Background
Lehman College Mental Health Committee
In the Fall of 2022, the Counseling Center set out to create a Mental Health Committee at Lehman College. The global pandemic put the mental issues of students and their unique stressors at the forefront. The purpose was to engage the Lehman College community to help build awareness and address the mental health needs of Lehman students. Prior to that, in 2019, the College began work on a five-year strategic plan, “Lehman 2025: Roadmap to the Future,” Under Goal One to Educate, Empower and Engage Students, Strategy 1.5 indicated that the college was “to optimize support services that further enhance student learning such as food pantry, health, counseling, tutoring, IT, and library services. In Spring 2022, a Campus Climate Survey was disseminated to Lehman College students, staff and faculty. The Final Report provided a glimpse of mental health concerns in the Lehman community.
Mission
The Lehman College Mental Health Committee (LCMHC) seeks to create a campus community of students, staff and faculty that are sensitive to the mental health needs of Lehman students. The LCMHC will act in a culturally and linguistically responsive manner, and an anti-racist/anti-oppressive lens, to raise awareness, reduce stigma, provide education, identify resources and increase access to mental health services on campus.
Vision
To ensure student success, persistence, retention and graduation, in a culturally and linguistically responsive manner and through an anti-racist/anti-oppressive lens students, staff and faculty, will readily and consistently recognize and contribute to the mental health and emotional well-being of Lehman students and increase access to mental health services on campus.
Goals
Goal1: Engage students, staff and faculty
Goal 2: Reduce stigma
Goal 3: Increase access to services
Goal 4: Increase mental health awareness through education
Goal 5: Identify and expand resources
Goal 6: Increase student success, persistence, retention, and graduation
Goal 7: Increase help-seeking behavior
Goal 8: Increase collaboration campus wide
Goal 9: Increase creative publicity strategies on campus and on the Lehman website to promote MH education.
Goal 10: Empower students as it relates to their own mental health.