A new study has found that one third of freshmen from 19 colleges in eight countries report symptoms consistent with a diagnosable psychological disorder. Lead author Randy Auerbach and his research team analyzed data from the World Health Organization’s World Mental Health International College Student Initiative, which surveyed almost 14,000 students from 19 colleges in eight countries. The researchers found that 35 percent of the respondents reported symptoms consistent with at least one mental health disorder. Major depressive disorder was the most common, followed by generalized anxiety disorder. According to Auerbach, “While effective care is important, the number of students who need treatment for these disorders far exceeds the resources of most counseling centers, resulting in a substantial unmet need for mental health treatment among college students. Considering that students are a key population for determining the economic success of a country, colleges must take a greater urgency in addressing this issue.”
University of North Carolina students have mixed responses about the effectiveness of CAPS spell out as well as what its role should be at a major university. Spencer Mamo, a UNC junior, told the Daily Tarheel that the University will never be able to provide enough lasting support for students with the current model CAPS provides. “The University’s job isn’t necessarily to look out for the mental health of its students,” Mamo said. “So many of the issues we face, like the somewhat toxic rise of social media, are just going to keep growing, and places like CAPS can’t provide support for every single student when it gets to that point.” Luke Davis, offered a different view and told the student newspaper that it is UNC’s responsibility to provide adequate mental health care for everyone.
An assistant professor of engineering at Florida Polytechnic University is suing the institution for alleged violations of the First Amendment, claiming that it failed to renew her contract because she publicly criticized its mental health services — both before and after a student suicide. In June, Christina Drake spoke at a meeting of the Board of Governors for the State University System of Florida after numerous staff terminations, including the university’s sole campus mental health counselor, linking decreased on-campus mental health services to an increased risk of student suicides. “I pleaded with the board,” Drake said in an interview Thursday. “This place is a pressure cooker. Mental health is not an area that we can afford not to make a priority.” Then, in August, a Florida Poly student fatally shot himself while sitting on a campus bench. Drake was quoted in an article about the students death, calling the school a “ticking time bomb.” Drake alleges that university administrators immediately expressed “anger” over the Times article, and that she was repeatedly encouraged in person by various supervisors to stop being so “negative” about the university. Days after the article appeared, Provost Terry Parker informed Drake that her contract would not be renewed for next academic year.
Joshua Song, a fourth-year student at Ohio State University died last week after a fall from a university parking garage. Song’s death was the latest in a series of deaths and/or falls from garages on the Ohio State campus. Following incidents in April, Ohio State President Michael V. Drake announced the creation of a task force to improve mental-health resources and practices at the university. The task force’s report, released hours after Song fell, said certain safety measures already are completed or planned to prevent suicide attempts, including the installation of signs with crisis phone numbers on each campus parking garage, student-designed murals to be installed on garage top floors and security enhancements to the Ohio Union south garage. The task force recommendations were broken down into six main points: advancing a culture of care, enhancing and standardizing screening procedures, enhancing resources, communication of support and mental health promotion, expansion of delivery mechanisms – focused on creating a digital platform that helps student cope with mental health- and exploring campus environments to advance additional safety measures.
Hamilton College Counseling Center has joined forces with other departments at the school to promote mental health and wellness on campus. This includes the addition of mental health resources to the College’s library catalog that will include “books, work books, websites, and other electronic resources” covering topics such as self-help and skills to cope with stress and mental illness.
College students are turning to online forums, chat rooms, and social media groups to discuss their mental health disorders. In Facebook groups, students with less common mental health illnesses, such as borderline personality disorder, find a community where they can share what they can’t discuss openly at school and trade advice on coping techniques.
In a new study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) researchers found significant disparities in mental health treatment across race/ethnicity. The study found that among college students with clinically significant mental health problems, half of white students received treatment in the past year, compared to only one-quarter of African American and Asian students, and one-third of Latinx students. Overall, 42 percent of the students met criteria for a mental health problem, with prevalence ranging from 40 percent among African American students to 53 percent for Arab/Arab American students. Among African American students with a mental health problem, only 21 percent had received a diagnosis, compared with 48 percent of their white peers. “There is enormous unmet need for mental health services in college student populations writ large, and students of color represent a disparities population based on even greater unmet mental health needs relative to white students,” says lead author Sarah Lipson, assistant professor of health law, policy & management at BUSPH.
Jen Smith, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St Louis, is conducting focus groups on the various sources behind student stress. Her motivation came from a survey that indicated that stress and anxiety had risen among the undergraduate study body. These groups, which will consist of undergraduate sophomores, juniors, and seniors, will help the administration find ways to reduce unnecessary academic stress.
The University of Virginia Honor Committee voted unanimously to remove the Admission of Act from the Contributory Mental Disorder (CMD) process, a procedure that allows students to request a psychological evaluation prior to moving through Honor proceedings to determine if a mental health condition contributed to the commission of the offense. The change will remove the requirement that an accused student admit an act, or admit guilt to an Honor offense, before being assessed for a CMD. The CMD is typically overseen by the Office of the Dean of Students and conducted by Student Health or the University’s Counseling and Psychological Services.