2023 AIChE Annual Meeting

Prioritizing mental health as an engineering student

Research on mental health in engineering students shows that engineering students: 1) feel that they don’t have time to prioritize their mental health, 2) are less likely to seek help for their mental health, 3) feel that they would be more likely to seek help if they received help from a friend or peer and 4) normalize the stress of the engineering training environment (Lipson et al. 2016; Jensen et al. 2023; Jensen and Cross 2021; Wright 2021; Ban et al. 2022). Therefore, this workshop will talk to students about the importance of prioritizing mental health through the coverage of 4 key topic areas: 1) why do engineering students need to prioritize mental health?, 2) the importance of advocating for yourself and your classmates, 3) recognizing normal stress vs. mental health distress and 4) identifying mental health resources on your campus. The workshop will equip students with the skills and knowledge to prioritize their mental health and access mental health resources within their college campus.