Thriving yet struggling: Mental health picture of Iowa faculty and higher ed staff begins to emerge

Mar. 9—IOWA CITY — Back in September, student leaders from Iowa's public universities implored the Board of Regents to provide more mental health resources — writing in a letter that "Students on our campuses are in significant need of increased accessibility and options for mental health and well-being."

But mental health on campus isn't just a concern among students. Faculty and staff across Iowa and the nation are facing heightened mental health needs, too — both personally and professionally in their role responding to the student distress they see in their classrooms.

"The literature out there says students have turned in increasing number to the people they know, which often is the staff and faculty around them," said University of Iowa clinical professor of counseling psychology Barry Schreier, who directs higher education programming for the Scanlon Center for School Mental Health at the UI.

The question of whether faculty and staff feel confident and competent to help those students who come to them with mental health needs — and intervene, if necessary — is one that UI researchers asked recently of faculty and staff at seven Iowa community colleges.

"Staff and faculty said, 'No, not as much as I think I would like to'," Schreier said.

The community college survey administered last year was phase one of a larger "State of Iowa Higher Education Staff and Faculty Mental Health and Wellbeing Study" the Scanlon Center is running across Iowa's community colleges, regent universities and private higher education institutions.

"Given the success we had with that phase, we are now engaging in phase two," Schreier said. "We're now soliciting additional community colleges, private schools in the state of Iowa, and then we're going to eventually start sampling the regent universities."

Need for more research

Phase two, starting in April, will pose the same questions put to several thousand community college faculty and staff a year ago — nearly 1,200 of whom responded, for a 30 percent response rate.

"That is an astronomical response rate," Schreier said of survey-research norms, crediting a five-step process they used — in part — for the strong response. "We made first contact with the colleges the first week of April (2023) and then four successive times across a period of five weeks — reminders, follow-ups."

In addition to asking faculty and staff how they feel about responding to student distress, researchers asked whether they actually do.

"A large number of our sample said, yes, I'm already responding to students — even though I'm not sure I know exactly what I'm doing," Schreier said.

The research comes as a growing body of national data indicates students, staff and faculty across higher education are experiencing mental health problems, work-related burnout and long-term pandemic fallout.

A UI personal health assessment administered to faculty and staff in 2022 found 55 percent of respondents were "thriving" on a well-being index, 43 percent were "struggling" and 1 percent identified as "suffering."

Additionally, a 2021 UI LiveWell survey of faculty and staff found:

— 22 percent reported health risks from unmanaged stress;

— 25 percent had difficulty concentrating due to health concerns;

— 29 percent had difficulty focusing due to financial stress;

— 56 percent had trouble concentrating due to too much work and too little time to do it.

Community college findings

Thus, in addition to surveying Iowa faculty and staff on their preparedness to help students, researchers are asking about their own mental health and what institutional supports exist to help them.

"Twenty to 30 percent of faculty and staff are responding with symptoms of burnout, and they are endorsing symptoms of anxiety, and they're endorsing the symptoms of depression," Schreier said of the community college results from phase one of the Iowa-specific research.

But the study also asked respondents questions of whether they're flourishing, and a large majority said they were. About 88 percent of faculty and staff said they are competent and capable of activities important to them; about 87 percent said they are a good person and live a good life; and 76 to 79 percent said they actively contribute to the happiness and well-being of others.

"So what we discovered that's a really important message for campuses is to not just tell staff and faculty that they are burned out and anxious and depressed," Schreier said. "But to also tell them that they are flourishing.

"That's the whole picture," he said. "Mental health on campus is struggle and flourishing."

The same can be true for students, according to Schreier, who said a majority of faculty and staff from the study's first phase reported having one-on-one conversations with students about their mental health and referring them to resources — even though a quarter said they thought "someone else is better suited to do this."

The research found a majority of respondents wanted more training — as only a quarter had received any. When asked about other resources faculty and staff want in addressing student needs:

— 64 percent said a list of resources;

— 57 percent said a list of things to consider;

— 41 percent said suicide prevention training.

"Based on each campus' data, we are then making recommendations to the campuses," Schreier said. "Here are the recommendations via your faculty and staff and how they responded at what they would like to see the campus do in response to this."

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com

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