Train Student Peer Navigators for Mental Health Referrals

Pilot Plan

Students often tell a friend they are struggling long before they approach a counselor.

1. Need

Friends may want to help but do not know how to respond, where professional support is available, or when a situation requires immediate adult intervention.

2. Pilot

Universities and secondary schools should train volunteer peer navigators to listen, share verified resources, and help classmates connect with professional support.

3. Operating Steps

• Provide training led by licensed counseling staff.
• Make clear that peer navigators do not diagnose, counsel, or manage crises independently.
• Publish direct referral pathways for routine, urgent, and emergency situations.

4. Likely Benefit

The program can reduce the social barrier between recognizing a problem and seeking qualified help.

5. Main Risk

Peers could feel responsible for problems beyond their training if boundaries are not emphasized.

6. Decision Point

Measure referrals completed, training retention, student awareness of services, and navigator workload. These results should determine whether the pilot is expanded, redesigned, or discontinued.

The most important design principle is to make participation simple enough that the intended users can actually benefit from it.

Participants should have a simple way to report problems during the pilot instead of waiting for an end-of-year survey.

Administrative costs should be reported separately from direct program costs so decision-makers can judge efficiency.

Where possible, existing institutions should administer the pilot rather than creating a new office for a small program.

Feedback from users should be reviewed alongside numerical results because participation data alone may hide practical barriers.

Equity should be evaluated by examining who uses the program and who remains unable to access it.

A written operating guide would make the program easier to continue when staff or student leaders change.

Expansion should occur only after responsibilities for maintenance, supervision, and funding are clearly assigned.

Because the proposal is limited, it can be tested without redesigning the entire system around it.

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J. Rivera