In response to a petition circling at University of South Florida regarding enhancing mental health services for students, Scott Stader, the director of the USF Counseling Center wrote a Letter to the Editor of The Oracle. He asserts that the Counseling Center reached out to creators of the petition requesting an opportunity to discuss their ideas and determine how the center may evolve to enhance their ability to meet the needs of USF students. According to Stader, the Counseling Center has already made changes to services and operations that have allowed for offering continuous access to high-quality mental health services, even during the busiest times of the semester.
In response to a significant increase in students requesting mental health services, University of Delaware‘s counseling center is adjusting its model. The center had made “incremental changes” over the past two years, such as shortening the time of the initial appointment in order to fit in more students throughout the course of the day, but the dramatic increase in demand called for a bigger change. Previously, the counseling center used a system where students would schedule their initial intake appointment for a future date. Dr. Mary Anne Lacour, the Clinical Coordinator for the CCSD, led a team of five to six psychologists to find a better way, moving from scheduled initial appointments to a new walk-in system for first contacts, the first time students meet their counselors. Now, students who call in or walk in for initial appointments are told they can be seen the same day.
About 30 students, faculty, and psychiatric professionals gathered for a panel discussion hosted by University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Psychiatry and the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia to discuss suicidal behavior among college-aged individuals and how this relates to mental health at Penn. On the panel, Penn professors, psychiatric professionals, and a student talked about the biological, social, and environmental factors that put students at risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and how these risk factors come into play at Penn. Multiple panelists talked about “Penn Face,” the tendency of Penn students to act as though their lives are perfect despite the challenges and stresses they are facing. Panelist Corinne Masur, a psychologist from the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia, said the prevalence of Penn Face raises questions about Penn’s environment, and that a stronger campus community would lead students to feel less pressured to present an idealized version of themselves.
A University of Bristol-led study investigated whether mindfulness based cognitive therapy (MBCT) could be effective at improving mental health and well-being in medical students. The U.K. study found that mindfulness training can indeed improve the mental health of university students.
As demand for mental health services grows, colleges are providing students with new tools to serve a broader range of needs. Many colleges are looking for ways to take some of the pressure off counseling centers through well-being initiatives, including meditation, yoga classes or designated areas where students unplug from their electronics, take naps and engage in other activities to de-stress. George Mason University has become a model for how colleges can support well-being on campus, after committing to infuse well-being into every aspect of college life to help all members of its community thrive and find personal fulfillment. The school has increased the number of well-being programs on campus and is regularly assessing the engagement levels of faculty and staff. A program at the University of South Florida, called MWell4Success, requires all incoming students to take a mental health literacy training, which teaches them how to spot the signs of distress both within themselves and their peers. The university also launched a success and wellness coaching service, which is free for all students and includes a remote Skype option. At the same time, the college ramped up on-campus offerings that promote well-being and stress reduction like relaxation stations filled with nap pods, massage chairs and bean bag chairs, as well as classes for yoga and meditation.
EVERFI Inc., a company that provides online education & training for college students, and The Jed Foundation (JED), a leading nonprofit that aims to protect emotional health and prevent suicide among young adults, announced a partnership to develop Mental Well-being for Students, a new digital learning course to equip undergraduates with essential skills and information to navigate the stressors and emotional challenges associated with college life.
University of California Los Angeles researchers discovered that increasing the amount of green vegetation in an urban area improves psychological well-being. Although previous studies have already assessed the benefits of green spaces for general health and well-being, the researchers aimed to find out how green spaces affected mental health in particular, said Ying-Ying Meng, a senior research scientist at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and an author of the study. Drawing from the results of the study, Meng said she thinks UCLA should plant more trees to increase the number of green spaces on campus. “My general impression is that UCLA is a more urban campus,” Meng said. “There are a few areas that have more green space, such as the botanical garden, but there could be more.” Meng also said students should take advantage of green spaces on campus to improve their personal well-being. “When (students) have access to this space, they should use it,” Meng said. “For example, the ability to exercise in a green space could be better than exercising in a gym.”
In an op-ed in the Daily Bruin, UCLA student Nora McNulty argues that the school should require students to take at least one course on the importance of mental health, as well as its signs, symptoms and prevalence. According to McNulty, this would demonstrate the validity of mental health issues and arm students with coping strategies, wellness tips and resilience to face their college years. The university currently offers an optional course, called Sociology 88SB: “You, Me, and Our Mental Health,” which is taught through the Undergraduate Student Initiated Education program. This program allows a select number of upperclassmen to develop and teach a lower-division seminar-style course. “UCLA is so academically oriented, and we put so much strength on our academics, that when you teach (about mental health) as a class, it validates the information,” said Zarina Wong, a third-year religion student and the teacher of the class.
As waiting lists for counseling services and support expand, university websites increasingly direct students – and, in some cases, staff – to online support resources which include a number of apps, among them Headspace and Calm. However, academics are warning that many such apps are based on limited scientific evidence, and there is a growing concern that students might be steered to an app that offers them incorrect “diagnoses” or inappropriate “therapy”. A study published last month in NPJ Digital Medicine found that 47 of the 73 mental health apps it examined claimed effectiveness in diagnosing a mental health condition or in improving symptoms, mood or self-management. Only two, however, were able to cite evidence based on evaluation of the app itself, and only one could provide a citation to relevant scientific literature.