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May is Mental Health Month
Conversations about health often focus on heart, liver, and brain health, or other aspects of our physical wellbeing rather than our whole health. It's important that we see the whole person and make use of the tools and resources that benefit the mind and body together.
May is
Mental Health Month (MHM) and this year's theme, Fitness #4Mind4Body, focuses on increasing understanding of how the body's various systems impact mental health based on recent research. Since 1949, Mental Health America and their affiliates across the country have led the MHM observance by reaching millions of people through the media, local events, and screenings. Other organizations, campus communities, and individuals can use the
2018 MHM Toolkit to join in raising awareness and spreading the word that mental health is something important for everyone to care about.
Some of the materials provided in the free toolkit include:
- A promotional poster, sample social media posts with images, and web banners
- Fact sheets on how mental health is affected by diet and nutrition, sleep, stress, gut health, and exercise
- Samples of a press release, drop-in article, and a proclamation for public officials to recognize May as Mental Health Month and the work of local mental health advocates
- Worksheets on making life changes
This toolkit is for everyone, whether or not they have a mental health concern. For those who do, they can find the tools to enhance recovery at any
stage of the disease process, and most especially, before Stage 4.
There are additional resources, for this month and throughout the year, that may assist individuals, advocates, and others on and off campus, to bring awareness to mental health:
- Active Minds: Active Minds is the leading nonprofit organization that empowers students to speak openly about mental health in order to educate others and encourage help-seeking. They offer general mental health information as well as resources for students, families, and administrators.
- Mental Health Guide for College Students: This resource from Tulane University highlights the importance of mental health for students and provides insights on how students can best take care of their mental health. Visitors to the site can also find statistics on mental health, information regarding the five most common mental health issues, treatment options for online and on-campus students, and additional resources.
- Military Health System: In May, the Military Health System, along with agencies and leaders across the Department of Defense, are emphasizing the importance of mental health and sharing resources available to our military communities.
- National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI): NAMI participates in several annual mental health awareness events, including MHM. Stigma is toxic to mental health and creates an environment of shame, fear, and silence that prevents many people from seeking help and treatment. To fight stigma, provide support, educate the public, and advocate for equal care, in 2018 they are promoting the theme of "CureStigma."
- National Council for Behavioral Health (National Council): For MHM, the National Council developed materials to be used on social media or a blog or in a local paper or clinic. You can add your organization's logo or contact information to these infographics, articles, and posts.
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DHS Office of Academic Engagement Launches Recruitment Listserv
In March, the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS') Office of Academic Engagement (OAE) launched the Recruitment Listserv. The new tool will feature monthly updates aimed at students and recent graduates with job and internship opportunities, interview and resume tips, upcoming webinars, and more. While the opportunities are most applicable to students and recent graduates, members of the academic community are also encouraged to sign up to receive information to share with their students.
The Office of Academic Engagement connects academic community stakeholders with relevant DHS programs across several initiatives. From webinars to tours of cutting-edge cybersecurity facilities, OAE works with schools nationwide to promote the DHS' core missions. Learn more about upcoming and previous webinars on their
outreach web page and sign-up for the
Recruitment Listserv.
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Download the report. |
Indicators of School Crime and Safety 2017 Report Published
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) released the 20th in a series of publications entitled,
Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2017 (PDF). This report provides data on crime and safety at K-12 schools and institutions of higher education (IHEs) from the perspectives of students, teachers, principals, and campus safety and security. The most recent data for each reported indicator comes from various surveys collected between 2013 and 2016. The report covers topics such as victimization, teacher injury, bullying and cyberbullying, school conditions, fights, weapons, availability and student use of drugs and alcohol, student perceptions of personal safety at school, and criminal incidents at postsecondary institutions. Indicators 22 and 23 address criminal and hate crime incidents at IHEs. This includes number of on-campus arrests, referrals for disciplinary actions, and hate crimes by type of crime and bias motivation.
Key findings for colleges and universities include the following:
- In 2015, there were 27,500 criminal incidents against persons and property on campus at public and private 2-year and 4-year postsecondary institutions that were reported to police and security agencies, representing a 2% increase from 2014, when 26,900 criminal incidents were reported. This is also slightly higher than the 2013 incident number of 27,416.
- The number of on-campus crimes reported in 2015 was lower than the number reported in 2001 for every category except forcible sex offenses and murder. The number of reported forcible sex offenses on campus increased from 2,200 in 2001 to 8,000 in 2015 (a 262% increase). More recently, the number of reported forcible sex offenses increased by 18% between 2014 and 2015 (from 6,800 to 8,000). The number of reported murders was higher in 2015 than in 2001 (28 vs. 17), but the number of reported murders was quite variable across these years with no clear pattern of increase or decrease.
- The number of on-campus arrests for illegal weapons possession and drug and liquor law violations increased between 2001 and 2011 from 40,348 to 54,285, but decreased to 44,600 in 2015 (Indicator 22).
- In 2015, there were 860 total hate crimes reported on college campuses, up from 804 in 2014. The top three types of hate crimes were destruction, damage, and vandalism (363 incidents) followed by intimidation (357 incidents), and simple assault (79 incidents) (Indicator 23).
- Four out of five of the total reported on-campus hate crimes in 2015 were motivated by race, religion, or sexual orientation. Race was the reported motivating bias in 39% of hate crimes (339 incidents), religion was the reported motivating bias in 22% of hate crimes (187 incidents), and sexual orientation was the reported motivating bias in 19% of hate crimes (163 incidents) in 2015. The other one-fifth of hate crimes were motivated by ethnicity, gender, gender identity, and disability (Indicator 23).
All previous reports can be found on the
BJS website and are available with press releases, data tables, appendices, and more. Data for this year's report was compiled through national and international surveys supplied by nonprofit affiliates and federal agencies and departments including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Office of Postsecondary Education, and others. Details on data sources can be found in Appendix A.
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Professional Development Opportunities
Title: 20th Annual Emergency Management Higher Education Symposium
Organization: Federal Emergency Management Agency Emergency Management Institution
Dates: June 4-7, 2018
Location: E
mmitsburg, MD
Fee: Free
Title: Mental Health America 2018 Annual Conference: Fit for the Future
Organization: Mental Health America
Dates: June 14-16, 2018
Location: Washington, DC
Fee: Registration fee
Title: Campus Safety and Security Summit
Organization: Northeastern University
Dates: May 15-16, 2018
Location: Boston, MA
Fee: Free
For additional trainings and events, access our searchable online calendar.
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Publications
Access free publications that identify challenges in the field and provide case studies, lessons learned, and promising practices.
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Free Archived Webinars
View on-demand, closed captioned webinar recordings on a variety of campus safety topics.
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Online Library
Browse through a diverse selection of reports, research, toolkits, guides, webinars, white papers, and more.
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This project was supported by Grant No. 2013-MU-BX-K011 awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office for Victims of Crime, and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the US Department of Justice.
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