Supplement to NIH T32 on wellness and resilience

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ABSTRACT: Enhancing Wellness and Resilience Supplement PARENT AWARD: 1T32GM132006-01 (PI: Henry, Clarissa) The current T32 award supports an innovative, evidence-based training program that includes a co-mentorship framework and transdisciplinary research opportunities. This proposed supplement will endeavor to increase the resilience and wellness of our graduate students with particular focus on: (1) a multi-tiered strategy designed to enhance mentoring, wellness, and resilience, and (2) long-term sustainability and integration. The combination of social unrest and the pandemic has been difficult for everyone and especially so for graduate students. Dr. Henry, as GSBSE director (and PI of the Parent T32), along with Zhen Zhang, MBA, GSBSE Administrative Coordinator, meet annually with each of our graduate students every spring. In Spring 2020 it became very clear that our graduate students were severely affected by the pandemic – especially the newer graduate students, who generally lack a robust social network. At that time, we took immediate action to try to mitigate some of the effects of the pandemic. In this supplement, we propose to augment our current efforts by implementing a series of activities within a three-tiered public health model with the first tier focused on prevention, the second tier focused on direct support, and the third tier focused on professional interventions. We do this by leveraging primary campus collaborators in the Graduate School and Counseling Center with support from faculty experts on curriculum development and evaluation as well as the Psychological Services Center. In the first tier of prevention, we propose (1) hosting the “Becoming a Resilient Scientist” workshop and extending it with professional development modules from the UMaine Graduate School’s GRAD Initiative, (2) starting “Career Communities” featuring working alumni of the program that will include in-person workshops, (3) offering wellness-oriented student clubs in line with the UMaine Graduate Student Government requirements, (4) expanding our Annual Meeting with a wellness and community-building day, and (5) running a “Resilient Researcher” retreat in conjunction with the Counseling Center. In the second tier of direct support, we propose (1) starting a formal Peer Advising program that supports younger graduate students who will be advised by senior graduate students and (2) conducting regular individual check-ins with all PhD students. In the third tier of professional interventions, we are partnering with the UMaine Counseling Center and UMaine Psychological Services Center to educate students, faculty mentors, and staff on resources to increase access to and reduce stigma about mental health resources. The proposed enhancements to wellness and resiliency will focus on substantially improving and integrating the new efforts into the curriculum and co-curricular requirements of the GSBSE PhD programs with a major emphasis on assessment and sustainability.