Michigan community colleges boost virtual, in-person mental health services

Community colleges offer few mental health services; some offer none
The Detroit business community is supporting efforts to improve services as students work to earn a credential
New services are remote options and can be accessed via a phone or computer

In her first year at Henry Ford College, Iman Soubra enrolled in a microbiology class that took so much time for her to master, she even had dreams about it.

The demands of the class and less time with friends, family and hobbies took a toll on Soubra’s mental health. To cope, she tried many things, eventually connecting with a campus counselor who helped improve her mood.

Soubra said she would have never given up on her path to earn a degree but knows other students might, which is why she recently organized an event to let students know mental health resources are available.

“We want all students here to succeed and thrive and grow and to be able to go out into the world and accomplish multiple, beautiful things,” said Soubra, 18.

Soubra prevailed over the stressors in higher education, but seven Michigan community colleges are trying to reach other students who might not.

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The colleges are working to shore up mental health services to support undergraduates navigating the road to a credential. The effort is aimed at increasing the state’s talent pipeline and supported by the local business and philanthropic community – which regards mental health support in tandem with free tuition, transportation and child-care support as another tool for colleges to help students persist and graduate.

It comes as Michigan has been working to increase postsecondary educational attainment to 60% by 2030. The state only reached 51.6% in 2024, ranking 39th in the nation.

“There are two things that stop people from completing a degree: tuition, and everything else,” said Greg Handel, chief education and talent officer of the Detroit Regional Chamber. “This is part of the ‘everything else.’”

Mental health resources vary widely across the state’s 28 community colleges, with 13% not having any services at all, according to the latest findings of the Michigan Mental Health Landscape Report. Many have limited capacity: 41% of the colleges have providers that also work in other positions. Expanding resources is a priority for colleges, yet funding is a barrier.

The Ballmer Group, Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation and Rocket Community Fund collaborated in 2023 with the Detroit Regional Chamber to administer $30 million to enhance community colleges and bolster work focused on student pathways, student success and career pathways.

David Egner, president and CEO of the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, said that young adults need to be able to find careers with good pay and upward mobility that don’t require a four-year degree and “community colleges provide the most stable, accessible access for individuals in the region to get into those career pathways.”

Mental health is part of the focus, added foundation program officer Kate Partington, “because of the students that community colleges serve: Often they are working, often they are returning to education, they may not be the typical 18-year-olds coming out of high school … it’s part of our work, understanding that students need to be supported holistically in order to persist and complete.”

Leaders of the community colleges identified mental health as a student success strategy early on, especially a few years after the pandemic, so that is why between $300,000 and $400,000 has been invested in mental health, said Stephanie Weiss, director of the Chamber’s Detroit Drives Degree Community College Collaborative, which is coordinating the effort.

“Like many places, there was still stigma, and the right conversations around student mental health were not happening, and a lot of the right supports were not in place,” she continued. “If students are not well, they are not going to be able to complete college.”

Many of the colleges have gone through the Healthy Minds Study, led by the University of Michigan, to assess the needs of students and staff on campus, Weiss said. Another partner, the New York-based Jed Foundation, has examined the identified needs of each college and created individualized strategic plans for better practices.

Virtual options

Henry Ford College has gone through the process and in May is piloting two virtual mental health services to supplement the college’s five full-time and two part-time counselors.

The college will offer a peer-to-peer virtual support program that will allow students to connect with trained peers on a computer screen or app. It will also offer virtual one-on-one counseling for students, with up to six visits a year. Both will be available 24/7, and students can pick a peer or virtual counselor’s gender, ethnicity, age group and more. Students will also be able to participate in virtual support groups and utilize a library of self-care videos.

“We recognize that there are limitations with our on-campus counselors because they are not always available when students need them,” said Holly Diamond, HFC vice president of student affairs. “We are breaking the mold here and going virtual. Students are up at all hours of the night and that’s when they have their moments, when they are prepping for an exam or a paper. To be able to offer a 24-7 hotline for both of those services is an amazing opportunity.”

Mental health is a high priority at community colleges where students are primarily commuting.

“Commuter students come here, take a class and run out so they don’t have that sense of belonging,” Diamond said. “When a student doesn’t feel like they belong, they don’t feel connected to an institution and they don’t persist and complete at higher rates like a four-year school.”

Completion rates for students attending public community colleges are also significantly lower than those attending four-year colleges: 43.9% versus 70.9%, according to national data.

Washtenaw Community College also recently went through the process that surveyed students and assessed the state of the school’s mental health resources. The college offered in-person counseling for decades but prior to the pandemic it only had one full-time counselor, said Clarence Jennings Jr., WCC vice president of student services. The school also relied on two full-time academic advisers who were licensed counselors so they provided part-time counseling.

But after the pandemic, and college leaders heard from students struggling with anxiety, depression and more, the college increased its full time counselors to four. WCC was in the process of increasing its full-time counseling staff when the assessment indicated it needed to increase counseling services so it confirmed what the college already started, Jennings said.

The assessment recommended increasing awareness of campus mental health resources so the college posted signs across campus highlighting the hours of on-campus counseling and its 24-hour service; it also recommended training students who work for the college behind counters on campus, so when they interact with students they can recognize and respond if any appear stressed or troubled. The college also responded to recommendations and has since doubled the number of workshops for students, especially adults who are adults, which make up 51% of WCC’s enrollment, so they can cope with stressors while in college.

“For some, that’s a lot of stress on how they are going to continue to work, take care of their children and go to school … and maybe caring for an aging parent,” said Jennings.

As students prepare to take final exams next week, WCC will also be trying to reach students where they are on campus to provide support, Jennings added. Counselors will be working with the staff of the library and other departments to provide sessions on how to deal with stress; the college’s therapy dog will be on campus, and counselors will be available for one-on-one sessions if students need them.

“Our mission is education,” Jennings said. “But we recognize that if we are not able to support our students holistically, our students in some cases would not be successful without having those resources available.”

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