Thanks to everyone who attended the student-led seminar this morning on CHP students' quality of life. Students from all areas offered productive insight and ideas. We sensed the discussion could have gone on even longer.
Thus the blog.
If you missed the meeting or have more to say, your input is hugely appreciated. Please feel free to post your thoughts and suggestions here (it can be anonymous, and the blog is students-only).
The point of today's meeting was to start a discussion that's ongoing, and will hopefully lead to continuing improvements in student quality of life.
In that vein, we plan to relay the meeting's main points to the faculty. I'll outline them here, but if there's anything missing please point it out:
1. Vacation days: there should be a standard number allotted, and we could use help/encouragement with creating space to truly take that time off without unnecessary guilt.
2. Off-campus counseling: everyone goes through personal difficulty at some point. It would be helpful to have on hand a list of low-cost/insurance-covered providers who can keep students' participation in therapy confidential from the broader psychology community.
3. Mentor relationships: they're different for different labs. What can we do to encourage communication, support, and positive work experiences in all of them?
4. Therapist support: we hope to increase awareness of the emotional cost associated with providing therapy, and to develop ways to aid student therapists in coping with these challenges.
5. Socialization: we're searching for ways to help CHP students a) foster a more cohesive social network amongst ourselves, and b) develop friendships with students in other UF departments and in the Gainesville community.
With point 5 in mind, we hope also to expand this blog into a social networking tool for all of us. If you know of something cool going on, please post it! Share the fun, and we'll spread the love. :)
Finally, if you missed the survey results or wanted to refer back, you can find them on Ilana Levy's website. There, you can also soon find a list of therapists in the community compiled a couple of years ago, kindly forwarded by another student (thanks!).
