How to build a peer support network in colleges

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Many college students want to help their peers with their mental health issues, but not all feel confident doing that work.

Peer counseling for mental health has grown in popularity as a solution to address rising rates of student wellness concerns. Since 2020, 94 percent of college presidents have taken at least one nonclinical step to promote mental health and well-being on their campuses, and 43 percent have established peer mental health programs, according to a 2024 survey by Inside Higher Ed.

A January 2022 report by the Born This Way Foundation and the Mary Christie Institute found one in five college students are already using peer counseling, and among those who don’t use it, 62 percent are interested in doing so.

Implementing peer support certification across campus can help build a culture of kindness and a shared language, creating a public health approach to addressing student mental health, says Claudia-Santi Fernandes, director of research and evaluation at the Born This Way Foundation and founding director of Youth4Wellness at Yale, a youth-led participatory research group.

Raising up students: Peer support, at its core, is about equipping students with some level of training around mental health literacy, often paired with lived experience, that promotes emotional, social and practical support, Fernandes says.

Research shows college students first turn to their friends when experiencing mental health concerns, putting learners on the front lines. Today’s young people are more comfortable talking about mental health, but providing strategies to safely support one another is important, Fernandes says. “The majority of them want these resources—they want these tools and they want them to be accessible.”

A national shortage of mental health professionals has exacerbated this need as well, making mental health certification for young people even more important in helping individuals recognize classmates who are struggling and understand their role in supporting that person and connecting them with professionals when necessary.

The benefits extend beyond the students receiving care. Peer counselors report a higher sense of well-being, compared to other students, and a large share say they are motivated to provide counseling to help others (45 percent), according to the foundation’s research.

“It’s the science of kindness,” Fernandes says. “Giving and receiving kindness gives us oxytocin; these interactions where you feel supported or you feel kindness are incredibly important.”

One approach: The Born This Way Foundation launched the Be There Certificate in 2022, created by Jack.org. The certificate is based on youth-engaged research, pulling directly from a needs assessment of youth and guided by youth feedback, Fernandes says.

Six self-paced lessons give students real-life scenarios to recognize signs of struggling, how to respond and build trust, how to listen well and set healthy boundaries as well as refer friends to professional or community resources as needed.

To date, 50,000 individuals have completed the certificate, which is free, in 120 countries, Fernandes says. The largest share of young people who complete it are between 15 and 19 years old (29 percent), while 14 percent are ages 20 to 24.

What works: When building a peer support program, Fernandes says college leaders and administrators should consider:
• Getting student buy-in. “If there’s no desire and need and engagement, it falls flat,” Fernandes says. One way to get students onboard is by providing certification or training to a small group first to create ambassadors who can lead the rollout and implementation of the program.
• Making support diverse and representative of students. Being able to relate to a peer counselor is important to students from historically marginalized student groups. Black, transgender and first-generation students were more likely to say it is very important to find a peer counselor with similar identities or life experiences to them.
• Model best practices. While the initiative may be designed for students to support one another, those working with students can benefit from completing trainings, contributing to a shared culture of support and a shared language, Fernandes says. Students are also more likely to trust and turn to adults who model supportive interactions.

On the horizon: At present, the Born This Way Foundation and Yale University are partnering to research how a culture of peer support can improve student wellness in residence halls. The study, currently in the meta-analysis phase, will have a randomized trial of students who complete certification compared against a control group (who are wait-listed for treatment after the conclusion of the study). The sample will also be randomized by dorms or shared housing units, which will hopefully create dorm-level outcomes, as well, Fernandes says.

Researchers hope to see improved mental health literacy, resilience and help-seeking behaviors among trial participants.

The goal is to build a culture of kindness, support and belonging that gets ahead of students in crisis by helping them lean into discussions about mental health and know how to access support.

If your student success program has a unique feature or twist, we’d like to know about it. Click here to submit.…Read more by Ashley Mowreader

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