EMPOWER your life - the chesley path to well-being (EMPOWER) - to address mental health and substance use disorders impeding student success, EMPOWER your life-the chesley path to well-being (EMPOWER)…

EMPOWER your life - the chesley path to well-being (EMPOWER) - to address mental health and substance use disorders impeding student success, EMPOWER your life-the chesley path to well-being (EMPOWER) will serve illinois college (IC) students, faculty, and staff. There are three primary goals for this project: (1) create a behavioral health coalition (BHC) that will provide additional mental health support for young adults and training and advocacy for local agencies, (2) increase outreach and educational and screening programs for suicide and substance abuse prevention, and (3) assess the mental health and substance abuse climate on campus and inform practice accordingly. EMPOWER has nine objectives, the broad activities of which are as follows: convene a group of stakeholders and create a BHC; conduct voluntary screenings and assessments; provide and attend trainings; conduct wellness activities via EMPOWER and the true blue toolkit (a CO-curricular campus wellness program); conduct outreach to student athletes and coaches as well as lgbtq+, bipoc, international, and/or low-income/first generation students; develop or identify and distribute written and electronic materials; provide counseling and treatment services including support groups; and implement annual surveys to assess mental health and substance abuse disorders in students. EMPOWER will serve all 886 students at IC-51.7% of which are women, 67.5% caucasian, 39.6% pell-eligible, 88.3% on-campus residents, and 45.6% athletes. According to the core survey implemented on campus, just under 30% of students reported heavy episodic drinking in the previous two weeks. For students under age 21, 42.7% had consumed alcohol in the previous 30 days. Students are both arriving on campus with mental health prescriptions and experience with mental health counseling. A total of 35.4% had at some point been diagnosed with anxiety, 31% with depression, 13.1% with ptsd, and 9% with eating disorders. All IC students (886 in 2023-2024) will be reached via EMPOWER through messaging annually, with a total of approximately 2,658 over three years. A duplicated count of at least 1,000 students will be reached annually through specific training, outreach, and assessments, for a total of 3,000 students through the three-year project.