Led by Principal Investigator, Dr. Sara Abelson, in partnership with PI Dr. Shawna Smith, at the University of Michigan, Mental Health Improvement through Community Colleges (MHICC) aims to increase access to evidence-based mental health supports for community college students.  

Thus far, work has focused on understanding the needs, capacities, and preferences of Michigan’s 31 community colleges. Our research team has conducted landscape analyses of all Michigan community colleges, interviews with college mental health decision-makers and leaders, focus groups with students, and ongoing survey assessment of student mental health needs and preferences.  We have developed MiNAV, a tool to help students identify and navigate mental health resources on their campus and in their local community: https://mentalhealthcc.org/minav/  

With a current grant from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the MHICC research team is: 

• Developing a suite of technical assistance resources and a centralized technical assistance platform tailored to the unique and specific needs of Michigan community colleges as they strive to enhance student access to evidence-based mental health care 

• Piloting a community-based partnership program through which the MHICC team works in close partnership with community colleges to expand mental health treatment capacity through community-engaged partnerships. The project employs rapid ethnographic methods and begins with a comprehensive, multi-day, in-person needs assessment.  

• Convening an advisory board for regular input and feedback