Although college is a time for new beginnings and experiences, it can also be a time of newfound stress that many students aren’t necessarily equipped to deal with, but that’s where the University of Idaho’s Sources for Strength (SOS) can help.
UI Vandal Health Education Mental Health Coordinator Emily Johnson said SOS is a strength-based approach to improving mental health by increasing help-seeking behaviors and promoting connections between peers and caring adults.
“The program recognizes that everyone faces hard times or adversity, but that we all have strengths we can call on during those times,” Johnson said.
Johnson said the strengths SOS focuses on are mental health, family support, positive friends, mentors, healthy activities, generosity, spirituality and medical access.
She said SOS was developed in North Dakota by social worker Mark LoMurray. At first, the national program leaned toward adolescents in middle school and high school, but it has since been adapted for college students.
“SOS at UI started in fall 2016 as part of a Garrett Lee Smith Campus Suicide Prevention Grant, so it is in its second semester at UI,” Johnson said. “Right now, we are focused on spreading the program through residence halls, with the hopes of eventually rolling it out across campus.”
She said SOS has approximately 30 trained peer leaders on campus, which include first-year to fourth-year students, males and females, from all undergraduate majors.
UI Counseling and Testing Center Psychologist Sharon Fritz said SOS is a great opportunity for students to meet other students and staff across campus who they may not have met otherwise.
Johnson said it also helps students feel empowered and take ownership of the campus climate.
She said SOS instructors train peer leaders to provide messages of hope, help and strength among their peer groups, and they also use their personal leadership qualities and social influence to help decrease the stigma around help-seeking behavior to create a cultural change around mental health on campus through strength-based messaging.
“We know that students are stressed, and our mental wellness can sometimes take a back seat to other things in our life. But we also know that mental wellness is critical to academic success and physical health,” Johnson said. “SOS aims to spread messages of strength throughout our campus through recognizing the importance of social connections and self-care.”
Fritz said students can’t succeed at the collegiate level without taking care of their mental health.
She said the group has not hosted any large events yet, but they hold tabling events on campus and promote their social media to help get the word out.
Fritz said she hopes SOS can continue to grow and expand across, and are able to train more peer leaders each semester, which Johnson echoed.
“Ultimately, I hope to see messages of hope and strength across campus, with students understanding the importance of mental health. This includes knowing how to reach out to someone in need, or take the first step in seeking help,” Johnson said. “I hope that SOS can decrease the stigma associated with mental health by creating open and honest conversations, including resources on campus.”
Olivia Heersink can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @heersinkolivia