Mental and Behavioral Health
The parents of former University of Pennsylvania student Olivia Kong, who died by suicide in April 2016, are suing the school for allegedly failing to respond to Kong’s pleas for help in the weeks leading up to her death. The lawsuit argues that Kong told several University officials in the days prior to her death that she was having suicidal thoughts, and that instead of providing Kong immediate help, the University sent her from one administrative department to another.
Last week, two Ohio State University student organizations– Peers Reaching Out and Buckeye Campaign Against Suicide — collaborated with the schools’ Suicide Prevention team to post roughly 6,000 fliers with the words “Remember You Matter” across campus along with a list of national and local mental health resources. The event was meant to erase stigma, raise awareness, prevent suicide, promote positive thinking, and promote change.
Dara Brown, a Cornell University Law School student and graduate student member of the Board of Trustees, argued in an op-ed in the Cornell Sun that while administrators are usually expected to address student mental health concerns, students and faculty must share in that responsibility, and cultivate a caring community. Brown believes that Cornell faculty and advisors must acknowledge campus, national and international events that may attribute to student mental health challenges and provide students with adequate accommodations.
The Daily Pennsylvanian writes that, despite the high-profile suicides of two student athletes over the past several years, UPenn has not introduced any substantial reforms to the way athletes receive and request mental health care, either from Counseling and Psychological Services or through Penn Athletics. One student leader, senior fencer Ashley Marcus is trying to change that. Using data from a survey of student athletes, Marcus developed a proposal that requested that CAPS allot one of the five therapists it plans to hire this year to work out of a Penn Athletics building, ideally in a space shared with other staffers like nutritionists and compliance officers that student-athletes have reason to frequently visit. As part of the proposal, Penn Athletics would hire an additional therapist out of its own budget. If the proposal passes, it will be one of the most significant steps Penn has publicly taken to expand mental health counseling for athletes in recent memory.
George Washington University will soon expand part-time mental health care to the Virginia Science and Technology Campus following a lobbying effort by nursing school faculty and staff. The University will hire a counselor to work on VSTC two days each week as part of a series of changes to student health services. Officials said the counselor will bring a much-needed service to a campus where students face the academic rigors of college life without Mental Health Services on site.
At University of Mississippi, student-athletes make up less than 2 percent of the entire student body, but they have their own full-time sports psychology staff. By way of explanation, Ross Bjork, the Athletics Director, said “[It’s] the stress of time management. Weight workouts, practice, nutrition, study hall, class, team travel.” The stress on Mississippi athletes, in particular, Bjork points out, tends to be greater than most. “We have the SEC Network, and we have ESPN,” Bjork said. “There’s a pressure to perform.”
At the University of Connecticut, the number of students visiting counseling services nearly doubled from 1,563 in 2015 to 2,831 2017. This increase follows national trends, as anxiety continues to rise among college students.
In the first feature of a two-part series called “Stories from CAPS” at Swarthmore University, Nicole Liu profiles several students who have used the schools’ Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS). The feature examines the effect of mental health stigma and investigates how students find their way to counseling.
The Ohio State University President Michael Drake recently announced the creation of mental health task force. In a statement, Drake said the group, which will include Senior Vice President of Student Life Javaune Adams-Gaston and student representatives, would consider how to improve mental health services and suicide prevention efforts at Ohio State. He said, “I have charged the task force with making clear what we do well, what we can do better, and what, if any, national best practices may be implemented or adapted to support our community better.” Drake noted Ohio State increased staff at CSS by one-third within the last two years, and is committed to do more.
Student-athletes face unique pressures while in school, balancing their efforts between sports and academics. When they are injured and cannot play, or are faced with losing a scholarship, many are left searching for a sense of purpose and belonging and struggle with their mental health. Jeni Shannon, director of the Carolina Athletics Mental Health and Performance Psychology program said the culture of sports plays a part in some athletes’ reluctance to seek help. “Athletes are trained to be tough, to keep going, to ‘suck it up,’” Shannon said. “All of those things can create a culture that makes it very hard to ask for help in any way or show anything that could be perceived as weakness.”
University of Maryland student Faye Barrett had called 911 after experiencing a panic attack and taking a high dose of a prescribed muscle relaxer. The hospital discharged her several hours later, and as she prepared to return to her on-campus apartment, she saw an email from the Department of Resident Life informing her that she wouldn’t be allowed to go to her room – or any other on-campus housing – until she had met with a university psychiatrist and a Resident Life case manager. The letter read, “I have concerns about your ability to successfully manage living in a residence hall,” and was signed by a Resident Life community director. Barrett was eventually cleared to return to her room after staying one night with a friend and meeting with her psychiatrist and an administrator from Resident Life. But the experience still shocked her. “After something like that, you need stability and comfort,” she said. “And I lost that,” adding “I still am very afraid of being deemed unstable again and getting booted from my housing.”
Arizona State University student artist Michaela Griego uses art to create conversation about the complexities of mental illness and to cope with her own mental health struggles.
A growing body of research has linked students’ sense of belonging on their campuses to a number of outcomes, including persistence in college and their general wellbeing. Two studies provide new insight into how colleges can help students, especially members of underrepresented groups, cultivate belonging. The first study, “Experiences With Diversity and Students’ Satisfaction and Sense of Belonging at Research Universities,” investigates the links between measures of students’ satisfaction and belonging, their experiences with diverse peers and their sense of the campus climate. The second, “Learning Communities, Mattering, and Sense of Belonging: Structural Equation Modeling From Year 1 of a Longitudinal Study,” examines which elements of a comprehensive college transition program for first-generation and low-income students relate to belonging and mattering.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Winston Crisp recently announced the creation of a task force on mental health to the Board of Trustees’ University Affairs Committee. Hannah Anglin, a writer at the student newspaper The Daily Tar Heel, spoke with Crisp about the creation and the goals of the task force.
In an open letter to the campus community in The Diamondback, University of Maryland Director of Resident Life Deborah Grandner promised to do better in handling student residents’ mental health needs. She said, “I write today to acknowledge that I hear the concerns from the community and also to explain in more detail how and why our current protocols exist. We can and will do better.”
The Wellness On The Go program at Rutgers University provides stress reduction services to students, including massages and yoga classes. The wellness program has five facilities at the school, one on each campus and offers the popular “massage on the go” initiative, where massages are given to students across campus. Dave Williams, the executive director of Recreation, said that Wellness On The Go is meant to service all different aspects of a person’s health.