The Center for Student Wellness believes mental health is health. We increase mental health awareness through outreach, education, conversation, and stigma reduction.

Mental Health Matters

About Mental Health Matters

  • Our mental health awareness prevention education program, "Mental Health Matters: Let's Talk About It" encourages students to take care of their mental health and support one another. In line with the Student Health & Wellness Strategic Plan, we embrace the Jesuit Catholic value of cura personalis, care for the whole person: mind, body, and soul. Mental health is a part of this whole. Our hope is to build a campus of caring and connectedness for everyone.
  • Mental Health Matters is for every Boston College student: those who utilize therapy, those who do not, those who want to learn more, break stigma, help a friend, or who need some general support. CSW creates a web of support for students and encourages staff/faculty involvement through education and prevention efforts.

Plan of Action

  • Create an environment that is actively and visibly engaged in promoting student mental health and emotional well-being.
  • Offer information on ways to reach out to people in distress by providing a step-by-step process (QPR- Question, Persuade, Refer) anyone can use when concerned about someone's mental health, including their own.

Our Comprehensive Approach

  • "Mental Health Matters: Let's Talk About It" addrersses four key components adapted from the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), the Jed Foundation and CDC's Health Equity Guiding Principles.
    1. Identify and assist persons at risk
    2. Increase help-seeking
    3. Enhance life skills and resilience
    4. Promote social connectedness and support        


Learn About Mental Health

Learning about the ways mental health affects—and is affected by—our daily lives can help you care for your holistic health and well-being.

What is mental health?

  • Mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community. (World Health Organization, 2022)
  • At every stage of life mental health can be affected by many factors- it is not static.
    Be proactive in caring for your mental health by learning and trying various tools and resources.

Understanding Stress

  • Stress is the way we respond, with our mind and/or body, to our environment or an event that happens. This response can vary throughout the course of a day.
     

Where Does Stress Come From?

  • Stress can be caused by difficult relationships, academic pressure, health problems, grief, loss, problems at work, financial difficulties, negative thinking, social anxiety, aggression, suppressed emotions, and exhaustion.
     

Types of Stress

  • There are several different types of stress. The main three types people experience most often are acute stress, episodic acute stress, and chronic stress. Read about the types of stress here.
     

The Stress Response System

  • From a physiological perspective, stress is the body’s biological response to a perceived threat. The stress response system sends chemicals and hormones surging through your body. That’s what causes your heart rate to increase or your stomach to flutter. It’s your body reacting to something it thinks could be dangerous. Stress alerts your brain and energizes your body. 


Recognizing when it’s unhealthy or too much

  • Stress is not always bad! In fact, it is what helped our ancestors avoid danger and survive.
  • Mild to moderate stress can be good for you. It can even motivate you. It's important to identify how stress impacts you and to find ways to combat stress.
     

Identifying Sources of Stress

  • What makes you tick? 
  • What frustrates you? 
  • What patterns are you stuck in that could benefit from evaluation? 
  • Once you are aware of patterns that could use some adjustment, you can begin to change them. Changing your patterns of negative thinking will eventually change your behaviors and reactions to stressors.
     

Basic Stress Management Techniques

  • Activate Your Relaxation Response. 
    • Try deep breathing, meditation, visualization or yoga! 

What is Mindfulness, and what are the benefits of it?

  • Mindfulness teaches us how to be present in the moment. It is the practice of bringing our awareness to what is happening right now, with an attitude of compassion and curiosity.
  • The benefits of mindfulness are vast. It improves attention, reduces stress, and results in better emotion regulation and an improved capacity for compassion and empathy.
  • It can be helpful to think about mindfulness as a muscle. Incorporating mindfulness into our daily lives needs to be a deliberate exercise; the more we practice mindfulness, the easier it becomes to incorporate it more frequently and the more we will reap the benefits.

  • Free Meditation Apps: 
  • Come learn new mindfulness skills and techniques, and meet like-minded peers at Mindful Mondays! 


Mindfulness vs. Meditation

  • Mental Health Fair (fall and spring)
  • No Shame November for Men's Mental Health Awareness Month
  • Mental Health Awareness Week. If you are interested in being involved, please contact our Assistant Director of Mental Health & Wellness, Kelly Hughes at kelly.hughes@bc.edu.
  • Tropical Wellness event

Lean on Me

Lean on Me is an anonymous, non-crisis, peer-support textline. Supporters are trained in empathetic listening and communication to offer support to BC students. All students are welcome to send a text message to our phone number: 617-553-6655. If you'd like to get involved with Lean on Me, please reach out to us at bcleanonme@gmail.com, or through our instagram @bcleanonme. We'd love to hear from you, whether you're seeking support or looking to participate in the organization!



Suicide Prevention Tips and Training

BC C.H.A.T.S: Helpful Tips for a Tough Conversation

BC C.H.A.T.S. provides an educational framework to understand a component of our comprehensive approach to mental health promotion and suicide prevention on campus. This is to empower people with basic talking points on what to say or do to dispel the fear related to conversations about suicide prevention. Our intention is to make you feel more comfortable with an uncomfortable subject because it’s one that very few people feel qualified to address, but it’s a critical conversation that we need to have in order to feel ready and able to effectively engage with students with anyone struggling. Our program is designed to educate you so that you can feel confident in your ability to intervene properly and refer when necessary.

What does it stand for?

BC C.H.A.T.S. is an acronym to help you remember the important steps when approaching a conversation with someone who is struggling or who you are concerned about:


QPR Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Training

QPR is a 1.5 hour evidence-based suicide prevention training developed by the QPR institute. QPR teaches how to recognize the warning signs of a suicide crisis and to follow the 3 simple steps of QPR - question, persuade, and refer. QPR helps save lives, and you can be part of this movement to reduce stigma and offer hope to those in crisis.


Building Your Own Mental Health Toolkit


Our office operates with a holistic and inclusive approach to health. We believe that students deserve the opportunity to meet their own health needs, define wellness for themselves, and to listen to and honor their bodies, minds, and souls, to cultivate a life that is balanced and sustainable. To that end, we know that we cannot adequately address mental health without considering the multiple dimensions of wellness. In this section, you will find a plethora of ideas and resources to help you begin to build your own mental health toolkit, with the goal of equipping you with the foundational skills to sustain your wellness toolbox over time.



Mind



Body



Soul



When to Seek More Help


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