared to those employees who are older.

COVID-19 has far-reaching effects on emotional well-being, including stress and anxiety, depression and isolation, but also on financial stability, and concerns about health and safety.

Why is it important to collect this information on an ongoing basis? What if a student or faculty member feels that nothing has changed, so why answer the survey again?

A global pandemic is always changing and it’s important for us to be able to see how the seemingly never-ending change is impacting people. Just as important, however, is recognizing that not all new developments or issues impact everyone equally. In order to have an accurate understanding of how COVID-19 is affecting the community, it is imperative that we receive responses from people who have felt some change within the last week and those who don’t. We are, to our knowledge, the only university that is attempting this longitudinal data collection of all students, faculty and staff. These data are helping identify areas of opportunity, the need for promoting resources which already exist, and over the long term we can identify trends our community is experiencing.

Where can people go to take the survey and to find resources?

The survey link stays the same from week to week, so members of our community can bookmark the link and set a calendar reminder to take it regularly. Your participation matters: We are committed to using the results to make improvements and provide the best resources available to the Carolina community. Additionally, the information will be used not only in the dashboard, but also to assess health across campus more holistically.

The committee has been busy collecting a list of all the available resources around mental health and wellness on campus. The campus community can search according to eight dimensions of wellness — financial well-being, physical well-being, etc. — and filter by whether they are a student, faculty or staff. We hope that by having all this information in one place, campus community members have a centralized resource to access the many campus and community resources.


About the contributors

Mental and Emotional Well-Being Committee co-chairs Andrea Henderson, sociology professor, April Scott, associate director of Mental Health Initiatives, and Nicole Vaughan, professional development manager for Human Resources, contributed to this report.


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