How did you first get into this profession?
My entire career has been in mental health since I completed undergrad, which was in ‘94. And I originally started off working in a [nonprofit] setting.
I did some work with children in foster care and the school system. And then, as I made my way through graduate school, I did an internship in a college counseling center where I was introduced to college mental health and really loved the idea of working with students. There is a real diverse student population to pull from. Students are also diverse in age, both traditional and non-traditional. And I really enjoyed the idea of really being able to introduce good mental health practices to folks while they were younger in their development, in the hopes that that would lay the groundwork for them to be able to continue that type of regular care throughout their life.
What are your responsibilities as Lone Star College’s chief mental health officer?
Lone Star has functioned with outsourcing its mental health services for the most part. So one of the main goals of my position is to help create in-house mental health services and to enhance our existing services. I am building infrastructure so that we'll be able to provide those services. That includes developing a scope of care, collaborating with our stakeholders as it relates to crisis intervention. ... I am also onboarding an electronic health record so that we can digitize our mental health records, and be able to access them across the system.
I am also hiring a team of licensed mental health professionals to provide direct services to our students, that will include one-on-one services as well as group therapy services. In addition to training faculty and staff on how to support students in the classroom ... what we know about college mental health is that you'll never be able to hire enough clinicians to meet the need. So mental health really has to become a campuswide or systemwide effort.
We want to provide those direct services to students. We also want to train faculty and staff who are first-line responders on how to appropriately deal with students who are in crisis, and then where to triage those students as their needs arise.
What initiatives does Lone Star College have currently to prioritize faculty and student mental health?
Lone Star does provide counseling services to its students. It's just on a smaller scale. With the addition of the team that I'm hiring, we will be able to triple the amount of counselors that are available to students in our system.
Currently, we have faculty counselors who provide brief intervention services for our students. They also support our students' academic needs as it relates to students that might be struggling academically for personal reasons. So they support those students as well.
We also have a behavior intervention team that works to triage students who might be presenting observable problems in the classroom. Some of these things may look like conduct issues, but sometimes conduct issues are really mental health issues. ... We also collaborate with our campus stakeholders to provide wellness education, wellness fairs, suicide prevention training. ... We frequently host events that highlight that service as well as provide informational sessions around specific things like burnout, boundaries, self-care, those types of things.
You've been working in the mental health field since you first graduated college. How have conversations regarding mental health changed since you first started?
I feel like I've been doing this for almost three decades. So I feel like it changes. Initially in my career, I would say it changed every eight years. Now, with the advent of technology, it seems like it changes every five to six years.
When I initially came into this profession, we didn't really have to talk about crisis response related to mass shootings or mass trauma. That is something that has definitely changed the landscape since I started. Where campuses and college mental health professionals, such as myself, really have to think about a broader crisis response for if an event like that should take place and have the proper training for ourselves and our staff.
It also means a more coordinated effort as we prepare for potential events like that. And it means ... more specific training on how to identify a threat early on so that we can prevent incidents like that. So that's one of the significant changes.
Are there any misconceptions people may have about your position?
I think there's several. I'm discovering them as I go and I'm trying to help to provide a correct narrative. ... I think that the misconception is that crisis response is enough. My stance on that is that if we're providing preventative services and if we're able to provide students with access to mental health, then we will see less crises on our campus and in our classrooms.
I think the system has just existed so long without a robust mental health option for students that some people see a role like mine as being more focused on crisis response. Whereas I see my role as paying attention to crisis response, but really getting ahead of the crisis. Which means putting infrastructure in place before students are in crisis. Students aren't really wanting to wait until they get to class to have a meltdown. Sometimes that's their only option because that's the first human that they've come in contact with, that is a representative of the institution that they see as caring.
So if we can put a system and processes and communication in place so that when the student is starting to first feel that emotional distress, they can go and get an appointment. Then, when they get to class, they can be better suited to actually perform well academically, and not have to have that emotional meltdown at that time. So I just think that is a change in how we've operated here at Lone Star.
What challenges have you faced, if any, and what do you hope to accomplish next semester?
I will mention this as a challenge, but also as something that really excites me, and that is how big Lone Star is. It's taken me the first 90 to 120 days to really grasp the magnitude of the system, and to really talk with all of the stakeholders so that I can implement something that is effective. I think the challenge is putting infrastructure in that can be systematized, that is also still flexible and agile to support the unique needs of each campus.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to manage their own mental health but doesn't know where to begin?
There are a lot of digital tools that people can access. While I think those are great ways to maybe start to begin a conversation with yourself about what you want to address, I think that human interaction with a qualified professional is far better than any digital tool. I think for myself and other people, it's taking that first step to actually reach out to somebody that can be the most difficult.
It's allowing yourself to be vulnerable enough to say, “I need help,” and to be willing to put yourself out there. I would challenge them to not think too far beyond step one, because sometimes when we're needing mental health support, if we think too far beyond just the point of asking for help, we can talk ourselves out of it.
I would encourage someone to just make that first small step, and not worry about the steps that are going to come after they make that small step. Because the first step is just asking someone for help and then letting the process unfold.
Is there anything else you'd like people to know about Lone Star College's mental health services or anything else you'd like to add?
I will just say that since I've been here since June, there's just been a great deal of support for these programs at every level. ... It's been a great experience for me to work in a system that is not just willing to talk the talk but is also willing to walk the walk, and put the resources and investment into supporting students' mental health. That has been just a real pleasure for me, and I think that it says a lot about who Lone Star is that mental health is at the forefront of their agenda.
