{"id":60048,"date":"2021-06-03T11:32:50","date_gmt":"2021-06-03T16:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=60048"},"modified":"2021-06-03T11:32:53","modified_gmt":"2021-06-03T16:32:53","slug":"fhsu-launches-virtual-mental-health-platform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=60048","title":{"rendered":"FHSU launches virtual mental health platform"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tiger Thrive, a virtual mental health platform was launched this spring by Fort Hays State University\u2019s counseling and support services center, the Kelly Center. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tiger Thrive\noffers all current FHSU students, faculty, and staff therapeutic content on\nvarious mental health issues via Blackboard, a Web-based course-management\nsystem. Tiger Thrive is designed to provide FHSU students access to a range of\nself-paced online courses that teach strategies to help improve their mental\nhealth and deal with the stresses of college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The content for the virtual platform was\ndeveloped by Sadie Spurlock, a counselor at the Kelly Center, and Will\nStutterheim, the center\u2019s assistant director. It includes resources that walk viewers through concerns such as\nanxiety, depression, stress management, sleep habits, eating disorders, and\nmore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spurlock received her master\u2019s in\nAdvanced Education Programs with an emphasis in clinical mental health\ncounseling and was hired as coordinator of the SAMHSA grant, which the Kelly\nCenter received in January 2020. The three-year grant from the Substance Abuse\nand Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) help provide the Kelly\nCenter funding for suicide prevention programming on campus and in the\ncommunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spurlock was working part-time at the\nKelly Center at the time and said the grant funding gave her the perfect\nopportunity to work on the virtual program. She explained that the purpose of\nthe program is threefold:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1) To give virtual students the\nopportunity to view pre-recorded videos since licensure restrictions allow the\ncenter to provide therapy sessions for Kansas residents only,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2) To offer a more comfortable setting\nfor people who might be uncomfortable with the thought of traditional therapy\nsessions, and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3) To give current clients something to\nreinforce what they are hearing in sessions at the Kelly Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to give people something\nsimilar to the Kelly Center experience,\u201d she said, \u201cand make it more personal\nto Fort Hays State.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 6,500 of FHSU\u2019s total\nenrollment of 15,033 are online students, and those students can access Tiger\nThrive from anywhere at any time. Spurlock said that while the Kelly Center\ncannot conduct therapy sessions with out-of-state students, counselors are available\nto help callers search for services in their area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey can still call us, and we will\nhelp them find someone in their vicinity where they can go for therapy,\u201d she\nsaid. \u201cWe want our virtual students to feel a part of Fort Hays State, and that\nincludes the counseling experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spurlock said that this type of service\nis especially important in recent years. The need for counseling has grown\nconsistently over the past six years and was up 200 sessions at the Kelly\nCenter from a record-breaking year in 2020 \u2013 to 4,361 sessions by the end of\nMay 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spurlock pointed out that Tiger Thrive\nis not intended to replace traditional therapy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe hope this can be a first step for\nour virtual students who might be thinking about seeking therapy,\u201d she said.\n\u201cIf you are experiencing anxiety or depression, here is a first step. These\nresources on Blackboard are just one click away.\u201d\n\nFor more information about Tiger Thrive, visit \/\/www.fhsu.edu\/kellycenter\/personal\/online-resources<\/a>.\nTiger Thrive can be found via the Assist Tab on the left menu when logging into\nBlackboard\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS Tiger Thrive, a virtual mental health platform was launched this spring by Fort Hays State University\u2019s counseling and support services center, the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11722],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-releases"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60049,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60048\/revisions\/60049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}