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Hi, I'm Susan James Leyva, director of retention services, here, at Suffolk
University and you're watching
On The Road.
February is the shortest month of the year, but it can certainly feel like the
longest.
Students deal with all kinds of stress related to the winter blues. as spring"s
almost here,
as valentine's day approaches. For some this can seem like a lonely time,
and some students begin to get anxious about the impending spring break.
Liz Drexler-Hines, health educator from the office of health and wellness
services
is here to share some of the resources, programs, and services
available to our students.
Welcome Liz, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. So lets start off a little
bit and talk about the mission of the office of health and wellness services.
Sure, health and wellness services, we focus on a more holistic model of
care for students here at Suffolk.
So not only do we just see sick students
coming in with sprained ankles or strep throat, or needing their
immunizations;
um...but we also have a whole health promotion educational part
of health and wellness services and that's really my job. So we do
lots of workshops, on campus trainings with student-staff like RA's,
just to get good health information out to students on campus front. And we also
work with, um,
We'll also talk about the SUPERS in a little bit but we work with some other
students to be able to communicate those messages. So what are the SUPERS?
The
SUPERS stand for Suffolk University Peer Education Resource,
and they're a group of trained undergraduate students. They go through
extensive training and basically they're the ones that really go out and do a lot
of the workshops in the dorms, um...
and in the Donahue building on campus.
Because sometimes it's easier to hear this
sensitive, sometime's sensitive information from a peer than it is from a
professional.
Um, they also act as resources for other students to be able to go to and ask questions.
And so when we're
working with students who are having the winter blues, what are some
things that they can do to sort of overcome? Because the winter just keeps
feeling like it's stretching and stretching and never ending, what can our
students do? Sure, the winter blues does definitely pop up around this time and
during the year. Um, out of a national college health survey, of about
eighty thousand students,
about eight percent of students reported some type of seasonal affective disorder
and that number was a little bit higher for students who go to school in the
northeast
region.
So there are a couple of different things... um students can do on
campus.
Just our kind of general health recommendations. One of the things is to
really encourage students to
keep up their exercise routine in if they don't exercise
try to at least get outside or in the gym, or
run up and down the stairs in the dorm for about thirty minutes, three times a week.
One of the biggest reasons, um... causes for a seasonal affective disorder is an
imbalance in melatonin serotonin
and so things like
exercise, eating right, getting really good nutrition
will help balance and put those things back and check and balance them out.
Another recommendation for students would be, um, like I said good nutrition,
so vitamin D, um, is key for light absorption and those kind of things, so you
can get that and milks and cheeses and the dairy products, those kind of things. Also
vitamins A, C and zinc;
so if you're students packing up to come back
for the semester, you know, trying to encourage them to, you know, keep a
bowl of fruit in their dorm room or something like that is good.
And so as Valentine's Day approaches we have some students who are... whether
they just ended a relationship
or they're feeling a little bit isolated; are there special programs that you offer
during that time to kind of help bring students together as a community?
We offer some programs. Um, one of the programs is a healthy relationships
program
and it doesn't necessarily focus on romantic relationships it's actually um...
a great workshop to learn how to have a better relationship with your roommate
or maybe a sibling and sometimes your parents and how to have open lines of
communication because, um...
and we really try to emphasize Valentine's Day just isn't for
romantic love you can really celebrate all kinds of love
on that day. Sounds good.
As students are, you know, right now we're in February, March is right around the
corner and so spring break appears. How can parents help our students to gear
up and get ready for spring break. Sure, I think, you know, parents can be involved
in the pre-planning of spring break with their student. Um,
as much as they possibly will let them, um... that's a good idea. Some of the other things
to think about is financial planning.
That's a good behavior to have anyway, but really thinking about a budget. Um,
sometimes you can go a little crazy with the credit cards when your aboard, so
thinking about a budget, sticking to that. Um,
maybe parents can help with the whole um...
process of passports and those things. We know sometimes it takes six to ten weeks to get those things.
And also open conversation with their student about
what they plan on doing on spring break. Um, you know, it's an easy assumption
um... to
think that students
always drink all the time on spring break.
And actually statistics show when students were surveyed that most students, actually,
don't plan on over drinking before they go to spring break,but when they get
there they do end up
drinking, um, more than they planned on when they get there. So
maybe having a conversation about alcohol use, and we also have lots of
tips
on our website, um, to talk about
safer drinking. Um, and then we also emphasize, you know, trying to have a conversation with your student
about healthy behaviors. Pack your sunscreen, wear your hats, wear sunglasses
stay with a friend...
um,
all of those things.
Great sounds good. It's great helpful information. Thank you, Liz.
So as you can see we aim to empower and educate students to make healthy
lifestyle choices. See you next month as we explore career choices,
internships, and employment.
Thanks for watching, On the Road.