Staying Healthy in College

Col­lege is back in ses­sion for many of our local stu­dents. This time of life can be both excit­ing and stress­ful. With all the stres­sors stu­dents expe­ri­ence in col­lege, it’s impor­tant for them to take care of them­selves, both phys­i­cal­ly and mentally.

Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG) part­ners with Quin­cy Uni­ver­si­ty to pro­vide health ser­vices to local stu­dents. Kait­lyn Phillips, nurse prac­ti­tion­er with QMG, sees patients at the QU Health and Well­be­ing Clin­ic on cam­pus, while Syd­ney Mey­er, behav­ioral health inter­ven­tion­ist, offers behav­ioral health ther­a­py ser­vices at QMG’s Maine St location.

Phillips sees stu­dents for a vast array of con­di­tions and ill­ness­es at the clin­ic locat­ed at Friar’s Hall.

“I try to be an onsite con­tact for QU stu­dents’ med­ical atten­tion. We often func­tion like an acute care walk-in would func­tion,” she said. ​“Col­lege stu­dents are a unique pop­u­la­tion. We find that we are often try­ing to help stu­dents get to their best health. At this time in their lives, stu­dents are often just start­ing to nav­i­gate their health­care on their own.”

Men­tal health is just as impor­tant as men­tal health. Mey­er sees stu­dents to help them nav­i­gate any con­cerns relat­ed to their men­tal health. As a behav­ioral health inter­ven­tion­ist at QMG, she serves as lead coun­selor for QU students.

“Quin­cy Uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents have access to coun­sel­ing ser­vices from Quin­cy Med­ical Group’s Behav­ioral Health depart­ment for free dur­ing the months of August to May,” Mey­er explained. ​“I work with stu­dents who are strug­gling with stress, anx­i­ety, depres­sion, per­fec­tion­ism, burnout, body image, rela­tion­ship con­cerns, and more. The patients and ther­a­pist work togeth­er to devel­op goals and a time­line for coun­sel­ing based on the patient’s men­tal health concerns.”

Although Mey­er is the ini­tial con­tact for stu­dents seek­ing coun­sel­ing, stu­dents do have an option if they pre­fer anoth­er coun­selor at QMG, so they get the best care pos­si­ble. She said QMG has a diverse team of 18 dif­fer­ent coun­selors who have dif­fer­ent spe­cial­ties and experience.

Both Phillips and Mey­er agree that col­lege is a unique time that has unique chal­lenges and opportunities.

“Col­lege can be a stress­ful time for stu­dents, which can result in their health not being 100 per­cent. I am thank­ful that QMG pro­vides ser­vices to address both men­tal and phys­i­cal health, so we can help stu­dents enjoy this time of their lives and get the most out of their col­lege expe­ri­ence,” Phillips said.

To address that, she not­ed that stu­dents should feel com­fort­able reach­ing out to the QU Health and Well­be­ing Clin­ic for any con­cerns regard­ing their phys­i­cal men­tal health. Adjust­ing to col­lege life is a tran­si­tion, so she rec­om­mends hav­ing a good sleep/​wake rou­tine, a healthy diet, drink­ing plen­ty of water, prac­tic­ing good time man­age­ment, and exercising.

Mey­er added, ​“Quin­cy Med­ical Group takes an inte­grat­ed approach to health, which includes nutri­tion, well­ness, and behav­ioral health. We believe that these three areas of over­all health work togeth­er to influ­ence an individual’s health. It is always ben­e­fi­cial to come to coun­sel­ing soon­er rather than lat­er. If you notice your men­tal health start­ing to decline, it doesn’t hurt any­thing to come to coun­sel­ing to eval­u­ate how you are doing with tak­ing care of yourself.”

The QU Health and Well­be­ing Clin­ic is locat­ed at QU’s Friar’s Hall every Mon­day from 12:30 – 4:30 p.m. and every Thurs­day from noon – 4 p.m. She also offers Tele­health ser­vices. For more infor­ma­tion, stu­dents should con­tact (217) 228‑5432, ext. 3790.

Stu­dent Coun­sel­ing Ser­vices are avail­able Mon­day – Fri­day 7 a.m. – 6 p.m. at QMG, 1101 Maine St, 1^st floor. For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact (217) 222‑6550, ext. 3418.