Penn State Beaver will host Alive! A Mental Health Fair and Suicide Prevention Tour from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 11, in the Student Union Building. The events are free and open to the public and are presented by Penn State Beaver, the Kristin Brooks Hope Center, IMALIVE, and Help!, the Grad Student Crisis Line, 1-800-GRADHLP. For more information about the program, contact Robin Schreck, coordinator of student activities and residence life, 724-773-3947, visit http://www.hopeline.com/ or http://www.imalive.org, or call 1-800-GRADHLP.
Being a teen and being a parent have never been more complicated. Along with the usual risks and temptations, today's families face an uncertain economy and unpredictable job market. On top of that, there are ever-growing opportunities for adolescent mischief via social networking sites, text messages, YouTube, and Twitter. While the challenges are different for this generation, the solutions remain very much the same. You have to stay close, continue to listen, and seek help when a problem arises. (more)
Recent news headlines across the United States have shed light on mental health concerns among teens and young adults in distress -- whether questioning their sexual orientation or dealing with an unhealthy relationship -- where others resorted to bullying, harassment and other violence against them. Experts from Penn State's Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) and the Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH) answered questions about the effects of peer bullying and discrimination, and what college students and their friends and loved ones can do to support students who may be demonstrating signs of distress, anxiety or depression. (more)
Adolescent girls who think they are overweight, but are not, are at more risk for depression than girls who are overweight and know it, according to Penn State sociologists. "Parents often worry about overweight girls' mental health, but our findings show that it is girls who have a healthy weight but perceive being overweight who are most likely to feel depressed," said Jason N. Houle, graduate student in sociology and demography. (more)
For any student, going away to college and encountering new academic and social pressures can be a challenging experience. For some, those challenges, as well as pre-existing conditions, can result in issues that need the attention of qualified mental health experts. Dennis Heitzmann, director of the Center for Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at Penn State's University Park campus and an expert in college student mental health issues, said that the preponderance of students his center sees are dealing with anxiety and depression, but that each client is dealing with a unique situation. (more)
Educators, interested professionals and families of autistic children who hope to create effective educational programming will descend on Penn State's 2008 National Autism Conference, Aug. 4-8 at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel. (more)
Penn State's Board of Trustees held its regular, bi-monthly meeting July 14 at the Hyatt Philadelphia. In his opening remarks to the board, President Graham B. Spanier talked about the University's ties to the City of Brotherly Love, noting that Penn State actually was born in the city through the efforts of the Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Agriculture. One of the Philadelphia Society's most distinguished members, Frederick O. Watts, was elected the first chair of the college's Board of Trustees. Today, Penn State Abington, Penn State Delaware County and Penn State Great Valley enroll a total of more than 6,000 students each year. These three campuses alone contribute nearly $270 million annually to the economy of the city of Philadelphia and the nearby counties of Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware and Chester. Including the impact of those three campuses, Penn State has an overall annual economic impact of about $350 million in this region, according to a recent study. Some 64,000 Penn State alumni live in Philadelphia and the four surrounding counties -- one in four of all Penn State alumni who reside in Pennsylvania. Montgomery County itself has the second-highest number of Penn Staters of any county in the commonwealth, with more than 19,000 alumni.
Read the full text of the president's remarks at http://live.psu.edu/story/18615(more)
Undertaking an initiative unprecedented in the field of college student health care, Penn State will administer the new Center for the Study of College Student Mental Health (CSCSMH). Senior staff at Penn State's Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) recently announced the endeavor, which aims to create a nationwide data-sharing network of college and university counseling centers that will enable real-time tracking and analysis of the state of mental health among American students in higher education who seek mental health services. "The center will address a critical gap in the research on college student mental health: the ability to accurately and routinely describe the state of university and college counseling centers, on a national level, as measured by raw standardized data," said Ben Locke, CAPS assistant director of research and technology and national coordinator of the CSCSMH effort. CAPS director Dennis Heitzmann notes, "Outside of some end-of-year surveys that provide information about counseling centers or clientele, there has never been a effort that offers regular, recurrent, real-time information on the students that we serve. Consequently, we will be able to track trends, outcomes and student reactions to major crises at the campus level and also at the national level." (more)
