Request for Information Regarding Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Needs in Higher Education, 5219-5222 [2024-01605]
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BILLING CODE 6001–FR–P
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
[Docket ID ED—2023—OPE—0205]
Request for Information Regarding
Mental Health and Substance Use
Disorder Needs in Higher Education
Office of Postsecondary
Education, U.S. Department of
Education.
ACTION: Request for information.
AGENCY:
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LDIA 011 .............
We must receive your comments
on or before February 25, 2024.
DATES:
The U.S. Department of
Education (Department) is requesting
information in the form of written
comments that may include
information, research, and suggestions
regarding supporting student mental
health and/or substance use disorder
SUMMARY:
............
............
............
............
(behavioral health) needs in higher
education. The Office of Postsecondary
Education solicits these comments: to
identify examples of what has been
effective in addressing college student
mental health and substance use
disorder needs; to learn how institutions
of higher education (IHEs) have
transformed their campus cultures and
created campus-wide, inclusive
strategies to provide support; to identify
how State higher education agencies
have supported college behavioral
health; to better understand potential
challenges institutions are facing in the
design and implementation of solutions;
and, ultimately, to inform future work
from the Department.
[FR Doc. 2024–01553 Filed 1–25–24; 8:45 am]
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II. Privacy Act
5219
Submit your comments
through the Federal eRulemaking Portal.
We will not accept comments submitted
by hand delivery, fax, or by email or
those submitted after the comment
period. To ensure that we do not receive
ADDRESSES:
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duplicate copies, please submit your
comments only once. In addition, please
include the Docket ID at the top of your
comments.
• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to
www.regulations.gov to submit your
comments electronically. Information
on using Regulations.gov, including
instructions for accessing agency
documents, submitting comments, and
viewing the docket, is available on the
site under ‘‘FAQ.’’
• Postal Mail or Commercial Delivery:
If you do not have internet access or
electronic submission is not possible,
you may mail written comments to the
Office of the Under Secretary, U.S.
Department of Education, 400 Maryland
Avenue SW, Room 7E307, Washington,
DC 20202. Mailed comments must be
postmarked by February 25, 2024, to be
accepted.
Privacy Note: The Department’s
policy is to make all comments received
from members of the public available for
public viewing in their entirety on the
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Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 18 / Friday, January 26, 2024 / Notices
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www.regulations.gov. Therefore,
commenters should be careful to
include in their comments only
information that they wish to make
publicly available.
This is a request for information only.
This RFI is not a request for proposals
(RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP or
a notice inviting applications. This RFI
does not commit the Department to
contract for any supply or service
whatsoever. Further, we are not seeking
proposals and will not accept
unsolicited proposals. The Department
will not pay for any information or
administrative costs that you may incur
in responding to this RFI. The
documents and information submitted
in response to this RFI become the
property of the U.S. Government and
will not be returned.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Jessica Bowen Gall, U.S. Department of
Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW,
Room 4C212, Washington, DC 20202.
Telephone: (202) 453–5573. Email:
jessica.gall@ed.gov.
If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or
have a speech disability and wish to
access telecommunications relay
services, please dial 7–1–1.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The need for mental health support
has been on the rise across the country
over the past two decades. In addition
to rising rates of depression and anxiety,
suicide is the second leading cause of
death among 10–14- and 20–34-yearolds.1
For example, even before the COVID–
19 pandemic, IHEs across the country
were seeing an increase in depression
and anxiety among young people and,
unfortunately, an increase in suicide
ideation, suicide attempts, and
suicides.2 The COVID–19 pandemic
only exacerbated these trends with a
disproportionate impact on minoritized
groups. In the Healthy Minds Data
Report for 2021 Winter/Spring, among
currently enrolled college students over
the age of 18, 41 percent of students
reported experiencing any depression,
and 34 percent of students reported
experiencing any anxiety.3 In the 2021–
22 updated Healthy Minds Data Report,
those numbers increased: 44 percent of
students reported experiencing any
depression, and 37 percent of students
reported experiencing any anxiety.4
1 https://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/.
2 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/
abs/pii/S1054139X1930254X?via%3Dihub.
3 https://healthymindsnetwork.org/wp-content/
uploads/2021/09/HMS_national_winter_2021.pdf.
4 https://healthymindsnetwork.org/wp-content/
uploads/2023/03/HMS_national_print-6-1.pdf.
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These data show that rates of anxiety
and depression continued to increase
during the pandemic. Moreover,
research indicates that unmet mental
health needs for students during college
are associated with adverse student
outcomes, including a low GPA and an
increased likelihood of dropping out.5
Some college students may also
experience issues with substance
misuse or suffer from substance use
disorders. The updated Healthy Minds
Data Report also revealed that 28
percent of surveyed students reported
engaging in binge drinking more than
once in the past two weeks and 20
percent reported using marijuana in the
last 30 days.6 Additionally, according to
data from the Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services
Administration’s (SAMHSA’s) 2022
National Survey on Drug Use and
Health, the prevalence of substance use
disorders involving either drugs or
alcohol in 18- to 25-year olds is
approximately 28 percent.7
College presidents have taken note of
the need for increased mental health
support. In American Council on
Education (ACE) Pulse Point surveys
throughout 2021, over 70 percent of
college presidents indicated that student
mental health was one of their top three
concerns, an increase of more than 30
percentage points from April 2020.8
Even after the end of the COVID–19
pandemic, mental health needs persist
alongside many of the same barriers
students and institutions faced prior to
the pandemic.
The Department and the Biden-Harris
Administration have long been focused
on promoting behavioral health
supports at both the K–12 and
postsecondary levels as an integral
strategy to supporting student overall
well-being and success.9 The
Department’s focus on this issue
includes providing guidance and
resources to institutions to help support
them in addressing student mental
health and substance use disorder
needs.
The Department is also committed to
taking additional steps to support
institutions in addressing students’
mental health and substance use
disorder needs. One component of that
5 https://public.websites.umich.edu/∼daneis/
papers/MHacademics.pdf.
6 https://healthymindsnetwork.org/wp-content/
uploads/2021/09/HMS_national_winter_2021.pdf.
7 https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/
files/reports/rpt42728/NSDUHDetailedTabs2022/
NSDUHDetailedTabs2022/NSDUHDetTabs
Sect5pe2022.htm.
8 https://www.acenet.edu/Research-Insights/
Pages/Pulse-Point-Surveys.aspx.
9 https://www2.ed.gov/documents/coronavirus/
reopening-3.pdf.
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work is to learn from those who have
long engaged in addressing these needs
and improving access, services, and
outcomes to determine what is working,
identify any gaps or unmet needs, and
highlight opportunities for the
Department and other agencies to be a
beneficial partner. We want to work
alongside IHEs, State higher education
agencies, other Federal agencies, and
experts to ensure students and
institutions have the necessary
knowledge and resources to select and
implement easily accessible and
effective interventions. We also want to
ensure that institutions are connected to
evidence-based solutions and peer
institutions and can help build the base
of what works both for entire campuses
and for specific settings and high-need
populations.
II. Solicitation of Comments: Helping
Institutions Address Student Mental
Health and Substance Use Disorder
Needs
To help inform the agency’s role in
supporting institutions in addressing
mental health and substance use
disorder needs, the Department is
seeking input from the public. The
deadline for these submissions is
February 25, 2024. The Department
encourages comments from IHEs,
students, researchers, policy experts,
academics, behavioral health
professionals, other individuals familiar
with identifying and addressing mental
health and substance use disorder needs
in higher education settings,
organizations that work directly with
institutions to counsel them in
providing easily accessible, effective
and inclusive behavioral health support
and selecting interventions, State higher
education executive officers, State
higher education agencies and systems,
and other members of the public.
The Department seeks responses and
supporting evidence to the specific
questions below, as well as comments
and supporting evidence on the
identified general concepts and topics
related to addressing mental health and
substance use disorder needs in
postsecondary education settings. When
responding to this RFI, please address
one or more of the following questions:
Successful Interventions
1. What metrics have you used to
define success in supporting behavioral
health (mental health and/or substance
use disorders) for all students?
2. Does your institution (or the
institution you support or attend) have
a school-wide mental health and wellbeing strategy (a universal prevention
strategy)? If so, please describe this
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strategy. To what extent were/are
students engaged as partners in the
design and implementation of these
strategies?
3. How do you conduct universal
assessments of your student body (or
support institutions in their
assessments) to determine their
behavioral health needs?
4. In what ways is your assessment
inclusive of diverse student
populations, including culturally and
linguistically inclusive and identity-safe
practices?
5. What strategies or interventions do
you believe have most improved
behavioral health outcomes among
students on your campus or the
campuses you support, including
systems-level interventions, population
level interventions, interventions for
high-risk students, or clinical
interventions for students with mental
health disorders? Please provide any
accompanying evidence that informs
your belief (e.g., summaries of local
outcomes data, locally conducted
evaluation studies). Please also share
the campus or external resources (e.g.,
outside funding, digital mental health
applications) that were necessary for
implementation, including whether
cost-sharing by the student was
necessary (for example, from copayments made by the student or billing
the student’s insurance).
6. What steps have you taken to help
ensure that all students are aware of,
and can easily access (including in ways
that protect their privacy), mental health
and substance use disorder supports?
What steps have you taken to educate
and train relevant staff (e.g., faculty,
coaches, housing/resident directors)
about student behavioral health
supports? How have you tailored
outreach activities to meet the specific
needs of particular student populations?
7. What steps have you taken to
encourage students to seek mental
health and substance use disorder
supports, including any specific
activities to address stigma? For
students, what barriers or fears do you
or your peers have with engaging with
behavioral health treatment at your
institution and to what extent, if any,
has your institution sought to address
these fears and barriers?
8. What steps have you or the
institutions you support taken to tailor
behavioral health interventions to the
specific needs of particular student
populations, including students from
underserved communities and primarily
off-campus populations, if applicable?
What evidence (e.g., summaries of local
outcomes data, locally conducted
evaluation studies) suggests these
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interventions are effective? If not
already provided above, please consider
including any evidence here.
9. What actions or partnerships have
you formed (or helped institutions form)
(e.g., with parents/guardians, law
enforcement to prevent unintentional
harm to students in distress) to ensure
continuity of care for students with
mental health disorders as they
transition to, between, and from college?
What steps have you taken to involve
parents/guardians in the event of an
emergent behavioral health concern?
Have you encountered challenges (for
example, privacy concerns or other
challenges/barriers) or developed
successful strategies to engage parents/
guardians to ensure continuity of care
and services for students entering with
behavioral health disorders, or those
with previously undetected,
undertreated, or untreated behavioral
health concerns?
10. How is your institution ensuring
that college students have access to
health insurance and access to
comprehensive behavioral health care?
11. What steps have you taken to
ensure that students with mental health
disabilities receive academic
accommodations and other reasonable
modifications under the Americans with
Disabilities Act of 1990 and section 504
of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to give
them each a meaningful opportunity to
participate in and benefit from the
school’s academic and non-academic
programs? How have you integrated
your disability services offices into
initiatives to develop strategies to meet
the mental health needs of students on
your campus? What steps have you
taken to address any bias—by
professors, staff, or other students—
against students with mental health
disabilities?
12. What kinds of trauma-focused
services or supports are you providing
to students who may have experienced
trauma?
13. What efforts have you taken to
develop, enhance, or implement suicide
prevention and postvention plans?
Which of these efforts do you believe
have been most strongly associated with
reductions in suicide attempts and
completions on your campus (or the
campuses you support)? Please provide
any accompanying evidence that
informs your belief (e.g., summaries of
local outcomes data, locally conducted
evaluation studies). What is the process
of connecting students to on and offcampus suicide prevention/postvention
supports?
14. If applicable, please describe if
your IHE or an IHE you support has
received a Garrett Lee Smith Campus
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5221
Suicide Prevention Grant from
SAMHSA, please describe how these
funds have been used to support suicide
prevention efforts.
15. How have you provided supports
for the mental health of your faculty,
staff, graduate students, and postdoctoral students? Please describe any
prevention strategies, assessment
approaches, and interventions and how
these supports addressed unique
workforce challenges that emerged as a
result of the COVID–19 pandemic? What
evidence (e.g., summaries of local
outcomes data, locally conducted
evaluation studies) suggests these
practices are effective?
16. What has your institution (or the
institutions you support) done to ensure
students have access to qualified and
well-resourced mental health and
substance use disorder professionals?
What has been effective in addressing
any challenges with hiring, developing,
and retaining these professionals,
including increasing the diversity of
professionals?
17. What steps have you (or
institutions you support or attend) taken
to decrease wait times for counseling
centers and other available on-campus
treatment options and services? Please
provide any accompanying evidence
including baseline data.
18. What kinds of peer support related
to behavioral health, if any, have you
implemented on your campus?
19. What role has your State played in
helping to address mental health and
substance use disorder needs on your
campus, including through introducing
and/or passing legislation, increasing
funding, and engaging in State-wide
initiatives?
Choosing and Implementing
Interventions
20. What resources (e.g., financial,
staffing, technical) have you found to be
most helpful in choosing and
implementing evidence-based strategies
to address mental health and substance
use disorder needs on your campus (or
the campuses you support)? For
example, have you utilized SAMHSA’s
Evidence-based Guidebook ‘‘Prevention
and Treatment of Anxiety, Depression,
and Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors
Among College Students’’? 10
21. What support would be helpful in
choosing and implementing strategies to
address behavioral health needs on your
campus?
22. Reflecting on the challenges
presented by the COVID–19 pandemic,
how has your institution adapted or
10 https://www.samhsa.gov/resource/ebp/
prevention-treatment-anxiety-college-students.
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refined its pandemic preparedness
strategies to specifically address the
mental health and well-being of
students?
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Applications for New Awards;
American Overseas Research Centers
Program
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Role of the Department
23. How can the Department best
support ongoing efforts inclusive and
exclusive of additional funding? What
are the preferred methods for
collaboration and sustainable
partnerships between the Department
and behavioral health experts?
24. What unmet needs remain and
what barriers have institutions
encountered in providing mental health
and substance use disorder supports for
their students? How can the Department
assist in helping to meet these needs
and overcome barriers?
25. Are there any resources you
would like the Department to provide?
26. If the Department were to hold a
convening or other event, what specific
topics or information would be most
helpful to include in supporting
institutions and the work of the field?
Accessible Format: On request to the
program contact person listed under FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT,
individuals with disabilities can obtain
this document in an accessible format.
The Department will provide the
requestor with an accessible format that
may include Rich Text Format (RTF) or
text format (txt), a thumb drive, an MP3
file, braille, large print, audiotape,
compact disc, or other accessible format.
Electronic Access to This Document:
The official version of this document is
the document published in the Federal
Register. You may access the official
edition of the Federal Register and the
Code of Federal Regulations at
www.govinfo.gov. At this site, you can
view this document, as well as all other
documents of this Department
published in the Federal Register, in
text or Adobe Portable Document
Format (PDF). To use PDF, you must
have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is
available free at the site.
You may also access documents of the
Department published in the Federal
Register by using the article search
feature at www.federalregister.gov.
Specifically, through the advanced
search feature at this site, you can limit
your search to documents published by
the Department.
Nasser H. Paydar,
Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary
Education.
[FR Doc. 2024–01605 Filed 1–25–24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000–01–P
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Office of Postsecondary
Education, Department of Education.
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:
The Department of Education
is issuing a notice inviting applications
for fiscal year (FY) 2024 for the
American Overseas Research Centers
(AORC) program, Assistance Listing
Number 84.274A. This notice relates to
the approved information collection
under OMB control number 1840–0006.
DATES:
Applications Available: January 26,
2024.
Pre-Application Webinar Information:
The Department will hold a preapplication webinar for prospective
applicants. Detailed information
regarding the webinar, including date
and time, will be provided on the
website for the AORC program at
https://www2.ed.gov/programs/
iegpsaorc/applicant.html.
Additionally, for prospective
applicants that have never received a
grant from the Department and those
that are interested in learning more
about the process, please review the
grant funding basics resource at https://
www2.ed.gov/documents/funding-101/
funding-101-basics.pdf.
Deadline for Transmittal of
Applications: March 26, 2024.
ADDRESSES: For the addresses for
obtaining and submitting an
application, please refer to our Common
Instructions for Applicants to
Department of Education Discretionary
Grant Programs, published in the
Federal Register on December 7, 2022
(87 FR 75045) and available at
www.federalregister.gov/documents/
2022/12/07/2022-26554/commoninstructions-for-applicants-todepartment-of-education-discretionarygrant-programs. Please note that these
Common Instructions supersede the
version published on December 27,
2021.
SUMMARY:
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Cheryl E. Gibbs, U.S. Department of
Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW,
Room 5C103, Lyndon Baines Johnson
(LBJ) Building, Washington, DC 20202.
Telephone: (202) 453–5690. Email:
cheryl.gibbs@ed.gov.
If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or
have a speech disability and wish to
access telecommunications relay
services, please dial 7–1–1.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
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Full Text of Announcement
I. Funding Opportunity Description
Purpose of Program: The AORC
program provides grants to consortia of
institutions of higher education (IHEs)
in the United States to establish or
operate an overseas research center
(Center) to promote postgraduate
research, exchanges, and area studies.
AORC grants may be used for all or a
portion of the costs to operate and
maintain the overseas Center; organize
and manage conferences; develop or
acquire teaching and research materials;
acquire or preserve library collections;
bring scholars and faculty to the Center
to teach or conduct research; support
the salaries for Center staff and visiting
faculty and professional development
stipends and fellowships; pay the travel
costs for Center staff and project
participants; and to publish and
disseminate materials for the academic
community and the public.
Priorities: Under this competition we
are particularly interested in
applications that address the following
priorities.
Invitational Priorities: For FY 2024
and any subsequent year in which we
make awards from the list of unfunded
applications from this competition,
these priorities are invitational
priorities.
Under 34 CFR 75.105(c)(1), we do not
give an application that meets these
invitational priorities a competitive or
an absolute preference over other
applications.
These priorities are:
Invitational Priority 1—Professional
Development Opportunities for
Participants from Community Colleges,
Historically Black Colleges and
Universities, and Minority Serving
Institutions.
Projects that provide professional
development opportunities to
participants from community colleges,
Historically Black Colleges and
Universities, and Minority-Serving
Institutions. The opportunities may be
provided domestically or overseas and
may include curriculum development
workshops to create new courses or to
incorporate global content and
competencies into existing courses,
language instructional programs for the
beginning to advanced levels, or
participation in academic conferences
relevant to the Center’s focus.
For the purpose of this invitational
priority—
Community college means ‘‘junior or
community college’’ as defined in
section 312(f) of the Higher Education
Act of 1965, as amended (HEA) (20
U.S.C. 1058(f)); or an ‘‘institution of
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]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 18 (Friday, January 26, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5219-5222]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-01605]
=======================================================================
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
[Docket ID ED--2023--OPE--0205]
Request for Information Regarding Mental Health and Substance Use
Disorder Needs in Higher Education
AGENCY: Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of
Education.
ACTION: Request for information.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Education (Department) is requesting
information in the form of written comments that may include
information, research, and suggestions regarding supporting student
mental health and/or substance use disorder (behavioral health) needs
in higher education. The Office of Postsecondary Education solicits
these comments: to identify examples of what has been effective in
addressing college student mental health and substance use disorder
needs; to learn how institutions of higher education (IHEs) have
transformed their campus cultures and created campus-wide, inclusive
strategies to provide support; to identify how State higher education
agencies have supported college behavioral health; to better understand
potential challenges institutions are facing in the design and
implementation of solutions; and, ultimately, to inform future work
from the Department.
DATES: We must receive your comments on or before February 25, 2024.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments through the Federal eRulemaking Portal.
We will not accept comments submitted by hand delivery, fax, or by
email or those submitted after the comment period. To ensure that we do
not receive duplicate copies, please submit your comments only once. In
addition, please include the Docket ID at the top of your comments.
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to www.regulations.gov to
submit your comments electronically. Information on using
Regulations.gov, including instructions for accessing agency documents,
submitting comments, and viewing the docket, is available on the site
under ``FAQ.''
Postal Mail or Commercial Delivery: If you do not have
internet access or electronic submission is not possible, you may mail
written comments to the Office of the Under Secretary, U.S. Department
of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW, Room 7E307, Washington, DC 20202.
Mailed comments must be postmarked by February 25, 2024, to be
accepted.
Privacy Note: The Department's policy is to make all comments
received from members of the public available for public viewing in
their entirety on the Federal eRulemaking Portal at
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www.regulations.gov. Therefore, commenters should be careful to include
in their comments only information that they wish to make publicly
available.
This is a request for information only. This RFI is not a request
for proposals (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP or a notice inviting
applications. This RFI does not commit the Department to contract for
any supply or service whatsoever. Further, we are not seeking proposals
and will not accept unsolicited proposals. The Department will not pay
for any information or administrative costs that you may incur in
responding to this RFI. The documents and information submitted in
response to this RFI become the property of the U.S. Government and
will not be returned.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jessica Bowen Gall, U.S. Department of
Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW, Room 4C212, Washington, DC 20202.
Telephone: (202) 453-5573. Email: [email protected].
If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability and
wish to access telecommunications relay services, please dial 7-1-1.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The need for mental health support has been on the rise across the
country over the past two decades. In addition to rising rates of
depression and anxiety, suicide is the second leading cause of death
among 10-14- and 20-34-year-olds.\1\
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\1\ https://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/.
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For example, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, IHEs across the
country were seeing an increase in depression and anxiety among young
people and, unfortunately, an increase in suicide ideation, suicide
attempts, and suicides.\2\ The COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated these
trends with a disproportionate impact on minoritized groups. In the
Healthy Minds Data Report for 2021 Winter/Spring, among currently
enrolled college students over the age of 18, 41 percent of students
reported experiencing any depression, and 34 percent of students
reported experiencing any anxiety.\3\ In the 2021-22 updated Healthy
Minds Data Report, those numbers increased: 44 percent of students
reported experiencing any depression, and 37 percent of students
reported experiencing any anxiety.\4\ These data show that rates of
anxiety and depression continued to increase during the pandemic.
Moreover, research indicates that unmet mental health needs for
students during college are associated with adverse student outcomes,
including a low GPA and an increased likelihood of dropping out.\5\
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\2\ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1054139X1930254X?via%3Dihub.
\3\ https://healthymindsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/HMS_national_winter_2021.pdf.
\4\ https://healthymindsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/HMS_national_print-6-1.pdf.
\5\ https://public.websites.umich.edu/~daneis/papers/
MHacademics.pdf.
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Some college students may also experience issues with substance
misuse or suffer from substance use disorders. The updated Healthy
Minds Data Report also revealed that 28 percent of surveyed students
reported engaging in binge drinking more than once in the past two
weeks and 20 percent reported using marijuana in the last 30 days.\6\
Additionally, according to data from the Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA's) 2022 National Survey on
Drug Use and Health, the prevalence of substance use disorders
involving either drugs or alcohol in 18- to 25-year olds is
approximately 28 percent.\7\
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\6\ https://healthymindsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/HMS_national_winter_2021.pdf.
\7\ https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/reports/rpt42728/NSDUHDetailedTabs2022/NSDUHDetailedTabs2022/NSDUHDetTabsSect5pe2022.htm.
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College presidents have taken note of the need for increased mental
health support. In American Council on Education (ACE) Pulse Point
surveys throughout 2021, over 70 percent of college presidents
indicated that student mental health was one of their top three
concerns, an increase of more than 30 percentage points from April
2020.\8\ Even after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health
needs persist alongside many of the same barriers students and
institutions faced prior to the pandemic.
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\8\ https://www.acenet.edu/Research-Insights/Pages/Pulse-Point-Surveys.aspx.
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The Department and the Biden-Harris Administration have long been
focused on promoting behavioral health supports at both the K-12 and
postsecondary levels as an integral strategy to supporting student
overall well-being and success.\9\ The Department's focus on this issue
includes providing guidance and resources to institutions to help
support them in addressing student mental health and substance use
disorder needs.
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\9\ https://www2.ed.gov/documents/coronavirus/reopening-3.pdf.
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The Department is also committed to taking additional steps to
support institutions in addressing students' mental health and
substance use disorder needs. One component of that work is to learn
from those who have long engaged in addressing these needs and
improving access, services, and outcomes to determine what is working,
identify any gaps or unmet needs, and highlight opportunities for the
Department and other agencies to be a beneficial partner. We want to
work alongside IHEs, State higher education agencies, other Federal
agencies, and experts to ensure students and institutions have the
necessary knowledge and resources to select and implement easily
accessible and effective interventions. We also want to ensure that
institutions are connected to evidence-based solutions and peer
institutions and can help build the base of what works both for entire
campuses and for specific settings and high-need populations.
II. Solicitation of Comments: Helping Institutions Address Student
Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Needs
To help inform the agency's role in supporting institutions in
addressing mental health and substance use disorder needs, the
Department is seeking input from the public. The deadline for these
submissions is February 25, 2024. The Department encourages comments
from IHEs, students, researchers, policy experts, academics, behavioral
health professionals, other individuals familiar with identifying and
addressing mental health and substance use disorder needs in higher
education settings, organizations that work directly with institutions
to counsel them in providing easily accessible, effective and inclusive
behavioral health support and selecting interventions, State higher
education executive officers, State higher education agencies and
systems, and other members of the public.
The Department seeks responses and supporting evidence to the
specific questions below, as well as comments and supporting evidence
on the identified general concepts and topics related to addressing
mental health and substance use disorder needs in postsecondary
education settings. When responding to this RFI, please address one or
more of the following questions:
Successful Interventions
1. What metrics have you used to define success in supporting
behavioral health (mental health and/or substance use disorders) for
all students?
2. Does your institution (or the institution you support or attend)
have a school-wide mental health and well-being strategy (a universal
prevention strategy)? If so, please describe this
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strategy. To what extent were/are students engaged as partners in the
design and implementation of these strategies?
3. How do you conduct universal assessments of your student body
(or support institutions in their assessments) to determine their
behavioral health needs?
4. In what ways is your assessment inclusive of diverse student
populations, including culturally and linguistically inclusive and
identity-safe practices?
5. What strategies or interventions do you believe have most
improved behavioral health outcomes among students on your campus or
the campuses you support, including systems-level interventions,
population level interventions, interventions for high-risk students,
or clinical interventions for students with mental health disorders?
Please provide any accompanying evidence that informs your belief
(e.g., summaries of local outcomes data, locally conducted evaluation
studies). Please also share the campus or external resources (e.g.,
outside funding, digital mental health applications) that were
necessary for implementation, including whether cost-sharing by the
student was necessary (for example, from co-payments made by the
student or billing the student's insurance).
6. What steps have you taken to help ensure that all students are
aware of, and can easily access (including in ways that protect their
privacy), mental health and substance use disorder supports? What steps
have you taken to educate and train relevant staff (e.g., faculty,
coaches, housing/resident directors) about student behavioral health
supports? How have you tailored outreach activities to meet the
specific needs of particular student populations?
7. What steps have you taken to encourage students to seek mental
health and substance use disorder supports, including any specific
activities to address stigma? For students, what barriers or fears do
you or your peers have with engaging with behavioral health treatment
at your institution and to what extent, if any, has your institution
sought to address these fears and barriers?
8. What steps have you or the institutions you support taken to
tailor behavioral health interventions to the specific needs of
particular student populations, including students from underserved
communities and primarily off-campus populations, if applicable? What
evidence (e.g., summaries of local outcomes data, locally conducted
evaluation studies) suggests these interventions are effective? If not
already provided above, please consider including any evidence here.
9. What actions or partnerships have you formed (or helped
institutions form) (e.g., with parents/guardians, law enforcement to
prevent unintentional harm to students in distress) to ensure
continuity of care for students with mental health disorders as they
transition to, between, and from college? What steps have you taken to
involve parents/guardians in the event of an emergent behavioral health
concern? Have you encountered challenges (for example, privacy concerns
or other challenges/barriers) or developed successful strategies to
engage parents/guardians to ensure continuity of care and services for
students entering with behavioral health disorders, or those with
previously undetected, undertreated, or untreated behavioral health
concerns?
10. How is your institution ensuring that college students have
access to health insurance and access to comprehensive behavioral
health care?
11. What steps have you taken to ensure that students with mental
health disabilities receive academic accommodations and other
reasonable modifications under the Americans with Disabilities Act of
1990 and section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to give them
each a meaningful opportunity to participate in and benefit from the
school's academic and non-academic programs? How have you integrated
your disability services offices into initiatives to develop strategies
to meet the mental health needs of students on your campus? What steps
have you taken to address any bias--by professors, staff, or other
students--against students with mental health disabilities?
12. What kinds of trauma-focused services or supports are you
providing to students who may have experienced trauma?
13. What efforts have you taken to develop, enhance, or implement
suicide prevention and postvention plans? Which of these efforts do you
believe have been most strongly associated with reductions in suicide
attempts and completions on your campus (or the campuses you support)?
Please provide any accompanying evidence that informs your belief
(e.g., summaries of local outcomes data, locally conducted evaluation
studies). What is the process of connecting students to on and off-
campus suicide prevention/postvention supports?
14. If applicable, please describe if your IHE or an IHE you
support has received a Garrett Lee Smith Campus Suicide Prevention
Grant from SAMHSA, please describe how these funds have been used to
support suicide prevention efforts.
15. How have you provided supports for the mental health of your
faculty, staff, graduate students, and post-doctoral students? Please
describe any prevention strategies, assessment approaches, and
interventions and how these supports addressed unique workforce
challenges that emerged as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic? What
evidence (e.g., summaries of local outcomes data, locally conducted
evaluation studies) suggests these practices are effective?
16. What has your institution (or the institutions you support)
done to ensure students have access to qualified and well-resourced
mental health and substance use disorder professionals? What has been
effective in addressing any challenges with hiring, developing, and
retaining these professionals, including increasing the diversity of
professionals?
17. What steps have you (or institutions you support or attend)
taken to decrease wait times for counseling centers and other available
on-campus treatment options and services? Please provide any
accompanying evidence including baseline data.
18. What kinds of peer support related to behavioral health, if
any, have you implemented on your campus?
19. What role has your State played in helping to address mental
health and substance use disorder needs on your campus, including
through introducing and/or passing legislation, increasing funding, and
engaging in State-wide initiatives?
Choosing and Implementing Interventions
20. What resources (e.g., financial, staffing, technical) have you
found to be most helpful in choosing and implementing evidence-based
strategies to address mental health and substance use disorder needs on
your campus (or the campuses you support)? For example, have you
utilized SAMHSA's Evidence-based Guidebook ``Prevention and Treatment
of Anxiety, Depression, and Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors Among
College Students''? \10\
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\10\ https://www.samhsa.gov/resource/ebp/prevention-treatment-anxiety-college-students.
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21. What support would be helpful in choosing and implementing
strategies to address behavioral health needs on your campus?
22. Reflecting on the challenges presented by the COVID-19
pandemic, how has your institution adapted or
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refined its pandemic preparedness strategies to specifically address
the mental health and well-being of students?
Role of the Department
23. How can the Department best support ongoing efforts inclusive
and exclusive of additional funding? What are the preferred methods for
collaboration and sustainable partnerships between the Department and
behavioral health experts?
24. What unmet needs remain and what barriers have institutions
encountered in providing mental health and substance use disorder
supports for their students? How can the Department assist in helping
to meet these needs and overcome barriers?
25. Are there any resources you would like the Department to
provide?
26. If the Department were to hold a convening or other event, what
specific topics or information would be most helpful to include in
supporting institutions and the work of the field?
Accessible Format: On request to the program contact person listed
under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, individuals with disabilities
can obtain this document in an accessible format. The Department will
provide the requestor with an accessible format that may include Rich
Text Format (RTF) or text format (txt), a thumb drive, an MP3 file,
braille, large print, audiotape, compact disc, or other accessible
format.
Electronic Access to This Document: The official version of this
document is the document published in the Federal Register. You may
access the official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of
Federal Regulations at www.govinfo.gov. At this site, you can view this
document, as well as all other documents of this Department published
in the Federal Register, in text or Adobe Portable Document Format
(PDF). To use PDF, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is
available free at the site.
You may also access documents of the Department published in the
Federal Register by using the article search feature at
www.federalregister.gov. Specifically, through the advanced search
feature at this site, you can limit your search to documents published
by the Department.
Nasser H. Paydar,
Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education.
[FR Doc. 2024-01605 Filed 1-25-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P
