Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Nervous about starting at Michigan State? Worried about your class schedule, living away from home, or where to even start? The Spartan Orientation Station (SOS) is a podcast hosted by New Student Orientation staff and was created by students for students. This podcast will launch twice a week throughout the summer, and each episode will feature a unique interview with campus departments discussing their services, common misconceptions, and fun Spartan engagement opportunities. When you need help at Michigan State, it is okay to signal SOS! Don’t worry – MSU is there for you.
You're listening to the Spartan orientation station on Impact eighty nine FM, the podcast by students for students. Now this week's episode.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to the Spartan orientation station. On this week's episode, we will discuss all things mental health, well-being, and self care. My name is Ava Ignache. I'm a recent graduate from Michigan State with a BA in international relations and a secondary major in political science pre law and minors in political economy and European studies. Our guest this week is doctor Olivia Scott, acting assistant director of multicultural initiatives and community engagement at MSU's counseling and psychiatric facilities, also known as CAPS.
Speaker 2:So Olivia, do you just wanna start off by introducing yourself and
Speaker 3:a little bit about what you do? Absolutely. Thanks so much. So like you said, I'm my very long title. But I'm a psychologist over at CAPS.
Speaker 3:So I provide individual and group therapy to students, at MSU. I also do a lot of presentations on campus about mental health. And I've been at MSU for five years in August, which is hard to believe. Time flies. Congratulations.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 2:Okay. So just getting into the questions. Starting off, what effects can emotions like stress or anxiety have on a new student at MSU?
Speaker 3:It's a great question. So one thing I like to say right away is that not all stress is bad. I think sometimes when we talk about it, we do kind of couch it in sort of negative terms. But really it's when stress is persistent at a high level where, we need to take care of it and make sure it's well managed. But some stress is good, right?
Speaker 3:So some stress helps us stay motivated, study for that test, do well before that big game. But again, when it's persistent and really affecting us, then it could actually affect our performance in school and in the things that we like to do and in our relationships. So I think the the key here is to really be monitoring it and knowing what our limits are with these things.
Speaker 2:So coming kind of off that for stress and, you know, just overall well-being, what is self care? And what can we do to practice self care, especially as students at Michigan State?
Speaker 3:I love this question because I talk about self care a lot in my job, as you can imagine. And most students, when I bring up self care, they think it's A, a list of activities that they do to treat themselves, which that's certainly a piece of it. Or they just go, I don't got time for that. So I like to have this conversation about how self care is actually a necessity for our lives to help us be more successful and to thrive and to do the things that we want to do. So it's really not only a list of activities.
Speaker 3:I think it's also an attitude towards ourselves and towards our daily lives that include rest, joy, recovery, so that we can, again, be recharged to do really well in the things that we're passionate about. And so you asked, what can we do to practice it? So certainly there are some activities that you might find relaxing or that help you feel good about yourself. And so all that is very tailored. I'm a sports person, so for me, a lot of self care is, found in community with people doing something physical.
Speaker 3:But for some people, it looks more solitary. For some people, it's more related to art or meditation or journaling. So, I also, I guess, wanna be here saying that there's no one way to do self care.
Speaker 2:That's great. So what about caring for our community? And do you have tips for students who are noticing a friend that's having a tough time adjusting to college?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Yes. So when it comes to community care, I'm really passionate about this topic actually, because I think self care gets a lot of the attention, which is great. But caring for our community is another way that we can take care of ourselves and others. So one thing that I hear a lot from students is they don't wanna talk about their problems or their challenges with their friends because they're worried about burdening them or they're worried about killing the vibe or the mood, Right?
Speaker 3:And so I think a really important piece is actually normalizing with your friends. Hey, we can talk about tough stuff. We can talk about when you're struggling in a class. We can talk about when I'm going through something with my family at home. And just normalizing those conversations, I think, can help people open up.
Speaker 3:But I also tell students that sometimes your vulnerability helps other people be vulnerable. Right? So kind of like this idea that vulnerability breeds more vulnerability. And that can help people get the help that they need. So, you know, I think that's a big piece of it.
Speaker 3:It's just having regular conversations where you check-in with yourself and other people, and that you're open about your stuff so that your friends are more open with you and can get the help that they need.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I talking to my friends throughout college definitely helped me a lot. It was a big thing that helped me kinda like get everything off my chest.
Speaker 3:But Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But what suggestions do you have for students that maybe have never considered having a self care activity in their routine?
Speaker 3:This is a great one. So I guess I have three tips. One is buddy up. I think when self care can be hard to implement on our own, it's helpful to have other input from friends or even to start like a new thing with a friend. So, you know, if maybe you wanna go to a yoga class or try out some event on campus, that could contribute to your wellness, doing that within a buddy system can sometimes make it seem more accessible or easy to do.
Speaker 3:I also think scheduling it is huge. So maybe you don't have a clear idea on what the perfect self care looks like for you, but actually scheduling it every week to make sure that you have time to even think about the question of self care is a great place to start. And I guess maybe going with that, and this is the third tip, is just experimentation. I think a lot of students I meet with in counseling think that they need to try a self care strategy, and it needs to work 100% of the time right away. But some of these things require practice or some of these things work well when you're stressed, but not when you're sad, right?
Speaker 3:Or they work well when you need to get some energy out because you're angry, but they don't work for for other reasons like when you're feeling feeling low motivation. So I think an experimental lens or approach to it can be really helpful too.
Speaker 2:So when kind of looking with self care and just taking care of our mental well-being, what resources does MSU offer students for mental health support and are they free? How can they access them?
Speaker 3:Really good questions too. So I'm excited to talk about the things that my office offers. So again, Counseling and Psychiatric Services, or CABS, is the free mental health office on campus for students. So yes, I said free, which is so great. So we offer free individual therapy, free group counseling.
Speaker 3:We also offer crisis support for students who are experiencing some sort of urgent or mental health crisis need. But we also have psychiatry services. And so this is often a point of confusion for some folks, but we have medication providers, so psychiatrists and nurse practitioners, who can also prescribe medication to students who have mental health needs that would benefit from that. This is the only service that eventually we, you know, start billing with insurance. So this is the only thing that ends up having like three free session limit.
Speaker 3:And then we start billing. But again, I don't want students to ever be worried about that limit. And I want them to kind of come in so we can make sure that they get whatever help that they need. And we're really good at making sure students stay connected once those three free visits expire. So again, if therapy, medication, group therapy, if any of those things seem interesting or helpful to students, it's really important that they get in touch with us.
Speaker 3:And we try to make that really accessible too by making your first appointment with us schedulable online. So you can go to our website, cabs.msu.edu. And right there at the top of the page, I think it says get started. And that's the place where you can schedule, again, your first appointment online. And we can help go over all the resources with you and figure out kind of what your needs are.
Speaker 3:And then the other thing I was gonna say, so some students might not feel comfortable coming to CAPS or getting formal mental health treatment for whatever reason. Maybe you wanna kind of test it out or, students just aren't really sure it will be helpful. So I wanna make sure that you know about two resources that are accessible to you that maybe don't feel as formal or intimidating. So one of those is, CAPS Connect. And we have this service in 20 locations across campus.
Speaker 3:And we try to make it really easy for students to find us. So if you just wanna, you're having a bad day and you wanna talk to someone, or you just wanna check us out, you're like, I don't know about CAPS. Let me just sit across from a counselor and see what it's like. That would be a great service for you to check out. And all that information is on our website.
Speaker 3:Again, that's CAPS Connect. And the other resource is actually one that isn't affiliated with CAPS at all. It's called TogetherAll. And this is a free peer support community that's actually available internationally. So students MSU has a grant where students can use their MSU email to register for free.
Speaker 3:And this is a great self help resource. There's a lot of self assessments and courses that you can take for free. But it's also a great place for you to connect with people, again, all over the world that might be struggling with similar things. It kind of functions as like this anonymous mental health social media platform. So again, that can be another resource that can give students the support that they need if CAPS or formal mental health treatment seem like a great fit right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great. I know coming to MSU, I did not realize how much support that CAPS offers students. So it's really good thing to know. But beyond that, do you have any other recommendations for new students at MSU in terms of well-being, mental health, and all of that stuff?
Speaker 3:Yeah. I think we could do a whole series on this, couldn't we? Right? There's so many things that go into well-being, so many things that are connected. But I guess my main piece of advice is to think about setting up some routines, sleep, eating, movement, and connection.
Speaker 3:I think those are my top four that I'll It's kind of my broad well-being sort of things that are important. So many students come to me for counseling. And these are like the first four things that I assess because they affect everything else, right? If folks aren't sleeping well, it's gonna affect their mental health. It's gonna affect their performance in school.
Speaker 3:It's gonna affect their relationships. So again, I think monitoring these four things is really important and making sure students have the right routines or the right sort of approach for all of them. And this is also another thing where I don't think it's a one size fits all. I have students who function super well on six hours of sleep. Like, that's how much they need.
Speaker 3:And then I have students who need 10 or that's no go. You know? So I think, again, that experimentation and making sure you know what works for you is really important. And same with movement. I think most people, when I talk about movement, think, Oh, I gotta get to the gym and I gotta lift.
Speaker 3:You know, those are the ways to exercise or to take care of my body. But that's not necessarily true either. Right? So movement can look really different for everyone in terms of what helps them stay active or feel functional with their bodies.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. And just kind of a fun closing question is what is your favorite part about working at MSU and with MSU students? There's so many things.
Speaker 3:I love doing things like this and meeting wonderful people like you. And I love getting out in the community. I mean, therapy and providing clinical care is a huge passion of mine. But I love meeting students on campus and providing mental health information that way. So that students don't even need to come to CAPS maybe, right?
Speaker 3:Like maybe there are other sorts of events or activities or pieces of information that will really help students on their journey. So I just love getting out there and sharing some of that and making sure that this mental health information is accessible to people and they know where to get the help that they need. So I just love meeting students out on campus too. There's a really exciting mental health awareness event that we, University Health and Well-being, which is the division that I'm a part of, is hosting. And it's on October 2, from 12PM to 4PM.
Speaker 3:It's sort of carnival style. There will be booths, free food, free swag, a lot of fun activities, a DJ, in fact, from Impact eighty nine. Woo hoo. And so it's gonna be a really fun time in People's Park right on campus. So just keep an eye out for that.
Speaker 3:You can follow us on Instagram HealthySpartans. That's our handle. And we have a lot of updates on there about wellness resources. But we'll also be plugging this event, which is called Fresh Check Day. It's gonna be really fun.
Speaker 3:I'll be there if you think that this is a cool podcast. But yeah. I really encourage folks folks to join us for that event.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you so much for joining us today, and please join us next week for our last Spartan orientation station episode for the summer featuring a panel of resident assistants.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to this episode of the Spartan orientation station on impact eighty nine FM. Let us know what you think by connecting with us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram at MSU underscore NSO.