Demonstrating WPI's Commitment to Mental Health Education

I want to extend my appreciation to our faculty and staff who participated in Kognito’s At-Risk Mental Health training.  The WPI community demonstrated an impressive commitment to mental health education.

As a reminder, Kognito is an interactive role-play simulation that builds awareness, knowledge, and skills about mental health and suicide prevention. Our goal with this program was to help prepare faculty and staff in supporting students exhibiting signs of psychological distress, as well as to help prepare students support each other.

Overall, the training initiative was a success. A total of 996 employees (78%) and 2,154 undergraduate and graduate students completed the training, and the majority (92% of employees and 78% of students) said they would recommend it. More importantly, participants reported a significant increase (74% increase for employees, 47% increase for students) in their perception of their ability to recognize when a student is experiencing psychological distress and their confidence in their ability to refer students to mental health support services. Kognito has provided us with a summary of our engagement with the training, which you can access here.

The training is still available to faculty, staff, and students. For faculty and staff, to access the training, simply go to the Learning Academy and search for “Kognito.” If you haven’t already, we encourage you to take advantage of this incredible resource.

Please note that if you would like to deepen your understanding of assisting students with mental health or simply prefer an in-person option, the Center for Well-Being and the Student Development and Counseling Center offer a number of wellness education and training opportunities (such as Recognizing and Responding to Student Distress (RRSD) and Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR)) to help our community.

Lauren Turner

SVP, Talent & Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer