Over the past five years, college mental health centers around the country have experienced a surge in demand, without a commensurate surge in resources. Notwithstanding limits of access, there are significant barriers to seeking mental health services – particularly for graduate students – including time and financial constraints as well as fear of mental health-related stigma. Yet many colleges and universities are not able to accommodate the growing demand for mental health supports on their campuses.

Peer support programs have been shown to be effective in improving a number of student outcomes including mental health, but these programs are seldom used with graduate students. Thus, peer support programs may be one solution to increase access to supportive services for students while eliminating barriers. 

Launched as a pilot among selected undergraduates in Fall 2020, DukeLine is an anonymous peer text-line that aims to provide emotional and mental health support to Duke undergraduates. In the 2021-2022 academic year, the DukeLine team collected data from current and former Duke undergraduate users to evaluate service feedback and, as a result, help improve the service. Additionally, the team collected data on graduate students' mental health needs to determine if DukeLine would be an efficient service to broaden to other types of students.

DukeLine: A Peer to Peer Support Program

Poster by Savannah Erwin, Talita Ahmed , David Goldston, Guillermo Sapiro, Timothy Strauman,, Sue Wasiolek, Sarah Gaither , Nancy Zucker, Katherine Buchholz, Jacqueline Cruz, Elizabeth Davidson, Evan Dragich, Faith Joo, Aspen Martin, Leslie Leal Palacios, Camden Nelson, Elizabeth Roy and Kashyap Sreeram