Beyond support for navigating campus life and academics, the UI REACH program offers social and emotional learning and support. Social and emotional learning (SEL) is an integral part of education and human development. It is the process through which one acquires and applies the knowledge and skills to develop healthy identities, manages emotions, achieves personal and collective goals, feels and shows empathy for others, establishes and maintains supportive relationships, and makes responsible and caring decisions.

Student Support Teams

Student support teams (SST) provide students with specialized guidance and supports. These teams are comprised of a staff member from each of our core areas and a member of leadership. Each student is assigned to a team that will guide students through making goals specific to their individual advancement and regularly check in on their progress. 

SSTs offer scaffolded support to steer students towards independence. These teams connect students to campus and community supports, monitor the level of support provided, and gradually phase out UI REACH staff support.

Social Supports

Friendship Exploration Groups

During the school year, students are grouped based on their like interests or friendship potential. These groups provide an opportunity for students to practice learned skills and to get to know students they may be compatible with. Students have conversations, play games, and make social plans. Staff provide social coaching, supporting students’ conversational and relationship-building skills. Additional small groups (2–4 students) are offered based on student needs.

Students play a game with a beach ball.
Students sit around a table, playing a game with cards.

PEERS

All first-year students take a social skills class, using the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS) curriculum. PEERS is world-renowned for providing evidence-based social skills programs to young adults who are interested in developing and maintaining close relationships.

Mental Health Supports

Family Interview

After a student’s initial admissions interview, our student support team contacts parents/guardians for an adaptive equipment survey and to determine if occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech-language therapy, or psychotherapy services are right for their student.

Embedded Supports

Students have access to support from licensed psychotherapists embedded within the UI REACH program, providing comprehensive, interdisciplinary care. This support is included within tuition and can take the form of one-on-one psychotherapy sessions as well as small group sessions. 

UI REACH also partners with a dual-trained psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner and clinical social worker to provide psychotherapy services as well as assessment and management of current diagnoses and medical prescriptions. 

Mental Health Screenings

During the school year, students take the Beck’s Depression Screening, Generalized Anxiety Disorder screening, Liebowitz Social Anxiety Screening, and Difficulties in Emotional Regulation Scale. 

During the summer, staff can connect with students depending on the results of their screenings. If needed, staff can meet virtually with students every week one-on-one, meet with a small group of students, or invite students to connect with each other.