Access to Headspace, a company providing guided meditation resources online, will be available to Lehigh undergraduate and graduate students at no cost beginning Feb. 1.
Starting next week, students who are interested in using the company’s services will need to register with Headspace using their Lehigh email address. Once registered, students can sign in and receive full access to all of Headspace’s meditation and mindfulness resources for free.
Lehigh’s partnership with Headspace was made possible by the university’s Peer Health Advisors, which approached Health Advancement and Prevention Strategies with survey data showing mental health as a growing concern for students during the pandemic. It suggested Headspace as a tool to aid students, regardless if they are on campus, off campus or international. Funding from Student Auxiliary Services was critical in removing the cost of the resource for students, according to Jenna Papaz, director of Health Advancement and Prevention Strategies.
The data Peer Health Advisors referenced came from a survey taken by Lehigh’s Office of Institutional Research & Strategic Analytics, which revealed mental health as one of the top student concerns this past fall. Students mentioning mental health were two of the three biggest increases from Spring 2020 to Fall 2020. Of those surveyed, 52.8% said they were “quite a bit” or “extremely” concerned about their mental health, a 4.0% increase, and 54.9% were “quite a bit” or “extremely” concerned about the mental health of their family or friends, a 7.2% increase.
