Mental Health and Well-being Competency

Certificate Program for Faculty

There has been an increase in students experiencing mental health distress in college and oftentimes, faculty are the first to observe these behaviors. The Mental Health and Well-being Competency Certificate program is an initiative from Student Health and Well-Being with the goal of the helping faculty members feel better equipped to respond to the growing mental health needs of students. This certificate program is designed to address the growing need of faculty preparedness in responding to this new challenge.

This training series will help faculty learn how to recognize the warning signs of distress, how to appropriately intervene and refer students in all levels of distress, how to incorporate key concepts of resilience into the curriculum, and lastly, how to respond to trauma in the classroom.

Program Requirements

The Mental Health and Well-being Competency Certificate of Completion is designed for participants to complete in one semester. The requirements to complete the Mental Health and Well-being Competency Certificate of Completion are:

Support Zone Training Part 1
Support Zone Training Part 2 – It is recommended to take part 2 the same week as part 1
Resilience in the Classroom
Recovery Ally

Faculty will receive a certificate of completion after completing all four trainings in two consecutive semesters. Any faculty member at USC-Columbia, Palmetto College regional campuses or USC Schools of Medicine (Greenville and Columbia) are eligible.

Required Workshops Offered Spring 2025

Thursday, February 13, 11:40am - 12:55pm - In-Person

Through Recovery Ally workshops, Gamecock Recovery strives to empower students, faculty and staff to make campus more supportive of students in recovery from substance use disorder. Learn to: confront myths and stigma about substance use disorder; use and model acts of allyship in everyday interactions; and identify, access, and direct people to recovery resources at USC.

Recovery Ally workshops are presented in a flipped-classroom model that includes a self-paced video module as prework (estimated 20 minutes) and a one-hour in-person session. Please review the recorded content prior to your scheduled workshop session. Register

Tuesday, March 4, 11:40am - 12:55pm - In-Person

Training Sessions Descriptions

Support Zone Training

Part 1 and Part 2 (two 75-minute sessions)

The Support Zone Faculty training is a 150-minute comprehensive training that includes suicide prevention, instruction on how to recognize and respond to signs of distress in students. The goal of this two-part training is to engage faculty as mental health allies and help them learn the basic components of suicide prevention, enhance knowledge of campus mental health resources, and rapid assessment and referral of students in distress. Participants will learn how to intervene at the mild, moderate, and severe levels of distress and how to refer students to the appropriate.

Resilience in the Classroom

The Resiliency in the Classroom training is a 60-minute training that focuses on three major components of resilience—self-compassion, dealing with failure, and coping skills and how to incorporate these components into the classroom. Resilience has been shown to be associated to academic success and psychological well-being. This session will help instructors identify how they can strengthen students’ resilience and help them adapt to change and hardships by integrating these core competencies into their curriculum.

Recovery Ally

Through Recovery Ally workshops, Gamecock Recovery strives to empower students, faculty and staff to make campus more accepting, engaging, and supportive of students in recovery from substance use disorder. Learn to confront myths about substance use disorder, support someone in early recovery, and advocate for a recovery-oriented campus culture.

Using a recovery oriented systems of care model, faculty and staff sessions focus on conveying campus norms in the classroom and building recovery-supportive workplaces.

How to Earn a Certificate of Completion

Select a certificate you want to earn.
Review the required workshops.
Register for and attend all required workshops within the time frame specified.
Look for an email from cte@sc.edu with your digital certificate.

How to Check Your Progress

Participants can check their progress online by following the steps below.

Log into Registration and Tracking System for Workshops and Events using your CTE Training Account credentials.
Click on the specific learning plan for the certificate of completion program you would like to view. The learning plan button is located on the left-hand side in the menu screen.
Click “View” to generate a personalized learning plan status report. The report will show the workshops you have taken, and and remaing workshop requirements.

The learning plans also provide a status progress update.

Partial means you have met some of the requirements for a specific certificate of completion program.
Complete means you have met all the requirements for a specific certificate of completion program.
Not Started means you have not completed any of the requirements for a specific certificate of completion program.

Completed your certificate?

At the conclusion of each semester, reports are run to determine who has completed each certificate. Digital Certificates will be emailed. If you do not receive your certificate by the middle of the following semester, kindly contact cte@sc.edu for assistance.

Center for Teaching Excellence