‘Hope Connects Us’: UCLA launches campaign to strengthen student mental health

Colleges across the country are confronting what many leaders and clinicians say is a sustained mental health crisis, with national surveys documenting increased rates of anxiety, loneliness, depression and suicidal thoughts among students. What was once a growing concern is now widely recognized as one of higher education’s most urgent challenges.

At UCLA, administrative leaders, clinicians, counselors, faculty and students recently came together to reckon with that challenge - and to kick off "Hope Connects Us: Turning Collective Insight Into Campus Action," a campaign designed to improve the coordination of mental health support services across campus, strengthen UCLA’s culture of connection to reach students before they find themselves in crisis, and ensure the university is ready to respond at its very best when urgent support is needed.

“We are all here because the health of our students is central to our mission as a university,” UCLA Chancellor Dr. Julio Frenk, distinguished professor in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health’s Department of Health Policy and Management, told the audience at the Feb. 23 event at the Luskin Conference Center. “At UCLA, we put students first.”

Throughout the day, panels, breakout sessions and workshops focused on ways to improve prevention, early identification and integration across programs and departments while challenging participants to translate ideas into concrete next steps.

Following a keynote address by Dr. Thomas Parham, former president of Cal State Dominguez Hills and a nationally recognized psychologist, an expert panel featuring UCLA’s Dr. Nicole Presley, a psychologist and senior executive director of student resilience and mental health services; Dr. Daniel Eisenberg, a professor at the Fielding School of Public Health; and Dr. Nelson Freimer, a distinguished professor of psychiatry and director of the UCLA Depression Grand Challenge, examined campus-specific data, prevention strategies and best practices.

"I am encouraged by how our UCLA community is rallying around a public health approach to mental health," said Eisenberg, professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management, who serves as principal investigator of the annual "Healthy Minds Study," focused on students and staff at 135 colleges and universities.  "Much of the discussion at the event was about what we can do prevent mental health problems and promote better mental heath, in addition to strengthening treatment services."

UCLA, Presley said, has been at the forefront of prevention, early intervention and crisis management through Student Affairs’ Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) and its programs like RISE (Resilience in Your Student Experience) and CORE, the campus’s new mobile crisis response team. “But there is more to be done if we are going to really address the immense mental health challenge before us,” she said.

Read more about Nicole Presley’s work in mental health.

In his remarks, Frenk, a global public health expert, framed the new campaign through a community-centered lens, one in which student mental health can be supported and strengthened collectively. He stressed that individual counseling and clinical care remain indispensable but also urged participants to think beyond one-on-one treatment to the broader patterns, conditions and risk factors that shape well-being.

Frenk noted that while UCLA’s current work around mental health - in student services, research and classroom engagement - has been extraordinary, there is a need to expand those efforts and bring them into closer alignment.

“Together,” he said, “we have the opportunity to take that work to the next level and ensure every student knows we are connected and here for them.”

To that end, he called for a proactive, comprehensive strategy built on four interrelated pillars: promotion, prevention, protection and preparedness.

• Promotion empowers students to lead healthy lives by encouraging physical activity, nutrition, meaningful engagement with others, regular sleep and stress reduction. These are not luxuries, Frenk said, but foundational elements that reduce isolation and strengthen connection.
• Prevention involves identifying risk factors — drug or alcohol abuse, for example — and intervening before they escalate into crisis or disease.
• Protection requires maintaining a campus environment free from violence, bullying, harassment and sexual assault — which is foundational to student well-being.
• Preparedness demands the university have clear procedures and coordinated systems in place across campus to effectively respond when acute crises arise.

Read Chancellor Frenk’s full remarks.

“Hope connects us” is not just a slogan, Frenk said. It is a university priority aligned with UCLA Connects, one of the flagship initiatives of the university’s One UCLA vision that seeks to bridge divides and build community.

“Mental health is inseparable from connection,” the chancellor said. “When we strengthen the ties that bind us and build spaces that inspire respectful engagement and meaningful growth, we reinforce the conditions that enable students to thrive.”

An approach based on evidence, compassion and lived experience

Across the day’s discussions - which drew not only on research data but the personal experiences of students, clinicians and leaders - several themes emerged with striking clarity.

First, UCLA must continue to strengthen its prevention and early identification efforts; waiting until students are in crisis is too late.

Second, the campus’s many systems - Student Affairs, Residential Life, counseling and health services, academic units, and faculty and student organizations - must intentionally align and coordinate to address mental health issues.

And finally, the campus must work to combat stigmatization and to normalize help-seeking by embedding mental health into everyday conversations and experiences. Reducing stigma, Frenk said, is critical in addressing these issues - especially for distressed students who might otherwise seek assistance but fear they may be tagged with a permanent psychological or medical diagnosis.

Feelings of anxiety or sadness are common emotional experiences, he stressed, and early engagement and counseling are crucial in preventing such situations from becoming worse.

“College students experience enormous academic and personal demands,” the chancellor said. “Acknowledging this reality helps students reach out and seek help without fear that a diagnostic label will necessarily follow.”

Moving the campaign forward

UCLA Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Monroe Gorden Jr., who helped organize the campaign launch, characterized the gathering as both an opportunity for reflection and a pivot point. Hope, he said, is not passive: Institutions build hope intentionally - through policy, culture and coordinated care. Gorden emphasized that the one-day event was only an opening salvo in a sustained effort to translate collective insight into action.

In the coming months, UCLA Student Affairs and other campus partners will synthesize feedback from stakeholders, identify immediate next steps and advance coordinated strategies to strengthen prevention, improve communication pathways and expand access to care. Partners from across campus will be invited to remain engaged as the campaign moves from conversation to coordination.

“The launch of Hope Connects Us is possible because of the commitment across campus to engage collectively around student mental health and ways to strengthen campuswide efforts,” said Dr. Suzanne Seplow, associate vice chancellor for student development and health. “While CAPS, RISE and other campus experts will light the way, this is an effort that will require everyone’s leadership and support.”

The phrase “hope connects us” echoed throughout the day - acknowledging both grief and strain among students but also affirming that connection, compassion and collaboration can shape positive outcomes.

Frenk called the researchers, clinicians, faculty, staff and student leaders a “remarkable brain trust” - .an ecosystem of support on which students depend.

The work ahead will be complex, participants said, requiring resources, coordination, cultural change and careful measurement. But one thing is clear: The UCLA community is determined to meet the moment with a unified, compassionate strategy grounded in public health, shared responsibility and a commitment to connecting as One UCLA.

“What sets us apart is our unwavering commitment to each other and our drive to be innovative around our mental health resources,” Presley said.