Teaching hospitality and tourism students’ strategies for recognizing and supporting mental health conditions and crises in industry: an exploratory study

Abstract

By addressing the academic imperative for mental health education and crisis intervention, this exploratory study evaluates the desirability and availability of undergraduate education in recognizing and supporting mental health conditions and crises in hospitality and tourism industry settings. Hospitality and tourism management faculty and undergraduate students were surveyed through an online survey. The majority of faculty and students agreed mental health is important to learn in the classroom to prepare for industry, yet the majority have neither taught nor learned about mental health education and crisis intervention. The findings contribute to how educational leadership influences mental health training integration in classroom instruction. Recommendations included conducting feasibility studies with hospitality management educators on the integration of mental health in classroom learning; conducting larger, more generalizable studies on the effects of such education; and integrating effective mental health and crisis intervention training for hospitality management educators and students into curricula across the field.