News and Events - NMU Wellbeing

TV19 WZMQ Segment on Mental Health & Wellness at NMU

Special Advisor for Campus WellBeing, Abigail Kauffman Wyche, goes on TV19 WZMQ to discuss mental health and wellness at NMU.  Watch the segment here. 

Northern Michigan University joins internationally recognized Okanagan Charter as a health promoting university

On April 26th, Northern Michigan University adopted and signed the Okanagan Charter, committing to embed wellbeing into the culture at Northern, and to do that to the fullest extent. The Okanagan Charter is an international charter for health promoting colleges and universities. The Charter is designed to be a public commitment and accountability measure for taking transformative action under a principled framework, urging institutions to step up, take action on their societal responsibility and lead by example.

NMU is one of 17 health promoting universities and colleges in the U.S., is one of two in Michigan and the only one in the Upper Peninsula, to adopt the Okanagan Charter.

The Charter has two calls to action for higher education institutions: first to embed health into all aspects of campus culture, across the administration, operations and academic mandates and second to Lead health promotion action and collaboration locally and globally.

More information can be found here.

Additional Useful links:

https://wellbeing.ubc.ca/okanagan-charter

http://ushpcn.org/

CAMPUS WELLBEING UPDATE

We are pleased to share the following update as of 11/1/2022 on efforts to enhance the wellbeing of our campus community this semester:

• During new faculty orientation in August, all new faculty were trained in recognizing and responding to distress. Training included information about the signs of distress, communicating about distress and accessing mental health services available to help in times of distress. Faculty learned about many resources including NMU Counseling and Consultation Services, Therapy Assistance Online (TAO), Health Advocate after-hours support, the new National Suicide Crisis Lifeline 988, and other local crisis support hotlines.
• Twenty-one NMU employees completed Mental Health First Aid Training in October, and twenty-four additional are currently registered for the training in November. If you are an employee interested in participating in future training sessions, let us know at https://nmu.edu/wellbeing.
• Mental Health advocate, David Woods Bartley was on campus on October 24th and 25th where he spoke about his journey from mental illness to mental wellness to nine classes (300+ students), and several employee groups. He also spoke at an open public event co-sponsored by the NMU Center for Rural Health and the Superior Health Foundation. David is planning to be back on campus sometime early next semester. For more about him, visit: https://www.davidwoodsbartley.com/
• A new search for a Director of the Counseling Center is currently underway. View more details about the position here. 
• The search for a Case Management Services Director position is set to begin within the next two weeks.  Once hired, the Director will be building a non-clinical case management team to complement the work of our counseling center and student affairs offices, helping students overcome challenges in their personal and academic lives.  Stay tuned to the current employment opportunities website to view the position details once it is posted.
• Physician's Assistant, Nicole Perrier, is scheduled to start her new role with NMU on December 12th.  Nicole brings specialized experience providing psychiatric care, and will be serving the campus community through both the NMU Health Center and NMU Athletics.
• A new suicide prevention and mental health awareness student organization, L.I.V.E. at NMU, will be starting up this month.  To learn more about joining this organization, students can attend an informational meeting on November 9th, 7pm in Jamrich 2319, and visit https://www.greatlakesrecovery.org/live/.

Thanks to everyone who has supported these efforts, and we look forward to reporting on future progress in the coming months.