Wellness and well-being series looks at behavior and mental health services
The new six-part series from Penn Today focuses on University resources for students, faculty, and staff.
Taking a break outdoors can help support mental health and well-being. Penn’s campus has several peaceful places outdoors, including a former botanical garden now known as the Bio Pond.
Wellness and well-being are woven into the life of Penn’s campus for students, faculty, postdocs, and staff. In a new series, Penn Today is highlighting some University’s resources aimed at supporting the campus community.
This first part will look at behavioral and mental health and well-being. Upcoming topics in the series are physical health and well-being, family friendly policies and resources, online safety and best practices, public safety resources, and financial wellness.
Wellness at Penn offers programs for behavioral and mental health and well-being for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students and some resources that are also available to faculty and staff.
“We see wellness as a holistic endeavor that embraces the diverse needs of our campus community,” says Benoit Dubé, Penn’s chief wellness officer and a clinical professor of psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine. “From medical care and counseling support to disease surveillance and health education, we strive to foster a culture where every student can thrive. Our comprehensive approach ensures that wellness is not just a service, but a shared priority to help cultivate resilience and connection across all aspects of life at Penn.
“We also offer a specific program for students, faculty, and staff to learn how to identify when someone is experiencing stress, distress, and crisis and tools to help people cope with those feelings,” he says.
An interactive training program for students, faculty and staff, i care, aims to build a caring community with the skills and resources to intervene when someone is dealing with stress, distress, and crisis. Clinician-led sessions include information, discussion, and experiential exercises that focus on mental health beliefs and biases; listening techniques; crisis intervention skills; and counseling services. The next training, for faculty and staff, is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Oct. 17 in Houston Hall. A student i care training date will be announced soon.
“Taking a break outdoors and connecting with nature is essential for our well-being,” Dubé says. “In addition to the Morris Arboretum, we are very fortunate that Penn’s West Philadelphia campus is an accredited arboretum in its own right with over 240 species of trees and shrubs. A true urban forest, it allows our entire community to unwind, reflect, and recharge. These moments in nature not only enhance our mental clarity but also foster a sense of belonging. One such space is the Penn Farm.”
The Penn Farm is open to the entire Penn community, located at the southernmost tip of Penn Park. The Farm focuses on wellness, food access, sustainability, and education and grows thousands of pounds of organic produce to support food-access initiatives. And the farm hosts a wide variety of programming, including wellness events that prioritize movement, time in nature, nutrition, and inclusive community building. Volunteer days encourage people to come out into nature.
Another peaceful outside space is Penn’s Kaskey Park, known as the Bio Pond, created as a botanical garden in the 1890s. Located near Hamilton Walk, it is home to hundreds of species of plants and is a refuge for wildlife.
Penn Wellness provides several programs specifically for students and their behavioral and mental health, including:
Let’s Talk: Free and confidential drop-in conversations with a trained professional, available at various locations across campus. Students can talk about any stress and anxiety they are feeling, bounce around ideas, and work through their emotions.
Group Therapy and Workshops: Several targeted support groups, including grief, mindfulness, interpersonal growth, substance use, international student empowerment, and executive function management.
SUPER Program: The Substance Use, Prevention, Education, and Recovery Program provides support to reduce harm related to substance use, including brief interventions for individual students as well as student groups.
Peer Wellness Coaching: A preventive service that trains Penn students to offer one-on-one coaching to other students. The goal is to have them feel heard, supported, and empowered after coaching and to be clearer about wellness goals, make action plans toward those goals, and be kept accountable by the coach. Topics include physical health, emotional health, time management, relationships, transitions, finances, career, and spirituality.
Penn’s Division of Human Resources has several programs and benefits focused on behavioral and mental health for faculty and staff, including:
Mindwell: a webpage that consolidates the emotional wellness and behavioral health resources available to faculty and staff, including information on workshops like “Flourishing Through Uncertainty: How to Stay Sane, Optimistic, and Grounded” on Oct. 16.
Employee Assistance Program (EAP): Penn’s EAP provides eligible faculty, staff, and postdocs access to free, confidential, 24/7 counseling and referral services for personal and professional life issues from any location. Services are available by phone, email, webchat, and video and through face-to-face sessions. Counselors provide connection with master’s-level clinicians, work/life specialists, medical bill negotiators, and financial and legal professionals.
Health Insurance: All of Penn’s health insurance plans include behavior health coverage. Health plan participants, and their enrolled dependents can contact their provider network to find a licensed behavioral and mental health professional.
Penn COBALT: Connect with resources including therapy, wellness coaches, self-help, and crisis and spiritual support. Sign up for group sessions including lunchtime workshops on topics including managing conflicting priorities, balancing work and family life, and parenting challenges. Cobalt was developed by Penn researchers.
Penn Healthy You: Penn Healthy You provides wellness opportunities to support mind and body.
“UPHS is committed to supporting the unique needs of our health care workers,” says Jennifer Brady, UPHS director of employee benefits and well-being. “Programs and resources are designed specifically for the unique challenges our staff face, including behavioral health benefits and resources, Penn COBALT, an Employee Assistance Program, a comprehensive health care navigation and caregiving concierge service, and other wellness programs, to ensure they can stay healthy and balanced both at work and at home,”
The UPHS community can access these resources:
UPHS benefits: “The best care for our patients starts with the best care for our employees,” Brady says. The UPHS employee benefit programs include behavioral health and preventive care benefits to help employees get and stay healthy.
Penn Medicine COBALT: A mental health platform specifically for health care workers, offering personalized recommendations.
Wellthy: A personalized health care navigation and care giving concierge benefit, Wellthy can help with care needs, including tasks related to aging, special needs, veterans’ benefits, mental health, childcare, and more.
In partnership with Penn Medicine, the Penn Museum is bringing back Mind & Mood Recharge, an after-hours series the first Wednesday of the month from November through April, transforming the galleries and gardens into “a sanctuary of self-care” from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Mind & Mood features four sessions of all-levels yoga, as well as sound baths, guided meditation, art therapy, and a Botanical Bar with mocktails. On opening night, Nov. 6, the first 200 guests will receive a limited-edition reusable tote bag. Admission is free with a PennCard.
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