Wittenberg’s Tiger Counseling Center will host a mental health fair on Friday, May 1, to kick off Mental Health Awareness Month and encourage students to use free resources on campus to help them navigate any mental health struggles.  

The event will take place on the second floor of the Benham-Pence Student Center in the lobby of the Center Dining Room (CDR) from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and feature four different interactive tables with information about mental health, symptoms, self-care, support, etc.

With final exams and Commencement just around the corner, Matt West, director of student counseling and the Tiger Counseling Center, offers some tips on how students and the campus community can combat the high level of stress that normally comes about during this time of the year. These include:

• Make sure that you spend part of your day in some type of physical activity.  Whether this is lifting weights, going on a run, taking a walk or hike, or doing yoga/stretching. Physical activity increases endorphins, helps boost mental clarity, and improves attention span.
• Use small sets of time to complete projects with periodic breaks. HERE is a link to the Pomodoro technique that illustrates this approach and decreases procrastination.
• Try to get eight hours of sleep a night.
• Be deliberate about the time you spend on your phone.
• Use resources on campus for support and problem-solving: Tiger Counseling Center, EAP program (staff and faculty), TimelyCare App, and the COMPASS: Sweet Success Center.

West says that mental health is equally important to attend to as physical health.

“Effective mental health strategies inoculate us to daily stressors, improve our communication in relationships, and build self-advocacy,” he said. “Sleep, movement, assertive communication, positive self-talk, and radical acceptance (accepting reality and learning to roll with it) are strategies that build good mental health.”