Director of Counseling and Psychiatric Services David Walden co-led the meeting’s capstone session, “Where Do We Go from Here? Navigating the Current Landscape in Collegiate Mental Health.” He was also a panelist for “Models for Peer-Based Mental Health Support: A Multi-Institution Panel Discussion,” and co-presented “Bringing the Next Mental-Health Frontier into Focus: Building Successful Relationships Between Higher-Education and Third-Party Providers.”
In addition, Walden and Director of the Health Center Barbara Fluty discussed “Can I Make it Through This? The Heart of Taking Care of Ourselves in a Workplace,” while he and Director of Community Health Promotion Katelyn Cowen presented “Letting Go and Breaking Through: Aligning Parallel Movements in College Counseling and Health Promotion.”
Nurse Practitioner Jeffrey Bailey, Associate Professor of Sociology Matthew Grace, and Registered Nurse Jennifer Friedel joined representatives from Columbia University and University at Albany for the panel “Creating a Welcoming and Affirming Environment for Transgender Students in Your College or University Health Center.”
Bailey, who was recently recognized for his professional and personal contributions by being named the 2023 Alumni of the Year by his alma mater Gwinnett Technical College (Lawrenceville, Ga.), integrated data and statistics provided by Grace into the discussion. The result was a quantitative and qualitative analysis that illustrated the value of synthesizing information from across campus and approaching topics from both academic and practitioner perspectives.
