Supporting Faculty and Staff Mental Health and Well-Being: Community, Connection, and Balance

Last month, I introduced the U.S. Surgeon General’s Framework for Workplace Mental Health & Well-Being. The framework was created to start deeper conversations about change and well-being in the workplace and to foster “research, strategic investment, and broader policy advancement” to create healthy, productive workplaces (p. 9). The framework is divided into five “essentials” for workplace mental health and well-being: protection from harm, connection and community, work-life harmony, mattering at work, and opportunity for growth (p. 10). Each of these five essentials can be applied to academia as a workplace writ large and by institutions individually to promote greater health and well-being for faculty and staff. And since faculty and staff working conditions are student learning conditions, we should take these essentials and this opportunity for conversation around these ideals seriously.