UNC-CH Peer Support Core
Peer Support Core for Mental Health at UNC-Chapel Hill
Mental health is a top concern for universities across the United States and UNC-Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) is no exception. Data from UNC-CH indicates that the undergraduate and graduate student populations are experiencing high rates of mental health-related concerns while faculty and staff also express concerns broadly related to their mental health. Recognizing the importance of mental health, the need for cultural changes to improve mental health across campus, and the potential for a breadth of strategies outside of clinical care, the UNC-CH Mental Health Task Force recommended that the University “increase resources for programs focused on peer-to-peer support, non-crisis support, and discussion.” The UNC-CH Peer Support Core was developed to promote that recommendation.
Mission: Our mission is to promote high quality, diverse, broadly available peer support for students, staff, and faculty that provides a social base for individual, group, and institutional coping with challenges; provides a base especially for coping with COVID-19 and UNC-CH’s reckoning with and response to racism and inequity; contributes to overall goals of Carolina Next.
Objective: Our objective is to facilitate the development of mutual support groups and activities and individual peer support in units (departments, centers, offices, etc.) across UNC-CH so that no individual is without someone to turn in coping with the challenges confronting us. We do this by providing consultation and education on peer support principles and evidence, providing training and implementation assistance, and facilitating the Carolina Peer Support Collaborative.
Mini-Grants to Advance Peer Support at UNC-Chapel Hill
The UNC-CH Peer Support Core has launched a Call for Proposals on November 7, 2022. This Call for Proposals invites applications for mini-grants that advance peer support at UNC-Chapel Hill. Applications will be accepted between November 7, 2022 and April 30, 2023 and will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
The vision of peer support driving this activity is a broad one, including formal programs and casual interactions that contribute to feelings of connectedness at UNC-Chapel Hill. Projects might focus on activities, resources, or even physical improvements that facilitate people connecting. Projects may focus on any or all of staff, students, and faculty.
Our work:
The Core is led by Dr. Ed Fisher and Patrick Tang of the Peers for Progress team. Peers for Progress is a program of the Department of Health Behavior in the Gillings School of Global Public Health. The Core is supported by the Gillings School of Global Public Health and the Department of Health Behavior as well as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Office of the Provost.
For more information about the UNC-CH Peer Support Core, including how to get involved and for assistance, please contact Patrick Tang at ptang@unc.edu