A Clear Path to Mental Health Gains for College Campuses
Mental health on college campuses is generally not earning a good grade from observers, a matter worth dissecting and a conversation to start.
“In a survey taken by about 7,000 U.S. college students during the 2022-2023 academic year, 41% reported recent symptoms of depression, 36% said they’d recently felt anxiety and 14% said they’d considered suicide in the past year.
“Another survey from a few years prior found that 60% of students had experienced ‘overwhelming’ anxiety and half said they’d been so depressed it was difficult to function,” according to an article in Time magazine by Jamie Ducharme titled With Demand for Mental-Health Care Soaring on Campus, Faculty and Students Are Stepping Up to Help.
That’s going to increase risk and lead to serious problems.
Encouraging news is that research has shown there is work that can lead to improvements. Thinking however has to continue to evolve to drive additional efforts and reduction in human costs.
“Among adolescents, school-based health programs can improve well-being and reduce suicidal ideation, drug use and risky sexual behavior, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” Ducharme writes.
“On college campuses, meanwhile, there’s evidence to support programs that teach coping skills and mindfulness, as well as regular screenings for mental-health issues, according to a report from the American Council on Education (ACE),” he adds. “Washington University in St. Louis, which operates Uncle Joe’s Peer Counseling and Resource Center, a hotline through which students can talk with trained peer counselors 24/7.
“In-person office hours are also available from the college-student-friendly hours of 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. “Being able to talk to someone who seems closer to a friend than an adult is an easier step for people to take,” says Delaney Dardet, co-director.
Keith Smith, senior vice president at the Michael O. Leavitt School of Health at Western Governors University and Amanda Phillips, founder and chief editor at The Mental Desk, an online resource dedicated to mental health issues, talk to Communication Intelligence magazine about the topic and the communication surrounding it.
They first address the gap that campuses are experiencing when it comes to the communication with students and professors.
Keith Smith
“Most colleges and universities have at least some resources and access to mental health care, sometimes via an outside vendor and sometimes through a health center,” Smith says. “The bulk of these services, however, mostly focus only on student health and mental health concerns, thereby, leaving out the faculty.
“A clear gap then is understanding what we are doing for faculty and staff? Mental health services must cast a wider net to include the faculty and staff, because the need is to approach this area holistically, not in silos,” he asserts.
Phillips says there is clear room for a higher degree of urgency and better practices.
“While statistics paint a dire picture of students’ mental well-being, the proactive discourse between faculty and students remains lackluster,” she says in agreement with Smith, adding that. “Institutions often resort to reactive measures, only after a crisis emerges. It’s high time colleges prioritize mental health as they do academic excellence.”
She elaborates on her reasoning.
Amanda Phillips
“A student’s mind is as crucial as their grades,” Phillips says. “If campuses can invest in state-of-the-art facilities and research, why not (also) in robust mental health programs? The silence is deafening and it’s costing our youth their well-being.”
The communication about it is falling short, Smith points out.
“While most institutions have mental health resources, without a clear and consistent message to the faculty and students about mental health and the stigma associated with mental health resources, we have not done as we need to do in this critical arena,” he says.
Smith passionately explains what is vital to successfully communicate to positively influence thinking and decisions.
“We must fight the stigma aspect and reassure the students, staff and faculty that, as humans, we all, for various reasons and at differing times, face issues in our lives that require support and guidance, both informally through family and friends and formally through trained mental health counselors and therapists,” he declares.
He says that the phrasing mental health is concerning and worth examining.
“As a society, much less in the academic world, even our jargons and terms aren’t up to the mark. We talk about mental health as it relates solely to the mind. This alone connotes some deficiency mentally and cognitively,” Smith says.
“Humans, however, have an integrated life comprising various aspects like our body, mind and emotions, along with our social relationships,” he details. “Humans are far more emotion-driven than rationality-driven, even for the most left brained among us. This then requires us to re-tool our verbiage, re-tool our messaging and certainly have access to appropriate health professionals.”
This brings up the question of whether a more developed narrative around accessibility to care and effective applications of it could potentially lead to more people engaging in it and creating stronger college campuses.
“Yes, I believe that amplifying the narrative around the urgent need for accessible mental health care will likely drive more engagement in care,” Phillips says, because, she states, “As awareness grows, colleges will be compelled to prioritize mental well-being, leading to healthier campus environments.”
“It absolutely will,” Smith says, “but as mentioned in my response to the first question, we need to rethink and reposition our verbiage and language around this issue.
“At the end of the day, it is about human thriving-flourishing, human wellbeing and holistic wellness in all aspects of life, it’s about resiliency for what life brings us and about the hope and joy in living.
“As we get better at our tenets regarding this part of human existence, better at communication and better in our resources, we will see healthier, happier humans, be they students, staff or faculty.”
Smith discusses the strongest impediment to a healthier college student and professor populous. He wants to expand the thinking and conversation.
“Our biggest challenge is ourselves—collectively and individually—in terms of defining health and wellness, defining success in university life, career and relationships,” he states.
“Oftentimes, we burden ourselves with unrealistic expectations, including societal expectations, and these pressures, along with the normal ups and downs of life, often lead to a strained mental health.”
He provides recommendations that can address our societal shortcomings.
“Beyond a more enlightened and pragmatic level of life expectations, we need to provide support in various ways for when we need some extra help to deal with issues that arise internally or externally and impact our overall health and wellbeing, and with this arises the practical issue of funding,” Smith says.
Money is part of the equation. He admits though that solving it to prove results with overwhelming, indisputable evidence can be challenging.
“Funds certainly become an impediment because of which people cannot get that extra level of support they may need,” Smith says. “This is a challenge for the institutions as well as the society at large. Also, there isn’t always a clear way to demonstrate that the effort and amount spent around mental health will yield a numerical return.”
The encouraging news is that there are is not a total absence of test results.
“It is, however, interesting to note that there are multiple research studies available that indicate that healthier, happier people are more productive and satisfied in all areas of their lives,” Smith says. “This is the logic and philosophy we need to embrace. We all need to think long-term rather than so easily acquiesce to the ‘we don’t have the budget’ mentality.”
What and how people talk about the topic, ideas for improvement, make decisions and implement strategy is important for society for competently addressing present and future problems.
“We need conversations, yes, but even more, action” Smith says, “at every level of the society — within families, schools, civic and community as well as religious groups, governmental agencies, universities and most decidedly, within organizations, be they businesses or nonprofits.
“These conversations need to address the questions above, openly and candidly, with a commitment to action. We are far too easily assuaged with ‘we need to have a conversation about’ type of thinking. Again yes, we need conversations, but with action to follow.”
Phillips speaks strongly to the questions as well.
“To move society towards addressing current and anticipated challenges, several pivotal conversations are essential:
- Mental Health Awareness: Normalize discussions around mental well-being, breaking stigmas and making it as routine as discussing physical health.
- Education System Reforms: Reevaluate the pressures and demands of academic curricula, emphasizing holistic development over mere grades.
- Accessible Healthcare: Advocate for affordable and accessible mental health resources for all, ensuring no one is left behind due to financial constraints.
- Digital Age Challenges: Address the mental health implications of technology, social media and the digital era, fostering a balance between connectivity and well-being.
“By fostering these dialogues,” Phillips says, “society can pave the way for proactive solutions, ensuring a resilient and mentally robust community for the future.”
