Training Program Description:

The University Counseling Center (UCC) is excited to announce that we are now recruiting for 2024-2025 Mental Health Peer Educators (MHPEs). We are looking for undergraduate students who will be in their sophomore or junior year during the 2024-2025 academic year to join our training programs. The MHPEs will serve as leaders in building mental health resiliency within the campus community through offering workshops, outreach, 1:1 Coaching, and other student-facing services.

Mission:

 

In line with the mission of the University, the mission of the UCC MHPE program is to maintain a trans-disciplinary and collaborative mental health initiative that prepares students from diverse backgrounds to serve as leaders, engage the local community to promote education, health and quality of life, and support student success and engagement. Specifically, we aim to recruit MHPEs to lead mental health initiatives on campus through developing skills that will directly impact their campus community and are transferrable to a wide range of future careers. The MHPE program centers preventative and developmental services, with the ability to promote the intellectual (e.g., academic skills, study skills, managing neurodivergent concerns), emotional (e.g., distress tolerance, emotion regulation), cultural (e.g., community spaces, population-specific programming), and social (e.g., connection to others, finding community) development of students in ways that are beyond the reach of typical individual therapy.  

The MHPEs, in partnership with other undergraduate allies on campus and our campus partners, will engage the U of U community in mental health programming with the following aims: 

• Address common mental health concerns among students (e.g., emotion regulation, anxiety, motivation, social disconnection), 
• Improve students' social-emotional skills (e.g., problem-solving, values-based decision-making, distress tolerance, sitting with ambiguity), and 
• Develop preventative initiatives (e.g., suicide, interpersonal violence, sexual assault) 

Expectations and Roles:

• Preparation for Internship (prior to starting): In order to provide a foundational understanding of our services and the roles that interns will play, we have set up training materials to help interns feel prepared when they start in the fall. This includes both a spring semester check-in and some independent training over the summer.  

  • Spring Semester 2024: Selected interns will meet twice with the MHPE Coordinator before the conclusion of the spring semester to discuss the program and expectations and appropriate preparation. Selected interns will also then attend at least one workshop through the SWAMP as a participant in order to have a foundational understanding of the skills taught and the facilitation style.  
  • Summer 2024: Interns will be provided resources to prepare for the internship independently over the summer. These materials will include selected readings, audio/visual materials, and small assignments to acclimate the intern to counseling skills, ethics, and skills for outreach presentations. This work is expected to take no more than 20 hours across the duration of the summer semester. 

  Fall 2024 and Spring 2025: Interns will begin with a weeklong orientation (August 12 – August 16) with training on the UCC, the tools used by MHPEs, and introductions to the different types of skills the interns will be expected to work on. Weekly, the intern schedules will typically include the following activities for a total requirement of an average of 13 hours/week from interns (most hours will be completed in-person):  

  • SWAMP Workshop Facilitation: The Skills Workshops And Mindfulness Program (SWAMP) is one of the primary areas of direct client care that the UCC provides and that MHPEs will be involved with. The SWAMP offers several different workshops in both virtual and in-person formats, including workshops on managing stress, anxiety and depression symptoms, motivation, social anxiety, and succeeding academically. MHPEs will facilitate workshops throughout their internship year. See more here: https://skills.utah.edu/  
  • 1:1 Coaching: Using tools and skills learned in facilitating SWAMP workshops, MHPEs will also offer 1:1 peer support around topics likes motivation and social anxiety. This is a great opportunity for MHPEs to learn skills for individual work and extends the reach of the SWAMP to a greater number of U students.  
  • Social Media: Our social media campaigns are one of the best ways that the campus community finds out about our services AND can learn new skills to improve their mental health and well-being. We also use social media to promote our campus partners’ events – which helps get the word out to the campus community and our own staff. MHPEs will work with UCC staff and other interns to create and implement ongoing social media campaigns, primarily managing the TikTok account. 
  • Outreach: One of the primary jobs of an MHPE is to help promote mental health and well-being on our campus. This occurs through workshops and programming around campus, including with specific community projects (for example, the Suicide Prevention Chalk Art Festival) or through requested outreach events.  
  • Training : MHPEs will have direct training in order to complete their weekly tasks. This training will primarily be completed with the MHPE Coordinator, UCC staff, and graduate student interns.  
  • Seminar: MHPEs will attend a 1-hour weekly seminar. This seminar is where MHPEs will learn new skills, practice the skills they are teaching, brainstorm new ideas and programming, coordinate outreach and social media efforts, and be a space for connection to one another and learning about the mental health field.  
  • Supervision: Each MHPE will have a 1-hour supervision session every other week with the MHPE Coordinator and/or other staff. The focus of this supervision time may be on skill development of the intern, answering questions, and checking in on progress towards learning outcomes for the intern.  
  • Reading/Preparation/Other Projects: MHPEs will need to spend some time each week preparing for outreach activities and the SWAMP, planning social media, or working on other special projects.  

click here to view a PDF sample schedule

Qualifications:

What are we looking for? 

We are accepting applications from students who: 

• Will be enrolled full-time at the U in the 2024-2025 school year (12 credits/semester) 
• Will be entering their sophomore or junior year  
• Are currently majoring in a helping profession field (social work, psychology, nursing, etc) AND/OR has previous experience in providing similar services (working as peer support; working as a psych tech; working on a crisis hotline, etc) 
• Are passionate about promoting mental well-being on campus 
• Are interested in approaching mental health from a social justice and multicultural lens 

Our MHPE program will provide training and supervision in the skills that interns are expected to utilize during their program. However, previous experience demonstrating any of the following skills will be strongly considered:  

• Engaging presentation 
• Flexibility 
• Proactive problem-solving 
• Leadership 
• Helping skills – listening, empathy, goal-setting, rapport building 
• Collaboration  
• Personal awareness 

 

Benefits:

MHPEs will be paid $15/hour over the academic year(no work expected during Fall, Winter, or Spring breaks) for completion of their work. In addition, MHPEs will have access to supervision and training from UCC staff and will develop skills in leadership, basic helping skills, community engagement, outreach skills, and gain a firm foundation in mental health. MHPEs will become members of a great team at the UCC and will be leaders in providing services to improve the resiliency of our campus community.  

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