>> I'd like to welcome everybody back to the Counseling and Psychological Services podcast series. I'm Dr Derek Vigon, licensed clinical psychologist, staff psychologist at CAPS. I'm really excited we have some amazing guests here today from Mason Residence Life. And we're gonna be talking about some tips and tools to manage stress, mental health.

And become a little bit more aware of some of the resources available to some of our students living in residence halls. I have Zareena Khan with me today, and I'll let her take it from here.
>> All right, hi, everyone. My name is Zareena Khan, I'm the assistant director of student well-being programs in the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being.

And I'm here today with Emma Brace, who is an RA in Eastern Shore.
>> And I am here with Mike Hudson, who is the CD for Eastern Shore.
>> So today I'm gonna be talking to you about kind of student well-being as it pertains to students living in residence halls.

So my first question is, who can a student turn to you in their residence hall if they're having a mental health concern, or just if they want general well-being support?
>> So your RAs are there to support you, it's kind of what our job is. So you're always free to come talk to us, no matter the time, even if it's the middle of the night.

If it's just stress-related and anxiety, a little bit more minor, you may just wanna go to a friend, if you feel more comfortable talking that out with a friend. And if it's a more serious concern, if you come to your RA, you have to realize that we are non-confidential employees.

So if you say something that you think was a threat to your safety, we're gonna have to tell somebody else about that. And of course, we always recommend going to CAPS if you're severely worried about your mental health.
>> Emma, that's a great point that you bring up about CAPS as a resource.

I wanna remind everybody that as Mason students, CAPS is a fantastic resource that is confidential, offering individual therapy, group, psychotherapy, workshops, and psychiatry appointments. Mason has just paired up with TimelyCare, which offers a web component platform giving access to more mental health visits for students. Each student gets 12 sessions per academic year, and it's really an amazing resource.

Mike, I'm curious, as our CD, what are your thoughts?
>> Yeah, so there's a couple of resources available. Always, your RA is a great person to go to. Your community director is a resource also available to you. So your community director is the person who supervises your RAs.

They, typically speaking, have an office in the lobby of wherever your building is.
>> Mike, what else comes to mind for you?
>> I'll say to that, I always recommend reaching out, we have CAPS is always available. CAPS, I believe, just also has an emergency line called Protocol, you can reach out to if you're having a mental health need, an emergency.

And additionally speaking, we have a bunch of student staff, and someone's always available. If your RA specifically is not available, you can call one of our 24-hour housing desk, either Piedmont or Eisenhower. And they can get in contact with another student staff member, called our community assistance, who could also reach out and talk to you if need be.


>> So what are some stress management tips that you would suggest for students who are living in residence halls?
>> You need to manage your time all the time, you have to schedule in your free time. It's not as much, cuz you have so much all this free time that you never had in high school, that you haven't quite able to construct that time, or you're not seeing your friends every single day at every single class.

So you need to block out your time to do homework, and block out a two-hour time every day to be like, I'm not gonna do anything right now, I'm gonna do something fun. And do that, even on the weekends, cuz you have so much homework, you have a lot of things to do.

You have to do homework on the weekends, they're not gonna be just free time. So you need to make sure you schedule all that fun and activities, so you're not just stuck in your room doing homework every day.
>> Emma, you make an amazing point about time management.

How have y'all managed mental health and well-being in the midst of a really crazy academic schedule, other commitments outside of your classes, and managing everything?
>> Now, my first year as an undergrad, I really struggled with my mental health and my well-being. Because I was putting so much emphasis on my schoolwork and being successful in school.

I was not putting any focus on myself and taking care of my well-being, right, in defining what success meant for me. And I think for everyone, that's the key. I would say to that, looking for support systems, looking for people to talk to. And for graduate students specifically, generally speaking, you're juggling a lot of different things, right?

Usually you're working full time, or taking more classes and working part time, on top of trying to be a student and trying to adjust to a new place. And a lot of the times on-campus things are designed for undergraduate students and not graduate students. So you may be struggling to find your connection on campus.

And I just wanna say that's normal.
>> I would agree, that's totally normal.
>> Right, you're not alone if you're going through that, it takes a lot of perseverance and a lot of dedication. And I believe that everyone out there listening that you could get through this.
>> Zareena and Emma, what else is coming up for both of you?


>> How can a student living in a residence hall build community? And what is kind of the importance of socializing and building community as it pertains to a person's mental health?
>> I'd usually don't know anybody, you split from all your high school friends, you're all over the place.

And if you don't try to socialize and do anything, you're just gonna feel lonely all the time in college, isn't gonna be the experience that you always kind of hoped it to be for. And like all the RAs, we're throwing events, and so if you're in an LC or a community, you're a coordinator with Ramon.

Even though these events may seem lame, if you come, you're gonna meet somebody, even just for a quick conversation, it's gonna make you feel better. And all the RAs are required to have community hours, so we'll sit in the common room for like six hours every week. And just come in and chat with us, doesn't have to be anything serious, it can just be fun, we're always here to talk.

We love a good conversation, because everybody else does. We also have the huge university events, Once Upon a Scream is coming up on Halloween, that you're gonna meet hundreds of people, cuz almost everyone shows up for that event. You just need to go out and try the different events, and not just be like, I don't think I'm gonna like that, and not go for it.


>> To me, that sounds like getting out of your comfort zone and attending some of these fun events.
>> Getting yourself out there, and putting yourself out there, is one of the more important things to do. You're always more than likely doing an event or a program all the time.

And if not, there's someone that can help connect you with something on campus. The biggest thing, you could utilize Mason 360 here at George Mason. Mason 360 is a platform where you could go online and look at every event that's happening on campus. I teach a university 100 class, which is a transitional college class.

And students ask me all the time, it's like, Mike, I don't know how to get involved, I don't know what to do. And we just pull up Mason360 and look at the 20 events that are happening today, tomorrow, and the next day. So if you think there's nothing going on on campus, it's not true.

You just gotta find the right places to look, and Mason360 is one of the best places to do it.
>> Another really great resource for residential students is joining a learning community. Which is basically a group of students who live on campus in the same residence hall, who might share common major, or identity, or interest.


>> Can you say more about this?
>> So this is a really great way to build community among people who have the same interests as you. And there are a lot of benefits to living in a learning community as well. So some learning communities might take a course together.

And really get that deeper experience learning about a topic that interests them. They have access to specific events and activities that are dedicated to the topic of interest that they're interested in, that it's just for their LC.
>> Who tends to lead these learning communities?
>> They get to interact with staff who are dedicated to supporting those specific students in the LC that they oversee.

So if joining a learning community is something that you might be interested in. LC applications for the 2023 to 24 academic year will be available on December 12th. So you may wanna check out what kinds of LC's you might be interested in joining. So for example, I oversee the well-being LC, a bunch of other LC's based on identity groups, and again, majors.

So you can definitely find something that might interest you.
>> Just a reminder that spring housing applications will be open on StarRez for on-campus upper class students on December 12th, 2022. For off-campus transfer students on April 18th, 2023, and for any other off-campus students on April 18th, 2023.

And again, that will be on StarRez.
>> Wow, thank you so much for all of that amazing information, Zareena. I just wanted to do a quick shout out thanking Emma, Mike, and Zareena for helping put together the podcast featuring mental health, well-being, stress management, taking care of yourself in the residence hall at George Mason University.

Like I mentioned earlier in the podcast, CAPS in amazing resource for all students, it's in sub one, on the third floor, in room 3129. And offers confidential counseling, crisis support, group therapy, and medication management. Thanks again for listening, and have a great rest of your day.