An all-women’s residence hall at the University of Delaware is renovated and rededicated to mental health services for students.
The Wellbeing Center at Warner Hall offers spaces for group therapy sessions and adjustment workshops, but can also serve as a meeting place for student organizations to host well-being retreats and activities.
On Friday afternoon, staff cut the ribbon at Warner Hall, a dorm turned into a Wellbeing Center that offers services to support students’ health, wellness, sense of connection, and ability to thrive.
“Health is more than just your physical well-being,” said Helen Ann Lawless, director of strategic well-being and training. “It’s also about mental well-being, social well-being, community well-being and belonging, and
that’s what we’re working on together.”
Lawless says students have become more vocal about how mental health resources are essential to the success of the university community since the pandemic.
This school year was also an readjustment to in-person learning, which sophomore Sarah Scotti says was an added stressor. She thinks UD needs more counselors because many students need help managing the stress.
“This is probably the most stressful semester so far for me just because I’m taking harder classes,” she said.
The Wellbeing Center works in conjunction with the counseling center to create holistic, wrap-around care for students, says Lawless. She explains that physical and mental health go hand-in-hand.
“Just hearing noise and people being around the halls engaging in well being related activities. But then also looking at changing our campus climate, where we make wellbeing the default, that it’s not just about individual actions for well-being, it's also about what are we doing as a community to ensure that everybody's wellbeing is being taken care of and we’re creating an environment where people can thrive.”
The Warner Wellbeing Center is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and offers relaxation spaces, multi-purpose meeting rooms and well-being programming. And, a space with user-friendly exercise equipment and a mindfulness and meditation room is in development.
