A grant has been awarded for a Michigan program that will help assess mental health services for college students.
The JED Campus program launched a four-year assessment program. It will evaluate 13 Michigan college and universities, including Ferris State, Central Michigan and Lake Superior State. The program will look at both a campus’s strengths and areas for improvement.
Larry Burns is the President and CEO of Children’s Hospital of Michigan Foundation. His foundation awarded a fifteen-thousand dollar grant to the assessment program.
He said the study is important to help improve mental health services for college students.
“I spent 27 years in higher education and witnessed the increase of students coming to college that have had some mental health issues as young adults or as adolescents," Burns said. "As they become more independent in college they become more vulnerable.”
He said he observed mental health struggles of students over his career of working which motivated him to pursue efforts to help.
“Most of those issues were unnoticed nor were there red flags for the university to prepare for to help them," Burns said. "So any time you experience that, or go through that, it sorta creates a passion inside you, to try to avoid these issues in the future.”
He said they hope the assessment program will help them learn from current students so that younger generations can be more comfortable before they reach college.
Officials said the program is a collaborative effort with multiple foundations like the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation and the Ethel and James Flinn Foundation.
Burns said the progress of each institution will be tracked annually.