You have been invited to participate in this study to better understand the mental health needs of students. HMS was designed specifically for colleges and universities, and its success depends on gathering the perspectives of all students. Your school hopes to use the information you provide to get to know the students better and to advocate for the creation, expansion, and/or maintenance of programs and resources for mental health and well-being.

We invite all eligible students at your institution to participate in this voluntary study.  We welcome a diverse perspective!  Students are considered eligible to take the Healthy Minds survey if they are 18 and over, enrolled as a student at the school, and currently living within the United States.

Your school is participating in HMS to better understand and improve the mental health needs of students on campus. Therefore, we asked them for a sample of students to send out our survey to, and you are among the students selected to participate. Some schools choose people randomly, some schools choose everyone. Your school has determined that they may share this data with our study team, considering federal, state, and institutional policies and regulations. For specifics on your school’s decision, you may contact the researchers at [email protected], or reach out to the contact person at your school listed at the end of your consent form.

Over the course of the one-month data collection period, students who have not completed the survey will receive several reminders.

To opt out (and stop receiving emails):

1. Follow the survey link to the consent form and click “No, I do not consent to participate in this study.”

-OR-

2. Click on the “Opt-Out” link located at the bottom of your HMS email.

Please try copying and pasting your link into a new window of your current web-browser or use a different web-browser altogether.

This survey was designed to protect your privacy and ensure confidentiality.  How that is done depends on the protocol your school chose.  One is designated “anonymous” and the other “confidential.”  The consent form presented at the beginning of the survey will indicate whether your school chose an anonymous or confidential approach to the survey administration.

In the case of the confidential protocol:

• Your answers to the survey will be stored in a file that is separate from your first name and email address.
• The data from this study, without any identifiable information, is stored in a secure digital location by the research team for future research purposes.
• Any reports or articles written about this survey will describe people’s answers all together (in the aggregate or as a whole), and will contain no information that could allow someone to identify you.
• Participating institutions will receive a de-identified data set and will not be given access to individually identifiable survey data. We will also leave out any sports team affiliation or country of origin that you may have indicated. This helps make sure that no one at your school can look at the de-identified data set and guess who you are by “connecting-the-dots” with indirect-identifying information.

• There is no personally identifiable information associated with survey responses.
• If you want to enter the encentives drawing, as ask that you provide your first name and email address.

If your school opted-in to our yearly national incentive drawing, you will be automatically entered into a national sweepstakes to win one of two $500 prizes or one of ten $100 prizes, even if you do not fill out the survey.  If your school is using the anonymous protocol, you would need to enter your email (in a separate, secure page) to be entered into the drawing. Some schools choose not to opt-in to our national incentives drawing. The details of your eligibility for the drawing are included in your HMS invitation emails as well as the consent form, which can be found at the beginning of the survey itself. The prize drawing will be in the summer.