Details — Student Mental Health: Creating Conditions for Academic Success — March 30
| Date: 3/30 | Time: 4:30 pm |
This post has been archived. Information below may be out of date and/or relate to a past event.
Please join the Dean of Students Office for this presentation at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, March 30, in Schultz East Alcove: “Mental and Behavioral Health Problems Are Learning Problems.”
Students have to be ready to learn—in a state of physical, psychological, emotional, intellectual, social, and spiritual well-being. How prepared students are for learning determines how much and how well they learn, and influences persistence, retention, and graduation. We want every student who starts college to graduate, so we must pay attention to students’ well-being. The overall state of an individual’s health affects the ability of his or her brain to create or modify connections and networks among neurons, which is the critical first step in learning. Factors that influence any aspect of well-being can affect the state of brain—and therefore the state of mind—of learners. Mental health problems (notably stress, anxiety, and depression) and harmful health behaviors such as substance abuse can impair the quality and quantity of learning. They decrease students’ intellectual and emotional flexibility, weaken their creativity, and undermine their interest in new knowledge, ideas, and experiences. Mental and behavioral health problems are also learning problems.
Louise A. Douce, Ph.D.
Special Assistant, Student Life – The Ohio State University
Louise retired in 2012 as assistant vice president of student life at The Ohio State University; she supervised units dedicated to enhancing success of and removing barriers to student success, including the Counseling & Consultation Center. Dr. Douce is a specialist in college student mental health and has been active in college and university psychology and nationally active in the education and training issues for psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists and counselors. Dr. Douce is a pioneer in university threat assessment, chairing the OSU team for twenty-five years and providing crisis support for the campus. She has published and presented in the areas of career development for women, multicultural competency with a special focus on GLBT issues, supervision and training, and women’s issues. Dr. Douce currently serves on the board of directors of the American Psychological Association.