Student Health Advisory Board launches mental health mentorship program

The Student Health Advisory Board last week launched Peer Connection, a one-on-one peer advising service for students who might be dealing with stress or who seek academic, life, relationship or other advice from peers.

So far, 92 students have signed up as mentors, and 19 have signed up as mentees, project organizer Mizzi Gomes ’16 said.

Gomes is a senior opinion columnist for The Daily Princetonian.

“Now that the meningitis campaign is over, SHAB has really been looking for our next big project, and mental health is such a timely issue and has concerns that we want to address,” Gwen Lee ’16, chair of SHAB, said.

Although Peer Connection officially launched last week, it has been in development since last spring. SHAB has sought guidance from University Health Services and Counseling and Psychological Services and hopes to continue collaboration.

“I do feel like there’s a niche for having somebody to talk to who doesn’t live directly down the hall or isn’t somebody who also deals directly with your academic life,” Gomes said, adding that Peer Connection is unique from other support services on campus in that it is much more informal.

Mentors will serve as a sounding board for mentees but will also be trained by SHAB to be able to support mentees when needed.

Gomes said mentors will be able to begin working with mentees around the time of midterms. Freshmen who sign up for the program as mentors will be educated in workshops until their sophomore fall, when they will be paired up with freshman mentees.

Mentees will automatically be assigned different mentors every semester unless they request to stay with their current mentor. The program will ideally pair mentees with mentors who have had personal experience going through similar issues that mentees are struggling with.

“It is amazing how hard it is for people to want to be a mentee,” Gomes said."We are very aware that mental health is such an issue on college campuses, but we’re not necessarily very comfortable admitting it about ourselves."

There is an opportunity for the project to benefit students in a way that other mental health initiatives haven’t addressed, Zhan Okuda-Lim ’15, U-council chair and former chair of Princeton Mental Health Initiative Board, said.

Get the best of ‘the Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

“I think, as SHAB has mentioned in advertising this program, and I agree with SHAB on this, that there is a lack of an opportunity for students to chat with somebody who can attest to these experiences, to connect with students who are actually able to do so, and that’s why I’m really excited to see SHAB taking on this project and getting this project going,” he said.

Students interviewed about the initiative viewed it positively.

“It sounds like a good idea,” Grant Storey ’17 said. “It would have to be implemented well, but the idea seems like it’s definitely something that could help a lot of people and could have a positive impact on the University.”

Fiona Bell ’18 said she would prefer talking to somebody older and well-trained. She added she would consider becoming a mentor or mentee.

One-on-one arrangements are optimal for discussing issues of concern, Molly Fisch-Friedman ’16 said.