Essential Business Communications Skills Proposal

To:

From: *****************8

Date: October 01, 2020

Re: Promoting better Mental Health Practices for Students at CMU

Introduction

The mental health of college students at CMU is important to address given its effects on study

performance and overall student well-being. The purpose of this proposal is to inform and find

tentative solutions in order to improve the mental health of said students. Mental health issues

are increasing at an alarming rate across college and university campuses, and there are few

resources to help them through this at CMU. These psychological problems can severely hurt

students, as well as potentially put futures at risk, so it is crucial to create broader and accessible

solutions to these issues at CMU. This memo will first outline the problem of mental illness in

college students, and then provide a tentative solution of increasing awareness and access to

these services at CMU. It will then outline a research plan involving secondary research, a

survey, and interview as methods to gather answers before describing the benefits of the tentative

solution and identify costs.

Problem and Needs

Problem Definition: There has been a significant increase in mental illnesses among university

students. CMU is no different in this aspect. While this change is slowly gaining recognition,

colleges are failing to provide support that is proving to be truly beneficial.

Stakeholders: There are many stakeholders at CMU for this research including college students,

campus faculty, close relatives of students, mental health workers at CMU's counseling center,

among others. All of these will help provide data or information for this research.

Relevant Literature: All across the United States, close to 100 percent of college counselors state

that there are growing psychological issues among their student population. With this shown, it is

apparent around the country that more and more students are suffering (Lattie et al., 2019).

My research questions for this proposal are as follows:

• RQ1: What current mental health resources are available to college students at CMU?

• RQ2: How do students and faculty at CMU perceive the availability/effectiveness of these resources for our students?

• RQ3: How can CMU help improve the mental health of their students moving forward?

Solution

A starting solution would be to address the available counseling offered to the students on their

campuses. Not only should the access to mental health facilities and providers be increased, but

also the overall promotion of the services on campus. There is somewhat of a selection of

counseling services available currently at CMU, yet student populations can be into the

thousands, which means that the centers cannot completely address all of the needs for the

student body that struggles with their mental health. To further this problem, there is some

advertisement of services across campuses, yet not enough to be noticeable to all. This solution

has the potential to help start the healing process, along with increasing students’ comfort levels

with speaking to a professional about the problems that contribute to their mental illnesses.

Increasing the access to mental health care would also be extremely beneficial as would raising

awareness. Outpatient mental health care can provide necessary support, often as same-day

services. This includes one-on-one care that cannot necessarily be provided elsewhere.

With the topic of mental health, there can be a lot of judgement and even humiliation when

discussing personal problems. As the stigma around mental health problems increases, the

willingness to talk about problems decreases, especially reducing the number of students willing

to go to counseling or even aware of it. Many aspects of the campus environment could reduce

this stigma, such as groups around campus and relationships (Holland & Wheeler, 2016). In turn,

this makes it important to assess how well CMU is doing in providing these services and helping

increase awareness in students. There has been an increase in the acceptance of discussing

mental health struggles in the last 20 years, yet there is still a high number of people that

stigmatize the subject, therefore causing some students to avoid getting the help they need. In

order for all of CMU to receive the care they need, there needs to be a greater understanding and

acceptance of the topic, including across campuses.

Research Methodology and Plan

Phase 1: Conduct literature research. Research and identify resources available for mental

health for CMU students, along with what would be most beneficial to help said students. Search

queries I am planning on using in Google Scholar and the CMU library database to locate

research articles are "campus mental health" "university mental health" and "mental well-being

university", among others. This should let me find a wide variety of articles and techniques to

help promote mental well-being and awareness of students used across the United States and

elsewhere.

Phase 2: Do a survey. For primary data will be collected through surveying students on their

awareness of mental health resources and how to locate these. Some questions I plan on

surveying them on will involve indicating their level of agreement (Likert-scale questions such

as "Agree Very Much, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Disagree Very Much") to questions such as

"CMU does a good job of making me aware of mental health services", "When I have mental

health issues, I know where to go for help", among others.

Phase 3: Conduct an interview with subject-matter expert. Collect primary data by interviewing

someone at the counseling center at CMU. I will ask questions such as "What is CMU currently

doing to help its students' mental well-being?", "What are some challenges in providing mental

care that CMU needs to work on?", "What is CMU doing well in providing for students?" "What

can it do better?". This should give me a better sense of what CMU is currently doing and the

challenges they face.

Phase 4: Compare and contrast CMU with secondary data. Observe and collect secondary

scholarly research on websites from similar to CMU (either Michigan-based or other) campuses.

This will help compare and contrast what CMU is doing compared to peers and give a better

sense of how it stacks up.

Phase 6: Analyze and review. Analyze the collected data and identify gaps in CMU mental

health services from survey, interview and literature comparison. This will allow me to establish

broad overall patterns that emerge from my research, and to hone in on these for possible

solutions.

Phase 7: Converge on solution. Discover solution(s) that would provide the best result for

CMU. After careful weighing of evidence, consider which solutions would be particular useful

for CMU to consider. I will need to be objective in considering possible alternatives and making

sure I represent the situation at CMU truthfully and establish patterns before I make the

recommendation for a possible solution based on what I have observed.

Benefits

Studying this topic will allow more research and information to prove and increase awareness of

the problem at CMU. This research will also create an understanding of what solutions should be

implemented immediately, creating the greatest contribution to assist mental health and what

next steps should follow. By doing these solutions, students with mental and psychological

illnesses will receive needed help. Also, these may help to slow the increase in mental health

disorders as there is an outlet to speak to when beginning to struggle.

Costs

The cost of the project will be the need to increase employment in the mental health centers

(such as counseling centers). It will also mean an increasing cost towards these centers in order

to add the necessary components, such as an emergency center. It will also take time in order to

build relationships with surrounding inpatient and outpatient facilities to make them more

accessible to the university students. Much of the cost will be time and effort to provide the best

care.

Conclusion

Thank you for viewing my proposal. I can be reached anytime at [email protected] or at: (555) 555-5555.

References

Holland, D., & Wheeler, H. (2016). College Student Stress and Mental Health: Examination of

Stigmatic Views on Mental Health Counseling, Michigan Sociological Review, 30: 16-

43,135. Retrieved from https://www.michigansociology.org

Lattie, E., Lipson, K., Eisenberg, D. (2019). Technology and College Student Mental Health:

Challenges and Opportunities, Frontiers of Psychiatry, 10: 246. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00246