Mental and Behavioral Health
The Council of Graduate Schools and the Jed Foundation are partnering to study and promote graduate student well-being. The experiences of underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities will be a priority. In previous research, graduate students were found to be six times as likely to experience anxiety and depression as people in other fields. Nance Roy, chief clinical officer at the Jed Foundation, said that while graduate student mental health is getting more attention, there is still “no framework focused specifically on the unique challenges and needs of graduate students.” The council and the foundation will survey 500 member institutions on existing services, practices and challenges regarding graduate students’ mental health, and explore strategies for improving graduate student mental health.
The Chronicle reports that two former students of New College of Florida accused the admissions dean of “trying to ‘weed out’ people with disabilities and mental-health problems in our prospective student pool.” According to their public complaint, “She said this in meetings, as well as casually to admissions department workers. She actively instructed people to red-flag essays where students disclosed mental-health issues and disabilities. We believe this may be a violation of the ADA. If it is indeed illegal behavior, she was making others complicit in the process.” The inspector general’s office of the Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the state’s public universities, investigated the claims. This week, it determined that there very likely was discrimination. The admissions director, Joy Hamm, has been replaced by an interim director and New College is reviewing its admissions procedures. The college will also “commission an independent review of the materials of applicants from the 2018 and 2019 admissions cycles who self-disclosed disabilities or mental-health issues and will take any necessary appropriate actions.”
In the Wall Street Journal, Anthony Rostain and B. Janet Hibbs, the authors of, “The Stressed Years of Their Lives: Helping Your Kid Survive and Thrive During Their College Years,” write in an article directed at parents of college students, that emotional readiness is the best predictor of whether a student will adjust successfully to college life. According to Rostain and Hibbs, emotional readiness is best defined by a student’s ability to overcome three common negative mind-sets: a fear of not belonging, a fear of not making it academically and unrealistic expectations about performance and success. They suggest that all three can exacerbate a host of underlying psychological problems.
Changes will be made this fall to the three University of Missouri student health centers after an outside assessment last year called the centers “predominantly siloed, largely uncoordinated and non-collaborative, confusingly duplicative and distantly located.” The integration begins with a single digital point of access. This new digital access point gives students information about each center and helps guide students to where they need to go. The Counseling Center will be the single point of entry for students seeking mental health services in the fall. A new position was created to oversee all student health and wellbeing.
Sophia S, a Thrive Global Campus Editor-at-Large at Boston College wrote about what she sees as the institutional and systemic issues that cause a barrier to mental health resources on her campus. She sites issues such as perceived culture stigma, long wait times, mistrust toward the resource, the disconnect between in-patient care and campus care, fear of the mandated leave of absence policy, and limited off-campus practitioner availability as barriers to mental health resources. According to Sophia, “Even when students seek off-campus community resources, they are often met with huge challenges, such as no returned calls, a lack of availability, limited insurance coverage, lack of culture-competent practitioners, etc.”
The Colorado State University Health Network is requesting some $700,000 to fill gaps in addressing the growing mental health needs of CSU students. Survey results showed that students are struggling with their mental health with anxiety, depression, hospitalizations and suicide continuing to rise. CSU, like most colleges, is having a hard time keeping up with the demand. Anne Hudgens, the executive director of the CSU Health Network, identified gaps the university should address, including: Title IX compliance, trauma treatment, partnerships between campus groups and services, Campus-wide resiliency and well-being efforts, peer support and non-clinical coaching. Filling those gaps will require more staff, she said.
The number of University of California students seeking psychological services rose by a stunning 78% over the past 10 years. And last year, the number of students who received some form of counseling was 13% – a record high. Yet, according to an op-ed in the Daily Bruin, the system’s response to the issue has been inadequate. According to the author, Stephen Wyer, understaffed and underfunded on-campus clinics have left students regularly waiting up to six weeks to see a therapist or counselor. Wyer argues that the system should embrace telemedicine, which engages patients directly with clinical care via electronic communication and software, to increase access to health services for students, reduce stigma around mental health and broaden education and mental health literacy. Wyer argues that, “Being able to access services simply by turning on one’s phone encourages people who might be disinclined to wait for an appointment to seek help.” Dr. Dara Sorkin, a mental health professional, researcher and associate professor at UC Irvine said, “With telemedicine, there is the potential to reach many more people, who have diverse socio-demographic backgrounds and needs.”
A study in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association found that college students with diabetes had high levels of diabetes distress, a condition of feeling worried and frustrated about living with diabetes that is associated with fewer self-care behaviors, suboptimal glycemic control and lower quality of life. “Anyone with diabetes will experience diabetes distress at some point, and it is often triggered by major life events or upheaval,” says Elizabeth Beverly, Ph.D., associate professor of family medicine at Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and lead researcher on this study. “Going to college certainly qualifies, so we should be able to anticipate that in students with diabetes and offer support.”
Texas A&M is trying to cut down on wait times for mental health services. Student Counseling Services says their goal is to provide brief mental health counseling to advance student development and academic success. Mary Ann Covey, the Director of Counseling and Psychological Services at Texas A&M, says, “We’re trying to meet students where they are instead of having our traditional view of counseling and saying ‘This is what you need.’ We’re saying, ‘OK let’s listen. What do they really need?’”