SLIPPERY ROCK — In response to what university officials say is a rising trend in mental health problems across the nation and in its students, Slippery Rock University is launching an initiative to connect students to more mental health services.

The project will focus on a campaign to promote mental health, adding a full-time professional peer coach and several student peer educators, holding emotional well-being workshops, and expanding development of a mobile app that provides students with potentially lifesaving information.

The initiative will be paid for through an increase in user fees approved in March by the school’s council of trustees. That money will be funneled to the university’s Student Health Center starting this fall, SRU officials said.

The programs come in response to local and national research that finds mental health issues on the rise. An eight-year study published in Psychiatric Services journal found that about 3.4 percent of American adults suffer from some form of mental health problem that requires treatment.

Slippery Rock students aren’t immune to those problems. According to data kept by the health center, the university saw a 32 percent increase in student visits for “psychological issues” between 2014 and 2016. And in 2015, 21 percent of SRU students reported being diagnosed for anxiety within the previous year — 6 percent higher than the national average for postsecondary institutions.

Renee Bateman, SRU’s health promotions coordinator, said the school was moving to confront those trends head-on.

“We’re going to try to take a public health approach to provide services to students through health education and outreach,” she said.