Maricopa Community Colleges destigmatizes mental health, encourages employee & student wellness for Mental Health Awareness Month
The Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) is proud to celebrate Mental Health Awareness Month by offering wellness resources to students, faculty and staff, destigmatizing and normalizing caring for mental health.
“In the past year, mental health has been strained in unimaginable ways as our communities have processed the impact of COVID-19,” said MCCCD Interim Chancellor, Dr. Steven R. Gonzales. “Caring for your mental health is just as vital as caring for your physical health, and I would like our students, staff, faculty, employees and community to know that the Maricopa Community Colleges support and encourage everyone to utilize resources and seek out support when they need it.”
According to the National Alliance for Mental Health, one in five adults in the U.S. experience mental illness. Amid COVID-19, mental health issues like stress management and burnout are also on the rise. A 2021 Indeed study found that 52 percent of respondents are currently experiencing burnout, up from 43 percent in a pre-COVID-19 study. In addition, 67 percent of respondents said that burnout has worsened during the pandemic.
Burnout – a state of emotional, mental and physical exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress – is a leading mental health concern among students and employees amid COVID-19. The pandemic has also brought attention to a new mental health challenge called languishing, an emotional response characterized by an overwhelming neutrality about life, which lives somewhere between burnout and depression.
The Maricopa Community Colleges hope to create a stigma-free environment that empowers those who are struggling to seek help. MCCCD’s employee wellness initiative, Wellness Maricopa, serves as an advocate to promote and support organizational and individual well-being across the District through education, prevention, early detection, and access to comprehensive resources. Employees can also utilize benefits through the Employee Assistance Program, which offers all District employees confidential advice, support, and practical solutions to real-life issues, in addition to counseling and peer support groups.
Students can also access mental health resources through Counseling and Personal Development offices located at each of our 10 College campuses, which provide confidential services to help students manage change and stress, overcome problems of the past and present, and gain self-understanding and direction.
Faculty and staff are available to provide support and empower students in achieving lifelong goals with unique counseling, career planning, instruction, and consultation services and programs. The goal is to help students develop effective academic strategies that will assist with time management skills so students can successfully balance demands like school, work, and family.
For more information on Counseling and Personal Development offices, please visit https://my.maricopa.edu/services/counseling-development.
About the Maricopa Community Colleges
The Maricopa County Community College District includes ten regionally-accredited colleges – Chandler-Gilbert, Estrella Mountain, GateWay, Glendale, Mesa, Paradise Valley, Phoenix, Rio Salado, Scottsdale, and South Mountain – and the Maricopa Corporate College, serving approximately 100
