Penn State Counseling & Psychological Services

Center for the Study of College Student Mental Health (CSCSMH)

Overview

Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at Penn State University is developing the Center for the Study of College Student Mental Health (CSCSMH) in partnership with a national network of university and college counseling centers and Titanium Software. CSCSMH is a national, collaborative health informatics initiative for centers of mental health treatment on college and university campuses. For details about the data materials being used in the project, click here.

CSCSMH will address a critical gap in the research on college student mental health: the ability to accurately and routinely describe the state of our affairs (i.e., university and college counseling centers), on a national level, as measured by raw standardized data. The center will employ a series of automated processes to (1) pool standardized data (de-identified) from the network on a regular interval and (2) convert the anonymous and aggregate data into reports on the current trends of college student mental health for providers, administrators, and the public.

With this infrastructure in place, enormous amounts of information about college student mental health will become available and the system could be used to conduct critical research at the national and international levels. In addition, such a large and collaborative infrastructure will offer the promise of nationally coordinated standards for the accurate assessment of mental health concerns at intake along with psychotherapy outcome data. Such information would support ongoing efforts to to accurately identify the type and severity of presenting concerns (via national norms across multiple measures) and ongoing quality improvement initiatives in the field. .

Updates & Announcements

8/1/2008 -- Updates to CCAPS and SDS-I -- Updated CCAPS paper form released with improved instructions and layout. Equivalent changes to Titanium Schedule coming soon. SDS "how-to-guide" posted to assist with conversion. All materials are available here.

2/27/2008 -- 2008 Advisory Board Meeting Executive Summary -- This document summarizes the 2008 Advisory Board meeting including topics discussed, conclusions reached, and plans for the coming year. Click here to download in PDF.

12/1//2007 -- SDS and CCAPS now available in Titanium Schedule -- The lastest upgrade to Titanium Schedule is being gradually released after 12/1/2007 and contains both the SDS and the CCAPS...

5/21//2007 -- Standardized Data Set, 1st Ed. (SDS-I) - The final draft of the SDS-I is now available for download.

4/9/2007 -- Standardized Data Set (1st Ed.) released for review and comment-- The first edition of the Standardized Data Set was released for a one-month review and comment period.

11/10/2006 -- CCAPS integration in Titanium Schedule -- Titanium Schedule has agreed to work with CSCSMH to integrate the CCAPS into its client and office-base data entry systems.

11/6/2006 -- Advisory Board Meeting -- The CSCSMH advisory board met at Northwestern University.