The Student Mental Health Community of Practice is a community of advising, career services, and learning support staff who have attended Mental Health First Aid training and wish to continue connecting with others to share resources and practice the skills of supporting student and colleague mental health.
Joining the Student Mental Health Community of Practice
Who can join?
As we begin this Community of Practice (CoP), we invite those who have attended Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training to participate. If you’re interested in joining the community but haven’t yet attended Mental Health First Aid training, please check out our events calendar to see upcoming sessions or reach out to info.oacs@wisc.edu for more information.
If I have attended MHFA training and am interested, how do I join?
You can sign up for the Student Mental Health email list below to become a part of the Community of Practice and gain access to resources, community support, and more.
Student Mental Health CoP Email List
To join the Mental Health CoP Email List:
- Click the button above to send an email to mhcop+subscribe@g-groups.wisc.edu
- Within a minute or two, you’ll receive an email that includes steps to confirm your membership. **Do not use the option of clicking the ‘Join This Group’ button. Reply to the email to complete subscription.
- Log into your UW-Madison G Suite account, not your personal Google account, to complete the steps provided in the membership email.
After completing the steps, you can begin using the Mental Health CoP Google Group and Email List. To send a message to the group, simply enter mhcop@g-groups.wisc.edu in the “To” field of your email client.
Frequently Asked Questions
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What is a Community of Practice (CoP)?
Communities of Practice, defined by Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner, are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do, and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.
What is the purpose of this community?
- Learn and share best practices and resources and build a repertoire of tools to assist in supporting students mental health
- Develop a safe and collaborative space to debrief student interactions, gain perspective, and consult with colleagues
- Practice and refresh skills and strategies to support student mental health
- Support the navigation of mental health and academic intersections in our work
- Recommend ongoing professional development opportunities for the community to build our collective capacity in supporting student mental health
- Discuss tools and strategies to set boundaries, find support, and practice self-care
How will community participants engage with one another?
- Email Listserv: Used for upcoming meeting reminders and communication, sharing resources among community members, and other communications as needed.
- Teams Channel: Used for connecting with fellow community members to debrief situations and support each other as needed. Members can opt into using this channel, but it is not necessary. Information on how to join the Teams Channel coming soon!
- Google Drive: Used for collecting resources and Community of Practice guiding documents, agendas, notes, slides shared, and more.
- Virtual or In-person Meetings: We will hold a few meetings each semester, a mix of virtual and in-person depending on timing and topic. We greatly value connection time as a dedicated part of all meetings.
What kind of commitment is the Student Mental Health CoP?
Members are welcome to join meetings and interact with the group as much or as little as they would like. Members have the opportunity to take on leadership roles in the community or are welcome to simply join for meetings that are a good fit for their interests.
I have more questions. Who can I contact?
We’re happy to chat more about this Community of Practice! Feel free to reach out to info.oacs@wisc.edu to get connected.