ScarletWell Events Focus on Mental Health, Wellness

February 21, 2023

Dear Rutgers–New Brunswick Faculty and Staff:

Attending to the well-being of our beloved community must start with a culture of mental and physical health and wellness that includes all of us—faculty, staff, and students.

This is a value that our campus community overwhelmingly embraced during the development of our Rutgers–New Brunswick Academic Master Plan (AMP), and one that the AMP honors through a new initiative called ScarletWell.

The ScarletWell Task Force includes faculty, staff, and students from across Rutgers–New Brunswick, and is working to take stock of our institution’s current wellness initiatives, benchmark them against those of peer institutions, identify strengths and weaknesses, and make systems-level recommendations to enhance campus well-being.

ScarletWell will also include strategies to establish our reputation as a center of excellence in behavioral health by supporting an intellectual community of faculty who research behavioral health and wellness issues, emphasizing population-level interventions for public health.

This initiative is still in its early stages, but we commemorate its beginning by inviting you to attend a series of special events this spring to highlight the importance of mental health and well-being within our campus community.

Our cornerstone event is the second annual Chancellor-Provost’s Mental Health and Wellness Lecture on Wednesday, April 5. Dr. Vivien Wen Li Anthony, Associate Professor at the School of Social Work and Scientific Director for Video Gaming and eSports at the Center for Gambling Studies, will give a presentation on “The Trouble with Technology: The Negative Impact of Technology on Wellness.” The lecture will be held via Zoom; a Zoom link will be emailed to individuals who register via this page.

Our ScarletWell website provides the full list of events which includes:

• Effective Teaching and Learning Conference: Best Practices for Inclusive and Innovative Pedagogy: The Office of the Chancellor-Provost and the New Brunswick Faculty Council are co-sponsoring this seminar, which will include a panel on “Inclusive Pedagogical Practices and Wellness as Part of Effective Teaching.” Open to faculty. February 23, with the panel on well-being at 11:30 a.m.

• CAPS CARES: A drop-in support space, in which faculty and staff can receive tips, ideas, insights, and answers on responding to student mental health concerns. Offered by Counseling, Alcohol, and Other Drug Assistance Program & Psychiatric Services (CAPS), this biweekly event occurs every other Friday. Faculty and staff can attend for as much or as little time as needed.

• Campus Connect Suicide Prevention Gatekeeper Training: This experiential training, provided by Student Health, aims to increase knowledge about statistics, risk and protective factors, warning signs, and campus resources concerning student suicide. Open to faculty, staff, and students. Dates available through May.

• ScarletWell Workshops: These interactive workshops, provided by Student Health and Health Outreach, Promotion & Education (HOPE), focus on compassion and/or play, and how they benefit mental health, well-being, and life satisfaction. Open to faculty, staff, and students. Dates available in March and April.

• Mental Health First Aid: This eight-hour training, provided by Rutgers–New Brunswick Student Health, teaches participants to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders. Open to faculty, staff, and students. Dates available in March and April.

• Health and Well-Being Data Roundtable Discussions: The ScarletWell Task Force and Student Affairs will present data from the 2021 Rutgers National College Health Assessment and 2022 Rutgers Healthy Minds Survey, both of which received anonymous data from students regarding their mental and physical wellbeing. Open to faculty, staff, and students. Dates available in March and April.

Please join us for these events, and watch for further updates about ScarletWell, including a report that the ScarletWell Task Force will provide to the Chancellor-Provost in May.

If you are feeling distressed or know someone who is, I urge you to seek assistance. Rutgers has many well-being resources available to assist students and employees. Please become familiar with these documents and bookmark and share them with others as needed.

Sincerely,

Francine Conway, Ph.D.
Chancellor-Provost, Rutgers University–New Brunswick