Mental and Emotional Health
A Google feature now asks anyone who searches for “depression” if they want to take a clinically validated screening questionnaire for clinical depression. The National Alliance on Mental Illness, which partnered with Google on the questionnaire, emphasizes that the intent is to steer people who may be depressed to a doctor or therapist, not to replace an in-person medical assessment.
The University of Arkansas hired its first in-house mental health clinician who will live in one of the dorms on campus. Like many initiatives of its kind which combine counseling with residential life, the school hopes more students will seek help if services are more accessible and less intimidating.
Oklahoma University’s Counseling Psychology Clinic faces a possible shut-down. The clinic, which is staffed by counseling psychology Ph.D. students, is one of the most affordable counseling options for students and Norman, OK community members. It was announced over the summer that the program would no longer accept new doctoral students or hire new staff at the clinic, prompting fears it will close its doors. “(It’s) a real loss to the students and to the community too, because as you know, here we are, we’re in an area that needs that advocacy for people with mental health issues as well as people who have diverse identities,” clinic director Lisa Frey said.
In an effort to improve its capacity to help students in need, the University of South Florida plans to spend almost $1.5 million on mental health over the next two years. The school will hire traditional counselors as well as wellness coaches to help students who are overwhelmed but don’t need regular therapy. USF’s current ratio of 1 counselor per 1,990 students is one of the highest in the state and far exceeds the recommended ratio of 1 counselor per 1,000 to 1,500 students.
Marketplace covers the increase in demand for mental health services on college campuses, quoting Drs. Victor Schwartz at the JED Foundation and Terri Wright at the Steve Fund.
Florida Atlantic University Student Government President Emily Lawless discussed her mental health awareness plan with her SG Vice President at the school’s State of the University address. “It’s been a really big focus about mental health because for a long time we have been focused on physical health but not enough on mental health, like how are you feeling,” she said.
GW Listens, an anonymous hotline that provides George Washington University students with free peer counseling is adding texting and online chat options this fall. Student leaders and experts say the new feature will help eliminate a barrier to care for students who feel anxious meeting in person or speaking over the phone.
As another school year begins, overburdened campus counseling centers continue to struggle with the growing number of students seeking help with mental illnesses. WBUR highlights innovative resources, some founded by students and recent grads, that offer mental health support for students. WBUR profiled apps like Zencare and Talkspace, and peer-to-peer networks like Koko and Project Lets, a nonprofit with a Peer Mental Health Advocate Program (PMHA) that trains students with experience with mental illness to be peer counselors.
Colleges and universities are starting to institute programs aimed at helping students cope with failure, including the Success-Failure Project at Harvard, the Princeton Perspective Project, and the Stanford Resilience Project. WBUR discussed these programs with Rachel Simmons, the author of “The Curse of the Good Girl: Raising Authentic Girls with Courage and Confidence” and a leader of the “Failing Well” workshops at Smith College; and Frank Furedi, a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Kent and author of “What’s Happened To The University: A Sociological Exploration of its Infantilisation.”
Colleges and universities are seeing a surge in enrollment of students along the autism spectrum, and some, like Dakota State University, are becoming more aggressive in meeting their intellectual demands. However, that kind of outreach remains rare. Only about 50 or 60 colleges and universities across the country offer individualized services for students on the autism spectrum.