By The JED Foundation
In today’s higher education landscape, student mental health has emerged as one of the most pressing challenges facing institutions. As members of the Flourishing Academic Network (FAN) understand, true academic success cannot be measured solely by graduation rates and GPAs — it must also encompass student well-being and flourishing. This holistic vision requires robust mental health support systems that go beyond traditional counseling services. The JED Campus program offers a comprehensive framework for creating these systems, fundamentally transforming how colleges and universities approach student mental health.
The Mental Health Landscape in Higher Education
The statistics are concerning: More than one in three college students self-report symptoms of depression and 34% self-report anxiety. 77% of college students have felt that emotional or mental difficulties have hurt their academic performance at least one day in the past month.
Colleges and universities are uniquely positioned to confront these challenges by integrating systemwide changes across their campus communities to protect student mental health and prevent suicide. This is where JED Campus comes in — offering a systematic, evidence-based approach that moves beyond wellness interventions and crisis response to create comprehensive mental health ecosystems on campus.
The JED Campus Approach: Systems Thinking for Lasting Change
At its core, JED Campus is a program that supports institutional transformation. Developed by The Jed Foundation (JED), a nonprofit that protects emotional health and prevents suicide among teens and young adults, the program takes a different approach from traditional mental health initiatives.
Rather than focusing solely on expanding clinical services (though this remains incredibly important), JED Campus helps institutions examine and strengthen their entire ecosystem of supports for student mental health. This tailored, systems-based approach recognizes that meaningful change requires coordinated efforts across multiple areas of campus life.
The program’s Comprehensive Approach for Colleges and Universities addresses seven strategic areas:
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- Fostering life skills
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- Promoting connectedness and positive culture
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- Recognizing and responding to signs of distress
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- Reducing barriers to help-seeking
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- Ensuring access to effective mental health care
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- Establishing systems of crisis management
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- Reducing access to lethal means
What makes this approach particularly powerful is its recognition that the strategic areas are interconnected. Improvements in one area strengthen the entire system, creating multiple pathways to support student well-being and flourishing.
From Assessment to Implementation: The JED Campus Journey
Institutions that join JED Campus embark on a four-year strategic partnership that begins with a comprehensive assessment of current systems, policies, programs, and resources. This assessment includes the Healthy Minds Study, which gathers data directly from students about their mental health experiences and needs.
Based on this assessment, JED provides each campus with a strategic plan tailored to their strengths, challenges, and resources. A dedicated JED Campus Advisor then guides the institution through implementing the plan, offering expertise, resources, and support throughout the process.
The implementation phase is where the deep work of transformation happens. Campus leadership teams work across departments and divisions to strengthen existing programs, develop new initiatives, and create policies that support student mental health. Crucially, the work bridges the traditional divide between academic affairs and student services — a key goal aligned with FAN’s mission of integrating well-being throughout the academic experience.
Creating Campuswide Impact
JED Campus aims to shift campus culture by engaging stakeholders at all levels, from senior administration to faculty, staff, and students. In doing so, the program helps normalize conversations about mental health and creates shared responsibility for student well-being.
A Decade of Improving College Mental Health Systems: JED Campus Impact Report analyzes a decade of data (2013 to 2023) from JED Campus schools and the Healthy Minds Network survey. Schools that completed JED Campus saw statistically significant improvements in student mental health after completing the program compared to baseline.
Students were:
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- 25% less likely to report attempting suicide in the past year.
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- 13% less likely to report making suicide plans in the past year.
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- 10% less likely to report suicidal ideation in the past year.
In addition to student-level improvements, the results show school- and system-level gains, with even more progress at schools that implement an increasing number of JED’s recommendations.
Alignment with the Flourishing Academic Network Vision
The JED Campus approach resonates deeply with FAN’s vision of making student well-being a central priority in higher education. Both recognize that flourishing requires systemic change — not solely adding wellness programs but transforming how institutions operate.
This alignment extends to several key principles:
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- Holistic approaches to well-being that address multiple dimensions of student experience
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- Breaking down silos between academic and student affairs
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- Data-informed decision-making that responds to actual student needs
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- Institutional commitment to student well-being as a core value
The Path Forward: Joining Forces for Student Flourishing
As organizations committed to student flourishing, we have an opportunity to engage with the academic community and amplify these approaches by connecting the work of JED Campus with other initiatives across the Flourishing Academic Network. By sharing best practices, research findings, and implementation strategies, we can accelerate progress toward this shared vision.
For institutions considering JED Campus, the program offers a structured pathway to transform mental health systems with expert guidance and peer support. For those already engaged in this work, JED provides a comprehensive framework to assess current efforts and identify opportunities for growth.
Ultimately, the goal is not just to address student mental health challenges but also to create educational environments where students can truly thrive — academically, emotionally, and socially. By strengthening the systems that support student well-being and flourishing, we move closer to a future where higher education nurtures the whole person, preparing graduates not just for career success but for lives of meaning, purpose, and health.
As we continue this important work, let us remember that student flourishing is not peripheral to the mission of higher education — it is essential to it. Programs like JED Campus help us translate our vision into reality, creating campus communities where well-being and academic excellence reinforce and enhance one another.
This blog post was written for the Flourishing Academic Network (FAN), a coalition of centers, institutes, and universities dedicated to embedding flourishing throughout higher education for the benefit of students, communities, and society.