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Looking Out for Each Other: Building a Healthy College Community

Counseling Office director Mark Reed, MD, has worked in Health Resources since 1991, the year he completed his residency training in psychiatry at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. A 1987 graduate of the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Dr. Reed served as director of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry for Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) from 1995 to 2002 and is currently chair of DMS's Committee for Students with Disabilities. “The Health Resources and Counseling Offices have a long history of working closely together on outreach, training, and groups,” he notes. “Some of the things that are most important to me in my work are prevention, access to care, and decreasing stigma.” We asked Dr. Reed how his office serves the needs of students and their families.

What's the mission of the Health Resources and Counseling Offices (Dick's House) at Dartmouth?

In a nutshell, Health Resources promotes healthy life choices by students. Healthier choices will allow students to take greater advantage of everything that Dartmouth has to offer, as well providing them with the tools they need in order to be informed health-care consumers throughout their lives. We accomplish these goals through outreach and education, training of peer advisers, as well as group and individual consultations with students.

The Counseling Office helps students with their mental health needs—which ultimately supports the educational mission of the College. We want services that are accessible to everyone and that genuinely meet the needs of the diverse Dartmouth community.

Every year, one thousand new undergraduates come to Hanover from around the world. What are some of the recommendations your office makes to students to help them make the transition to life in northern New England?

Many first-year students struggle because the quality of the relationships they have built at Dartmouth in a few weeks or months don't yet match the quality of the relationships they have built over years with friends from home. Just remembering that building relationships takes time can be helpful. It's a normal challenge to sustain the solid relationships from home while building new relationships at college.

Some simple things can help: getting seven to nine hours of sleep per night, eating three meals a day plus snacks (and don't forget that breakfast is the most important meal of the day!), getting some form of exercise three times a week. Many of the students we see struggle to do even one of these. Another big thing is that students over-commit to too many extracurricular activities.

What role can and should parents play?

Parents have a challenging role: to be supportive, encouraging, and available while promoting healthy, independent thinking. Parents can encourage their student to take advantage of the many opportunities available at Dartmouth. They know their student better than anyone else, so if they have questions or concerns they should bring them up with their daughter or son. And if a parent is worried about their student they can call our office at 603-646-9442 or the First Year Office at 603-646-2681 to learn more about available resources.

As students progress toward graduation, do the challenges they face change?

Students at Dartmouth follow the “D-Plan” during their time here, which provides them with wonderful opportunities to study abroad or to do internships in a field of interest. But the D-Plan can present some challenges with friendships and relationships when a student's time off campus does not match that of the students they are closest to. Transitions are also difficult for most people. Students arrive at Dartmouth with anxieties —and excitement—about confronting academic rigors and making social connections. While they're here, they develop areas of academic interest, and often have the chance to work closely with faculty. But as students approach graduation, they often feel sadness about leaving the friends, faculty, and staff they've grown close to. They have anxieties, hopes, and excitement about what life after Dartmouth will bring—how they'll find a job, if they'll get into graduate school, what their next new community will be like. It's good to remind them that wherever they go, they are likely to run into Dartmouth alums who can help with their transition.

The student population turns over every four years, so you have a relatively short time to make an impact on campus culture. What approaches have you and your colleagues found most successful?

We've been most successful helping students build on their own ideas rather than imposing ours. The cultural issues at Dartmouth mirror those on most other campuses. In my experience, students themselves are the ones who can make the biggest impact on campus culture. We've been very fortunate to work with great student leaders who have been very effective at improving the campus culture around health issues. The key to sustainability is to work with student leaders to develop younger students who can build on the progress that has occurred before them.

We meet first-year students early on through a wide variety of orientation activities so students can become familiar with all the services they have access to at Dick's House. And we are fortunate to have a community where people look out for each other. We work with students, faculty, staff, and coaches to engage students in conversation about their adjustment to college and to make referrals to our office when necessary.