TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – May is Mental Health Awareness Month and Florida State University’s College of Medicine is using a program called Early Alert to check in on the mental health of students and faculty.
“The goal is to access distressed students before their symptoms worsen,” Cheryl Porter, Ph.D said. Porter serves as the assistant dean of students for FSU’s College of Medicine. “Knowing that they can rely on a weekly check-in changes the game, because they don’t have to come into an office or tell someone that they’re struggling, they’re being asked.”
The program sends a weekly text message to students, asking them to rate their overall well-being for that week on a scale of zero to 10. If their responses are on the lower end of the scale or a downward trend is noticed, Porter says the student will be given mental health resources for support.
“Our health science students are under an immense amount of stress – whether this is from the academic rigor of our programs or if this is related to financial debt, or even just the weight of the dream,” Porter said. “When we add all of that stress to the stress and responsibility of caring for patients, it can become overwhelming for students.”
Nicholas Toney is a first-year student in the College of Medicine, studying as a physician assistant student. He said this has been his career goal since middle school.
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While pursuing his dream, he also understood the demand, which is why he enrolled in the Early Alert program.
“It’s something that we were all given an option for and it sounded like a good idea, because I knew it was going to be stressful going into this, and I knew that it would be a good resource to have in my back pocket just in case,” Toney said.
He said it’s important, even while trying to be successful, to prioritize your well-being.
“At the end of the day, you’re a healthcare provider too. You have to take care of yourself so that way you can make sure that you take care of your patients,” Toney said. “It’s easy to get caught up and kind of lose sight of those things when you’re in school.”
Porter points to research from the Association of American Medical Colleges, showing medical students and physician assistant students have higher rates of anxiety and depression than the general population. Some studies also suggest that about 40% of students experience anxiety, while about 10% have suicidal thoughts.
“It really makes it more important for our students and for our faculty and staff, our clinicians, to be aware of their own well-being,” Porter said. “And this is one of things that we hope early alert is teaching all of us is to check in with ourselves so that when we’re in that clinic, when we’re taking care of those patients, that we are bringing our best selves and our whole self to them.”
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