Greetings from LLCC Student Success! We wanted to take the opportunity to announce that May is Mental Health Awareness Month. This awareness month is to shine a light on mental health and reduce stigma surrounding mental illness.
The last year has been an unprecedented year filled with anxiety, stress, confusion, but also hope — hope that this year will be better. Now, more than ever, students need emotional and mental health support to help them stay on track with their goals and to feel connected to faculty and staff. To that end, we wanted to remind you that LLCC has partnered with Talkspace, a tele-mental health provider to offer students free, confidential counseling services. Students were sent information in early January and periodically throughout the semester; they can find the log in information in Canvas and Blackboard. Additionally, Student Success shares information about mental health and wellness on our website: www.llcc.edu/mental-health-and-wellness. We can also provide classroom presentations on mental health and support services; for more information about this service please call 217-786-2224 and ask for Alex, Melissa or Claire.
During the month of May, we encourage you to help reduce the stigma of mental illness by sharing information about mental health and how students can seek support. You could do this in your Canvas or Blackboard announcements, or discuss it during a Teams or Zoom class meeting. Mental Health America has a great website with information and free downloads; this would be a great site to link to in a Canvas or Blackboard announcement: https://www.mhanational.org/mental-health-month. Additionally, you can use social media to show your support; if you download the toolkit on the Mental Health America site, there are tips and links to social media content.
We, as an institution, have been through so much in the last year, but we’ve made it through and that is because we supported each other and our students. Thank you for all you do!
If you, as a faculty or staff member, are needing support, please remember that LLCC provides access to the Employee Assistance Program. For more information, please click: https://llcconline.sharepoint.com/HR2/SitePages/Employee-Assistance-Program-(EAP)-Services.aspx.