Mennonite Weekly Review

HARRISONBURG, Va. — A new program will be in place this fall at Eastern Mennonite University to help students succeed who are dealing with depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, attention deficit issues or other similar challenges.

Frazier

CoachLink, as the program is being called, will provide each student accessing the service with a graduate student who will serve as a life coach to guide, mentor and help connect with campus services and to check in regularly with the student.

“Young adults who have the challenges of depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, ADHD or other types of struggles should feel they can be successful at college,” said Pam Reese Comer, director of counseling services at EMU. “CoachLink will provide them a layer of support and strength building that could make the difference.”

The program is being made possible through the support of the Bibb and Dolly Frazier family through their Harrisonburg-based Austin Frazier Memorial Fund. Austin, who had bipolar disorder, took his life on Oct. 7, 2009. He was a junior majoring in psychology at another university. The family has established a fund to promote prevention programming on campus in honor of their son.

When Austin died, the Fraziers openly described his struggles with ADHD and bipolar disorder. They experienced an outpouring of support for the memorial fund from friends and strangers.

“As parents, Dolly and I had yearned for some sort of ‘coach’ who could monitor our Austin regularly and make sure he took his medicine while away at college. Such a program did not exist,” Bibb Frazier said.

“When we approached EMU with the concept of starting a ‘coach’ system to monitor and mentor students with special needs, they acknowledged and understood the need immediately. We are confident that EMU’s CoachLink program will enable these students for success while ensuring the student’s need for medical privacy.

“CoachLink is a small but bold step in raising awareness and understanding of depression-related issues both on the EMU campus and in our community.”

Comer described CoachLink as an extra layer of personalized support to foster healthy adjustment to college.

“This program is one-of-a-kind and is cutting-edge in Virginia as a prevention measure,” Comer said. “Program results and feedback from students will be tracked to enable other colleges and universities to develop similar preventative programs.”