With demand for mental health services surging in Iowa and across the nation, especially among young adults, the University of Iowa is working to create a culture of well-being.

When the days are short and the air is cold, finding the motivation and energy to get up and about can be difficult. Out-of-sync circadian rhythms can make even mundane activities challenging. “Winter is not a season, it’s an occupation,” Sinclair Lewis once wrote.

As the IMU prepares for its 100th birthday, the university is looking to its future and how the building can continue to serve as a hub for student activity and support.

The University of Iowa Dance Gala will perform at Hancher Auditorium for the first time in two years — and will include a poignant performance inspired by mental illness.

Thanks to a generous $15 million gift from the Scanlan Family Foundation, the Iowa Center for School Mental Health in the University of Iowa College of Education will be renamed the Scanlan Center for School Mental Health, pending approval from the Board of Regents, State of Iowa.

On college campuses nationwide, the number of students seeking mental health services increased by an average of 30 percent between 2009 and 2015 and has continued to climb since then. The University of Iowa doubled the size of its counseling staff between 2016 and 2019, but it’s not nearly keeping up with demand.

The University of Iowa is making progress on campus safety and mental health initiatives after August recommendations from the Reimagining Campus Safety Action Committee (RCSAC).

Brandi Janssen, director of the Iowa Center for Agricultural Health and Safety (I-CASH) in the College of Public Health, says farmers and farm workers with mental health issues face a complex set of cultural and economic factors that make it more difficult to get treatment.

UI College of Nursing Dean Julie Zerwic discusses changes that need to be made in health care to address the mental health care crisis.

A year after opening an eastside location, University Counseling Service continues to expand its reach on campus to help students seeking different levels of care.

University of Iowa employees who participated in university-sponsored health initiatives last year report healthier eating, lower work absenteeism and greater productivity on the job, factors that have helped keep health-insurance premiums at the same level for a third consecutive year.

UI researchers found that people over age 50 who played the game “Road Tour” (later re-named “Double Decision”) for at least 10 hours showed as much as seven years of cognitive improvement. “Age-related cognitive decline is real,” says lead author of the study Fredric Wolinsky, professor of public health. “We know that we can stop this decline and actually restore cognitive processing speed to...

A study by University of Iowa professor of public health Frederic Wolinsky finds that playing video games can prevent and even reverse deteriorating brain functions related to memory, reasoning, and visual processing.

A University of Iowa study shows that older people can put off the aging of their minds by playing a simple game that primes their processing speed skills. The research showed participants' cognitive skills improved in a range of functions, from improving peripheral vision to problem solving. Results published in the journal "PLOS One."