University of Minnesota

Innovation Grant Award
Funding will be provided toward the production of additional videos as described below.

Overview
This program aims to provide practical information, resources, and talking points to parents about mental health conditions in an effort to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health problems and promote early help-seeking.  This project is tied to a campus-wide effort to reduce the stigma related to mental health and is the collaborative effort of multiple campus departments.

Program Activities
In Fall 2005, a series of videos, the Mental Health and the College Student Online Workshop, was produced for parents on various topics relating to mental health such as “Depression and Anxiety as Public Health Issues,” “Distinguishing Depression from The Blues,” “Distinguishing Anxiety from The Butterflies,” “Strategies for On-Campus Support,” “How Parents Can Work with the U,” and “What Your Student May Be Encountering.”

New presentations will be developed on suicide, cutting, Asperger’s Syndrome, and eating disorders.  An additional, “how-to” presentation will include information for parents on what to watch for, what they can do, how they can talk to their children about mental health concerns, and how to encourage help-seeking. 

The University of Minnesota Parents Program plans to share its videos at cost with other colleges and universities.  As it is critical that parents are provided with school-specific information, other institutions can either insert a video segment highlighting relevant resources or post an online listing of resources to accompany the videos. 

Evaluation
Since posting the original videos, the university has tracked the number of hits to the Parent’s Program Web site.  The site received 1,000 hits in the first six weeks after they were posted, and it has received more than 5,000 hits since the videos were first introduced.  While on the site, parents are asked to fill out evaluation forms regarding the presentations:

• 94 percent of respondents said the information was helpful or very helpful
• 100 percent said they would recommend the program to other parents
• 83 percent said they planned to talk to their student about some of the  issues or resources discussed in the videos

Anecdotally, there has been an increase in the number of calls to the Parent Program Office and the University Counseling & Consulting Services office from parents with concerns about their children’s mental health.  Parents have also become more likely to use accurate terminology regarding emotional problems rather than simply saying their child is “overwhelmed” or “stressed.”  Parents are also more likely to identify themselves and their children by name, suggesting that parents perceive less of a stigma connected with mental health problems than in the past.

Feedback questions are being developed to better assess changes to parents’ attitudes, knowledge, and skills after viewing the videos.  In addition, questions will be added to a survey of parents conducted every two years by the University of Minnesota to assess whether parents have viewed the videos and whether they have been helpful and useful. 

Contact information
Please contact Marjorie Savage for additional program details.