UW-Madison created a mental health task force focused on enhancing the quality of services and support at the university. The task force will be charged with developing innovative ideas to meet the increasing need for mental health awareness for students on campus.
The formation of this new group comes from the rejection of the UHS budget proposal by ASM’s Student Services Finance Committee. The SSFC rejected the proposal because it did not sufficiently satisfy the demand for services that the campus needs.
Over the past five years, there has been a 35 percent increase in the number of UW-Madison students seeking mental health resources at UHS. This increase parallels trends seen across numerous campuses in the country.
The task force is comprised of staff, faculty and student representatives from numerous campus groups. Students were chosen from leadership groups such as ASM, shared governance groups like the Healthcare Advisory Committee and student organizations such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
“I think this group of student representatives will be able to honestly represent student interests and relay student concerns to the task force and hopefully work toward practical solutions which directly help the students they work with every day,” said Laura Downer, member and legislative affairs chair of ASM.
The group will begin meeting this spring on March 15, led by Lori Reesor, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs and the chair of the task force for this semester. For now, the group’s focus is developing plans for the upcoming fall semester and brainstorming innovative ideas for pre-existing services.
Looking ahead, the group plans to prepare for the number of students pursuing mental health help to increase even further. They will seek to create long-term ideas for a more sustainable program in the future.
“Ultimately, we want to work toward long term solutions to improving access to mental health resources which would involve establishing more creative partnerships and collaboration with other areas of campus,” said Downer.
