The Jed Foundation (JED) is a national mental health nonprofit. According to Dr. Amy Patel, Dean of Health and Wellness and Chief Medical Officer at Sykes Wellness Center, the organization began working with Andover in Fall 2023 to improve services and resources on campus. Dr. Kurt Michael, JED’s Senior Clinical Director, shared advice on navigating grief.
How does JED tailor their approach to best support our campus community?
“Whenever I accept a new patient, I always want to customize whatever I’m doing for that particular client. The same is true for JED. We have a comprehensive approach to mental health support and suicide prevention, but it is always individualized and tailored to meet the specific needs of that community. In [Andover’s] case, this would be something tailored specifically for boarding schools. We have staff that have a long history of supporting boarding schools. We want to make sure that the proper experts are assigned to those particular communities.”
What is unique about supporting boarding schools?
“The event of living away from home, as an example, puts different perspectives in play. If you’re [here] as a resident and going to school, it feels more like what a campus experience would look like in higher [education]. You’d want [an expert to] at least have some knowledge about that landscape. I am fortunate because my daughter graduated from a boarding high school, so I have some perspective that’s personal, but also professional. It’s nice to have a blend and make sure that we’re matching our experts with the schools that we’re serving.”
JED works alongside many communities like Andover that are navigating grief. What can individuals do now that will make us a stronger community in the coming weeks, months, and even years?
“Loss is hard and hits people uniquely and differently. We want to take into account the relationship with the person who has passed. It’s always unique, just like grief is unique from person to person. With a suicide, it’s always multifactorial. The same is true for grief, and we want to make sure that students are fully aware of all the different ways to find support. If you look generally at people’s preferences, sometimes the last option on the list that people select is professional mental health support. Most folks would rather reach out to their closest associates, their friends, their family, their parents, and their loved ones. What I’m suggesting is that whatever that person is uniquely experiencing, we’d want to offer multiple options to select from in terms of getting the proper support. It’s also true that if a professional option is selected, the fit makes a big difference. Let’s say that you go to three practitioners who all offer great support. That vibe that you have with the person still matters. When we offer recommendations, we want to make sure we provide multiple options that are available to people.”
If we are thinking collectively as a campus, how can we all, as a large community, feel stronger in a couple of weeks, in a few months, in a few years?
“I’d like to first offer everyone a non-judgmental space where there’s no agenda. You create space for people to share that opportunity, and then you see what evolves from there. I ideally like a group format that is a shared experience. We see the value of offering these shared group spaces where there’s no expectation, so there’s no pressure where you have to say something. You could go and sit and listen, and sometimes that’s what’s beneficial for people. Then by modeling that, we get people to a place where they can explore on their own, ‘What would work best for me?’ We don’t know what that looks like person to person, but we want to try to create open opportunities for that kind of learning.”
Many students are living away from home for the first time, and balancing academics, athletics, and sleep. How can individuals in high pressure environments carve out space for personal care?
“There’s this famous guy who is credited with starting the field of suicidology. His name is Ed Schneidman. One of the things that he wrote about was that he feels like humans, in general, don’t ask two questions enough. Those two questions are ‘How are you?’ and ‘How can I help?’ That’s where I would recommend everybody to start, whether you’re a mental health person or a loved one. We should get ourselves in a good position to offer that kind of openness, and listen to what people are experiencing. Then simply ask the person that you’re concerned about, “How can I help?” Maybe the answer is, “I don’t know,” but it feels okay to talk about it. If we have that shared experience, even though the way we perceive it can be unique, there’s still something powerful about experiencing something that’s awful and then growing together through that process.”
“Andover is not alone in being a high-pressure environment. My advice for people who are in high-pressure academic environments would be rather than mental health being another thing that people feel pressured about, think more broadly about how one could find balance in life. There’s a school community similar to yours that is certainly in keeping with their values of academic excellence. They change ‘pursuit of academic excellence’ by adding a word, [making it] ‘joyful pursuit of academic excellence.’ We all get reinforcement from achieving at high levels, but that doesn’t have to be at the expense of our mental health. Finding that balance is important for all of us. I certainly acknowledge that some of the pressures in places like you’re describing are unique and intense. That might require an equally creative response to those challenges, in the service of our humanity.”
For 24/7, free, and confidential support call/text/chat 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or text HOME to 741-741 to reach Crisis Text Line.
