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Structured exercise programs for higher education students experiencing mental health challenges: background, significance, and implementation

Exercise is an effective method for addressing mental illness and promoting wellbeing, yet widespread provision of structured exercise services to support treatment options for students with mental health challenges has not been fully realized.

There is evidence that regular exercise can be beneficial in treating mental illness [e.g., Sancassiani et al., 2018 (27)], and universities are typically well-positioned to deliver such programming. However, greater efforts are needed to develop, resource, and integrate exercise programming on campuses as an adjunct treatment for students experiencing mental illness.