>> So, I really love as a director I have the ability to impact the mental health
and wellbeing of really the student body and even the culture of the university.
So, being able to know there's different opportunities to change and shift the culture
and that's really what my job is.
I feel like I'm involved in culture change.
I work at a recently consolidated institution, two institutions merged together and, so,
trying to get a shared sense of community that we're all involved and invested in all students.
I really enjoy that.
I really enjoy my staff.
And that's a big part of why I wanted to become a director is that I wanted to make my job
about taking care of my staff, so that they can take care of students.
And that's where I feel like as a director that's my best way to take care of students is
to really be there for my staff and to create environment where they feel emotionally healthy,
they feel nurtured and nourished.
That they don't feel burnt out.
The hardest part about my job is trying to create culture change.
Mental health is a hot topic in higher education.
Every piece of data that you can find will show you that student demand far outweighs resources.
I think we're in a certain zeitgeist
where student mental services are starting to be more prioritized.
But being able to help shape the culture at your institution, that this is important
across the board is a challenge if for no other reason that every director is a one off.
There's only one of us.
We don't have colleagues who have the same shared responsibility.
So, our colleagues are people at other institutions.
So at each institution the directors of the mental health services are really having
to find a way to get university wide investment, in order to get university wide resources.