Notice2024-01605
Request for Information Regarding Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Needs in Higher Education
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Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
January 26, 2024
Issuing agencies
Education Department
Abstract
The U.S. Department of Education (Department) is requesting information in the form of written comments that may include information, research, and suggestions regarding supporting student mental health and/or substance use disorder (behavioral health) needs in higher education. The Office of Postsecondary Education solicits these comments: to identify examples of what has been effective in addressing college student mental health and substance use disorder needs; to learn how institutions of higher education (IHEs) have transformed their campus cultures and created campus-wide, inclusive strategies to provide support; to identify how State higher education agencies have supported college behavioral health; to better understand potential challenges institutions are facing in the design and implementation of solutions; and, ultimately, to inform future work from the Department.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 89 Issue 18 (Friday, January 26, 2024)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 18 (Friday, January 26, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5219-5222]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2024-01605]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
[Docket ID ED--2023--OPE--0205]
Request for Information Regarding Mental Health and Substance Use
Disorder Needs in Higher Education
AGENCY: Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of
Education.
ACTION: Request for information.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Education (Department) is requesting
information in the form of written comments that may include
information, research, and suggestions regarding supporting student
mental health and/or substance use disorder (behavioral health) needs
in higher education. The Office of Postsecondary Education solicits
these comments: to identify examples of what has been effective in
addressing college student mental health and substance use disorder
needs; to learn how institutions of higher education (IHEs) have
transformed their campus cultures and created campus-wide, inclusive
strategies to provide support; to identify how State higher education
agencies have supported college behavioral health; to better understand
potential challenges institutions are facing in the design and
implementation of solutions; and, ultimately, to inform future work
from the Department.
DATES: We must receive your comments on or before February 25, 2024.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments through the Federal eRulemaking Portal.
We will not accept comments submitted by hand delivery, fax, or by
email or those submitted after the comment period. To ensure that we do
not receive duplicate copies, please submit your comments only once. In
addition, please include the Docket ID at the top of your comments.
<bullet> Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a> to
submit your comments electronically. Information on using
<a href="http://Regulations.gov">Regulations.gov</a>, including instructions for accessing agency documents,
submitting comments, and viewing the docket, is available on the site
under ``FAQ.''
<bullet> Postal Mail or Commercial Delivery: If you do not have
internet access or electronic submission is not possible, you may mail
written comments to the Office of the Under Secretary, U.S. Department
of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW, Room 7E307, Washington, DC 20202.
Mailed comments must be postmarked by February 25, 2024, to be
accepted.
Privacy Note: The Department's policy is to make all comments
received from members of the public available for public viewing in
their entirety on the Federal eRulemaking Portal at
[[Page 5220]]
<a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a>. Therefore, commenters should be careful to include
in their comments only information that they wish to make publicly
available.
This is a request for information only. This RFI is not a request
for proposals (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP or a notice inviting
applications. This RFI does not commit the Department to contract for
any supply or service whatsoever. Further, we are not seeking proposals
and will not accept unsolicited proposals. The Department will not pay
for any information or administrative costs that you may incur in
responding to this RFI. The documents and information submitted in
response to this RFI become the property of the U.S. Government and
will not be returned.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jessica Bowen Gall, U.S. Department of
Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW, Room 4C212, Washington, DC 20202.
Telephone: (202) 453-5573. Email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#e08a859393898381ce87818c8ca08584ce878f96"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="2d47485e5e444e4c034a4c41416d4849034a425b">[email protected]</span></a>.
If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability and
wish to access telecommunications relay services, please dial 7-1-1.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The need for mental health support has been on the rise across the
country over the past two decades. In addition to rising rates of
depression and anxiety, suicide is the second leading cause of death
among 10-14- and 20-34-year-olds.\1\
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\1\ <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/index.html">https://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/index.html</a>.
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For example, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, IHEs across the
country were seeing an increase in depression and anxiety among young
people and, unfortunately, an increase in suicide ideation, suicide
attempts, and suicides.\2\ The COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated these
trends with a disproportionate impact on minoritized groups. In the
Healthy Minds Data Report for 2021 Winter/Spring, among currently
enrolled college students over the age of 18, 41 percent of students
reported experiencing any depression, and 34 percent of students
reported experiencing any anxiety.\3\ In the 2021-22 updated Healthy
Minds Data Report, those numbers increased: 44 percent of students
reported experiencing any depression, and 37 percent of students
reported experiencing any anxiety.\4\ These data show that rates of
anxiety and depression continued to increase during the pandemic.
Moreover, research indicates that unmet mental health needs for
students during college are associated with adverse student outcomes,
including a low GPA and an increased likelihood of dropping out.\5\
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\2\ <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1054139X1930254X?via%3Dihub">https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1054139X1930254X?via%3Dihub</a>.
\3\ <a href="https://healthymindsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/HMS_national_winter_2021.pdf">https://healthymindsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/HMS_national_winter_2021.pdf</a>.
\4\ <a href="https://healthymindsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/HMS_national_print-6-1.pdf">https://healthymindsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/HMS_national_print-6-1.pdf</a>.
\5\ https://public.websites.umich.edu/~daneis/papers/
MHacademics.pdf.
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Some college students may also experience issues with substance
misuse or suffer from substance use disorders. The updated Healthy
Minds Data Report also revealed that 28 percent of surveyed students
reported engaging in binge drinking more than once in the past two
weeks and 20 percent reported using marijuana in the last 30 days.\6\
Additionally, according to data from the Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA's) 2022 National Survey on
Drug Use and Health, the prevalence of substance use disorders
involving either drugs or alcohol in 18- to 25-year olds is
approximately 28 percent.\7\
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\6\ <a href="https://healthymindsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/HMS_national_winter_2021.pdf">https://healthymindsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/HMS_national_winter_2021.pdf</a>.
\7\ <a href="https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/reports/rpt42728/NSDUHDetailedTabs2022/NSDUHDetailedTabs2022/NSDUHDetTabsSect5pe2022.htm">https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/reports/rpt42728/NSDUHDetailedTabs2022/NSDUHDetailedTabs2022/NSDUHDetTabsSect5pe2022.htm</a>.
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College presidents have taken note of the need for increased mental
health support. In American Council on Education (ACE) Pulse Point
surveys throughout 2021, over 70 percent of college presidents
indicated that student mental health was one of their top three
concerns, an increase of more than 30 percentage points from April
2020.\8\ Even after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health
needs persist alongside many of the same barriers students and
institutions faced prior to the pandemic.
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\8\ <a href="https://www.acenet.edu/Research-Insights/Pages/Pulse-Point-Surveys.aspx">https://www.acenet.edu/Research-Insights/Pages/Pulse-Point-Surveys.aspx</a>.
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The Department and the Biden-Harris Administration have long been
focused on promoting behavioral health supports at both the K-12 and
postsecondary levels as an integral strategy to supporting student
overall well-being and success.\9\ The Department's focus on this issue
includes providing guidance and resources to institutions to help
support them in addressing student mental health and substance use
disorder needs.
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\9\ <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/documents/coronavirus/reopening-3.pdf">https://www2.ed.gov/documents/coronavirus/reopening-3.pdf</a>.
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The Department is also committed to taking additional steps to
support institutions in addressing students' mental health and
substance use disorder needs. One component of that work is to learn
from those who have long engaged in addressing these needs and
improving access, services, and outcomes to determine what is working,
identify any gaps or unmet needs, and highlight opportunities for the
Department and other agencies to be a beneficial partner. We want to
work alongside IHEs, State higher education agencies, other Federal
agencies, and experts to ensure students and institutions have the
necessary knowledge and resources to select and implement easily
accessible and effective interventions. We also want to ensure that
institutions are connected to evidence-based solutions and peer
institutions and can help build the base of what works both for entire
campuses and for specific settings and high-need populations.
II. Solicitation of Comments: Helping Institutions Address Student
Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Needs
To help inform the agency's role in supporting institutions in
addressing mental health and substance use disorder needs, the
Department is seeking input from the public. The deadline for these
submissions is February 25, 2024. The Department encourages comments
from IHEs, students, researchers, policy experts, academics, behavioral
health professionals, other individuals familiar with identifying and
addressing mental health and substance use disorder needs in higher
education settings, organizations that work directly with institutions
to counsel them in providing easily accessible, effective and inclusive
behavioral health support and selecting interventions, State higher
education executive officers, State higher education agencies and
systems, and other members of the public.
The Department seeks responses and supporting evidence to the
specific questions below, as well as comments and supporting evidence
on the identified general concepts and topics related to addressing
mental health and substance use disorder needs in postsecondary
education settings. When responding to this RFI, please address one or
more of the following questions:
Successful Interventions
1. What metrics have you used to define success in supporting
behavioral health (mental health and/or substance use disorders) for
all students?
2. Does your institution (or the institution you support or attend)
have a school-wide mental health and well-being strategy (a universal
prevention strategy)? If so, please describe this
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strategy. To what extent were/are students engaged as partners in the
design and implementation of these strategies?
3. How do you conduct universal assessments of your student body
(or support institutions in their assessments) to determine their
behavioral health needs?
4. In what ways is your assessment inclusive of diverse student
populations, including culturally and linguistically inclusive and
identity-safe practices?
5. What strategies or interventions do you believe have most
improved behavioral health outcomes among students on your campus or
the campuses you support, including systems-level interventions,
population level interventions, interventions for high-risk students,
or clinical interventions for students with mental health disorders?
Please provide any accompanying evidence that informs your belief
(e.g., summaries of local outcomes data, locally conducted evaluation
studies). Please also share the campus or external resources (e.g.,
outside funding, digital mental health applications) that were
necessary for implementation, including whether cost-sharing by the
student was necessary (for example, from co-payments made by the
student or billing the student's insurance).
6. What steps have you taken to help ensure that all students are
aware of, and can easily access (including in ways that protect their
privacy), mental health and substance use disorder supports? What steps
have you taken to educate and train relevant staff (e.g., faculty,
coaches, housing/resident directors) about student behavioral health
supports? How have you tailored outreach activities to meet the
specific needs of particular student populations?
7. What steps have you taken to encourage students to seek mental
health and substance use disorder supports, including any specific
activities to address stigma? For students, what barriers or fears do
you or your peers have with engaging with behavioral health treatment
at your institution and to what extent, if any, has your institution
sought to address these fears and barriers?
8. What steps have you or the institutions you support taken to
tailor behavioral health interventions to the specific needs of
particular student populations, including students from underserved
communities and primarily off-campus populations, if applicable? What
evidence (e.g., summaries of local outcomes data, locally conducted
evaluation studies) suggests these interventions are effective? If not
already provided above, please consider including any evidence here.
9. What actions or partnerships have you formed (or helped
institutions form) (e.g., with parents/guardians, law enforcement to
prevent unintentional harm to students in distress) to ensure
continuity of care for students with mental health disorders as they
transition to, between, and from college? What steps have you taken to
involve parents/guardians in the event of an emergent behavioral health
concern? Have you encountered challenges (for example, privacy concerns
or other challenges/barriers) or developed successful strategies to
engage parents/guardians to ensure continuity of care and services for
students entering with behavioral health disorders, or those with
previously undetected, undertreated, or untreated behavioral health
concerns?
10. How is your institution ensuring that college students have
access to health insurance and access to comprehensive behavioral
health care?
11. What steps have you taken to ensure that students with mental
health disabilities receive academic accommodations and other
reasonable modifications under the Americans with Disabilities Act of
1990 and section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to give them
each a meaningful opportunity to participate in and benefit from the
school's academic and non-academic programs? How have you integrated
your disability services offices into initiatives to develop strategies
to meet the mental health needs of students on your campus? What steps
have you taken to address any bias--by professors, staff, or other
students--against students with mental health disabilities?
12. What kinds of trauma-focused services or supports are you
providing to students who may have experienced trauma?
13. What efforts have you taken to develop, enhance, or implement
suicide prevention and postvention plans? Which of these efforts do you
believe have been most strongly associated with reductions in suicide
attempts and completions on your campus (or the campuses you support)?
Please provide any accompanying evidence that informs your belief
(e.g., summaries of local outcomes data, locally conducted evaluation
studies). What is the process of connecting students to on and off-
campus suicide prevention/postvention supports?
14. If applicable, please describe if your IHE or an IHE you
support has received a Garrett Lee Smith Campus Suicide Prevention
Grant from SAMHSA, please describe how these funds have been used to
support suicide prevention efforts.
15. How have you provided supports for the mental health of your
faculty, staff, graduate students, and post-doctoral students? Please
describe any prevention strategies, assessment approaches, and
interventions and how these supports addressed unique workforce
challenges that emerged as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic? What
evidence (e.g., summaries of local outcomes data, locally conducted
evaluation studies) suggests these practices are effective?
16. What has your institution (or the institutions you support)
done to ensure students have access to qualified and well-resourced
mental health and substance use disorder professionals? What has been
effective in addressing any challenges with hiring, developing, and
retaining these professionals, including increasing the diversity of
professionals?
17. What steps have you (or institutions you support or attend)
taken to decrease wait times for counseling centers and other available
on-campus treatment options and services? Please provide any
accompanying evidence including baseline data.
18. What kinds of peer support related to behavioral health, if
any, have you implemented on your campus?
19. What role has your State played in helping to address mental
health and substance use disorder needs on your campus, including
through introducing and/or passing legislation, increasing funding, and
engaging in State-wide initiatives?
Choosing and Implementing Interventions
20. What resources (e.g., financial, staffing, technical) have you
found to be most helpful in choosing and implementing evidence-based
strategies to address mental health and substance use disorder needs on
your campus (or the campuses you support)? For example, have you
utilized SAMHSA's Evidence-based Guidebook ``Prevention and Treatment
of Anxiety, Depression, and Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors Among
College Students''? \10\
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\10\ <a href="https://www.samhsa.gov/resource/ebp/prevention-treatment-anxiety-college-students">https://www.samhsa.gov/resource/ebp/prevention-treatment-anxiety-college-students</a>.
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21. What support would be helpful in choosing and implementing
strategies to address behavioral health needs on your campus?
22. Reflecting on the challenges presented by the COVID-19
pandemic, how has your institution adapted or
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refined its pandemic preparedness strategies to specifically address
the mental health and well-being of students?
Role of the Department
23. How can the Department best support ongoing efforts inclusive
and exclusive of additional funding? What are the preferred methods for
collaboration and sustainable partnerships between the Department and
behavioral health experts?
24. What unmet needs remain and what barriers have institutions
encountered in providing mental health and substance use disorder
supports for their students? How can the Department assist in helping
to meet these needs and overcome barriers?
25. Are there any resources you would like the Department to
provide?
26. If the Department were to hold a convening or other event, what
specific topics or information would be most helpful to include in
supporting institutions and the work of the field?
Accessible Format: On request to the program contact person listed
under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, individuals with disabilities
can obtain this document in an accessible format. The Department will
provide the requestor with an accessible format that may include Rich
Text Format (RTF) or text format (txt), a thumb drive, an MP3 file,
braille, large print, audiotape, compact disc, or other accessible
format.
Electronic Access to This Document: The official version of this
document is the document published in the Federal Register. You may
access the official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of
Federal Regulations at <a href="http://www.govinfo.gov">www.govinfo.gov</a>. At this site, you can view this
document, as well as all other documents of this Department published
in the Federal Register, in text or Adobe Portable Document Format
(PDF). To use PDF, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is
available free at the site.
You may also access documents of the Department published in the
Federal Register by using the article search feature at
<a href="http://www.federalregister.gov">www.federalregister.gov</a>. Specifically, through the advanced search
feature at this site, you can limit your search to documents published
by the Department.
Nasser H. Paydar,
Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education.
[FR Doc. 2024-01605 Filed 1-25-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P
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