Thanks for sharing.

First, show students that you're willing to help. At a basic level, for example, put a sign on your office door — “I’m a friend of neurodiversity”— that indicates your openness to discussing unconventional struggles. Then see what happens. Students with depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, and more might, with luck, decide that they can trust you with their secrets. You don’t have to be an expert to help students in distress. You just have to be willing to listen and know whom to call for help.

Second, during orientation, have faculty and senior graduate students talk openly about collaboration in personal — not just professional — challenges. From Day 1, establish, a culture in which these struggles are shared among faculty, staff, and students. Build trust by promising students that they won’t be penalized for failing to meet some fictional “ideal” model of graduate student. And then, keep that promise.

I think the article addresses an important issue. However, I'm not sure PIs/advisors should be directly responsible for handling the personal problems of grad students, beyond providing a supportive environment in which students can contact more appropriate professionals (mental health, etc.).

I definitely think advisors should receive training on how to handle what they suspect to be addressable behavior from their students, but I also think a level of work/life delineation between coworkers is natural in what is ultimately a professional setting (not that the two are mutually exclusive). The article made it seem like PIs should have an onus beyond reporting behavior, which I think while commendable in some circumstances, shouldn't really be expected.