Table of Contents
Listen to the Episode
How Schools Can Help Students Manage Their Mental Health During Holiday Breaks
In this episode of Care Conversations, Carly Newhouse, senior manager of clinical programs at TimelyCare, discusses strategies for schools to support students’ mental health during holiday breaks. Heading home, or away from campus, can be a mix of excitement and stress for many students. Join Carly and host Sushi Suresh for a conversation about how colleges and universities can make the holiday break (and the return to campus) smoother for students.
Care Conversations is an audio series by TimelyCare, higher education’s most trusted virtual health and well-being provider. Each conversation offers thoughtful insights from a subject-matter expert on different topics impacting the health and well-being of campus communities.
How can colleges and universities best prepare students to manage their mental health and family expectations during holiday breaks?
Carly Newhouse:
- Educate Your Students About Support Resources Available Away From Campus: If your school has invested in TimelyCare, you want students to know that we are available and all the resources we have, from self-care resources to on-demand or scheduled visits. Additionally, are they able to access any of the on-campus resources that they typically rely on during this period?
- Help Students Who Stay On Campus to Find Connection: The same holds true for students who can’t return home because their family is located internationally, they can’t afford to get home, or home is not safe—so they really cannot go home. We want to make sure that they know about the support available, especially if they’re going to be staying on campus, and potentially not with a group of peers that they know. How can they stay plugged in? Perhaps the school has activities or some ways of connecting students that will be on campus.
How might schools prepare for the students return? And how can the break impact academic and social reintegration with campus?
Carly Newhouse:
There may be some whiplash with a student going from an emerging adult, who is independent and choosing their own time to go to sleep rather than a curfew, having to adjust to being back in a family environment. So, when somebody’s been back with family for a month and a half, they start to get used to that dynamic again. To come back to school and be independent when perhaps they haven’t done laundry on their own for six weeks, for example, can be a challenge. It’ll take a little bit of time to adjust.
- Help Them Readjust to School Mode: I’d definitely recommend that professors not assign a tremendous amount of assignments that are due quickly. We want to give students a little bit of time to readjust.
- Remind Them Again About Available Resources: I’m sure professors know this from years of research and experience, but we want to be mindful of giving people time and reminding them of the resources, such as TimelyCare and on-campus resources. Six weeks can feel like a lot, and you don’t remember what you had access to, especially if you hadn’t previously used it. But now they might benefit from using it.
Closing Thoughts: Be mindful of students’ mental health during academic breaks! Transitions for students heading home and returning to campus can be difficult. So, overcommunicate about the support resources available to students each step of the way.
This transcript has been edited from the original conversation for clarity.
Listen to the Episode
Tips for Students to Manage Their Mental Health During Holiday Breaks
In this episode of Care Conversations, Carly Newhouse, senior manager of clinical programs at TimelyCare, discusses the challenges students face when returning home from college during academic breaks. Heading home, or away from campus, can be a mix of excitement and stress for many students. Join Carly and host Sushi Suresh for a conversation about how students can handle family dynamics, keep their independence, and set boundaries that work.
Care Conversations is an audio series by TimelyCare, higher education’s most trusted virtual health and well-being provider. Each conversation offers thoughtful insights from a subject-matter expert on different topics impacting the health and well-being of campus communities.
What are some common challenges students face when they return home during academic breaks?
Carly Newhouse:
The biggest challenges are often that you leave college feeling more independent and more capable, and then you return home to an environment where you are likely somebody’s child and somebody’s sibling with certain responsibilities. There can be some cognitive dissonance there, where the student feels like, ‘Okay, earlier today, I was a rather independent adult, and then this afternoon, all of a sudden, I’m being told to clean my room and take the dog out before I eat lunch.’ That can be a real challenge, to switch gears. And, it’s one that the student may really not want to transition to that older role.
How can students can maintain healthy boundaries with family while still preserving that independence?
Carly Newhouse:
A key piece of guidance is to have clear and compassionate communication with your family members. So, you want to educate them on who you’ve become and what’s important to you. There may be students who talk to their family members daily, and yet, when you’re in person and living together, there are nuances that come out that you might not have articulated over the phone. So you want to educate them on what’s important to you now but do so in a way that they can be open to hearing it.
So rather than just saying, ‘No, I refuse to clean my room because I’m an adult and I can live however I want within the boundaries of these four walls,’ you could say, ‘Hey, this feels a little odd, because in college, I keep my room however I wanted it. And as long as there’s no food or anything dangerous for anyone in the family, it feels frustrating to me to be told to clean my room. Can we come to some middle ground? What feels the most difficult for you to accept in my room right now? Is it the clothes on the floor? Is it the garbage can overflowing? Like, what is it?’
What are some strategies for students who are experiencing feelings of loneliness and grief?
Carly Newhouse:
I’m really glad you brought it up! A lot of times, when we talk about going back into your family life, there’s an assumption that your family life is safe and healthy. And that’s, unfortunately, not the case for everybody.
There are a lot of students who come from families where there’s physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, and so that is an unsafe environment. That can feel lonely and scary being taken from a college setting where you feel safe, maybe finally, for the first time. And then having to go back into an environment that is chaotic and inherently unsafe can be really challenging in those circumstances.
I would lean on a few things.
- Support System: You want to reach out to your support system, especially if loneliness is the primary feeling. That support system might be other family members, friends, a professor, or us here at Timely Care. You might want to engage with TalkNow, scheduled counseling, or just Peer Community. It really depends on what feels safe to you. If you’re in a setting where you don’t have privacy, then an audio or video call is probably not ideal for you.
- Self-Care: You also want to lean on the self-care rituals that feel good to you. And hopefully, at this point in your life, you know that ‘Hey, when I exercise, I feel more empowered and more in control,’ or ‘Hey, when I take 10 minutes to journal and lay out my goals for the day, I feel more able to make good decisions regardless of the environment that I’m finding myself in.’
Closing Thought: Returning home during the holiday season can be a challenge for students. By setting healthy boundaries, being clear in communication, and leaning on support resources and self-care, students can navigate the academic break and be ready for their to return to campus.
This transcript has been edited from the original conversation for clarity.
