A roundup of the six-part series from Penn Today that focuses on University resources available to students, faculty, staff, and postdocs for their mental, physical, technical, and financial health.
From behavioral and mental health and well-being to resources for tech support and family outreach, Penn Today’s wellness and well-being series is a handy tool for referencing the benefits and care available to the entire Penn community.
Wellness and well-being are woven into the life of Penn’s campus for students, faculty, postdocs, and staff. A six-part series featured in Penn Today highlights many University resources aimed at supporting the campus community. The series begins with resources for behavioral and mental health and well-being, followed by financial wellness, physical health and well-being, online safety and best practices, public safety resources, and family friendly policies and resources.
Mental health and well-being
The series begins with behavioral and mental health and well-being, highlighting the Wellness at Penn programs for behavioral and mental health and well-being for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students, with additional resources available to faculty and staff.
Resources are also available for the Penn community seeking help for friends and family as intervention and outreach tools. An interactive training program for students, faculty and staff, i care, aims to build a caring community with the skills and resources to intervene when someone is dealing with stress, distress, and crisis.
Penn’s campus provides oases in an urban environment for relaxing in nature, including Kaskey Park (pictured), known as the BioPond, and Penn Farm.
Penn studies have highlighted the benefits of nature for well-being, and Penn’s campus has earned Tree Campus Higher Education recognition from the Arbor Day Foundation. While Penn’s campus is situated in a large city, there are numerous settings within the landscape that offer peaceful oases in the outdoors, including The Penn Farm and Kaskey Park (also known as the BioPond).
Financial Wellness @ Penn (FW@P) is a program for undergraduate and graduate students launched in 2020; the program is student-driven and supports students of all backgrounds, from all 12 Schools at Penn. FW@P provides several options for students to navigate their financial concerns and start planning for the future.
Additionally, the Division of Human Resources provides several programs focused on financial wellness and planning for faculty, staff, and postdocs, and University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) employees have access to additional financial and retirement planning and student loan forgiveness assistance.
Physical wellness and safety
Physical wellness is a priority at Penn; the physical wellness on campus installment highlights outreach measures, from the annual fall flu clinic to free biometric screenings, and preventive care for students, staff, and faculty. Aimed at a wholistic wellness approach, the Peer Wellness Coaching offered by Wellness at Penn provides a range of services to promote good physical health including support and resources to help students’ manage sleep, nutrition, and physical activities.
(Left) Wellness at Penn hosts events, including the annual flu clinic in the fall. (Right) Health and safety volunteers are on campus 24/7, including members of the Penn Medical Emergency Response Team (MERT), who work in teams to triage volunteer patients during a disaster response training.
The Division of Public Safety also offers property registration for bicycles, electronic equipment, and other valuables. There is also the Penn Alternative Response Unit (AR-1), a partnership between Penn and the Philadelphia Fire Department for students with non-traumatic injuries.
IT safety
With cybersecurity threats continually evolving, information security remains a top priority. The IT safety and wellness installment highlights Information Systems & Computing resources that the Penn community can use to secure data, email, and privacy. ISC partners with the Division of Public Safety (DPS) and local law enforcement to act fast when incidents like phishing and security breaches occur. Beyond financial scams and phishing attacks, ISC works with DPS to monitor threats to the campus’ overall digital security.
Reproductive and family wellness
The final installment of the wellness series spotlights family, from sexual and reproductive health to resources for parents of young children. Offices and centers such as the Penn Women’s Center, Wellness at Penn, the Family Resource Center, the Division of Human Resources, the LGBT Center, Penn Violence Prevention, and University Life work together to support students, faculty, staff, and postdocs.
The Lactation Room at Penn Women’s Center is open and available for any Penn affiliate, with a hospital-grade breast pump and breast pump attachments available to lend.
Numerous resources available to the Penn community include reproductive health and Sexually transmitted infection testing. Access to a new Wellness Express Vending Machine is coming soon to the third floor of the ARCH (3601 Locust Walk), with wellness products, including Plan B, condoms, menstrual products, COVID tests, hand sanitizer, cold medicine free for distribution with a PennCard.
For members of the Penn community wanting to start a family, there are fertility resources, and assistance throughout pregnancy and early childhood. There are additional resources for emergency adoption assistance, emergency childcare, lactation spaces, and parenting workshops.
Numerous links to various wellness resources are available throughout each installment of the series. Below are introductory links to some of Penn’s resources:
Penn’s HELP Line is also available every day of the year, 24 hours a day at (215) 898-HELP (or 215-898-4357) to assist members of the community who are seeking help in navigating campus resources to support health and well-being.
(On homepage) Additional resources for students, staff, faculty, and postdocs are offered through offices and centers across Penn and the Health System.
On the move: Water quality and antimicrobial resistance testing goes mobile
Penn researchers have developed a mobile field laboratory allowing them to test water quality and track antimicrobial resistance in and around San Cristóbal in the Galápagos.
Penn researchers Vanessa and Alexis North are studying one of the largest collections of Egyptian blue objects ever found in the ancient Near East, shedding new light on how the world’s first synthetic pigment may have traveled far beyond Egypt.
A new role for dental providers? Rethinking where vaccines are given
Vaccinations have traditionally been administered in primary care settings or pharmacies. However, for about a decade, some states have authorized dentists to administer vaccines, and many others did so during the COVID-19 pandemic. The effectiveness of this approach has led some countries and states to expand or consider expanding the role of dental providers in delivering routine vaccines, including those against COVID-19 and the human papillomavirus (HPV), and in providing vaccine education.
Penn student develops a way for computer chips to run more efficiently
Fluid Silicon, a platform from President’s Sustainability Prize winner Nhlanhla Mavuso, allows computer chips to continuously monitor their health and self-tune as their characteristics change. The technology has the potential to reduce energy usage in data centers and improve reliability in mission-critical applications.
