Imagine you feel tightness in your chest every morning when you wake up, you can’t sleep or you sleep too much and you tend to avoid social situations. You tell your teacher or your guidance counselor. And they say, “You are just stressed about school: go for a walk, treat yourself, get some sun.”
It sounds simple enough– Society’s version of a “quick fix.” But what happens when it goes deeper than needing some sun or feeling less stressed because you took a “brisk walk?”
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness or NAMI, “One in four young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 have a diagnosable mental illness.” This means that 25 percent of all college-aged students have suffered from a mental health issue at some point in their life. Look around you. If you are in a classroom setting right now and there are 40 students sitting at their desks, at least 10 of them have suffered from a mental health issue.
Statistics about mental health issues are useful if they actually produce change.
Although many universities provide some sort of help, it is often short-lived. No amount of insight on how many students have mental health problems can fight the decrease in funding many institutions face. Some colleges are fortunate enough to receive grants from various institutions, but that is not the case for most. The NAMI survey disclosed that services on campus were limited in length and range.
Not only are campuses not doing everything they can to combat mental health, but our government is doing less than what is expected to help the rising numbers. According to the Fiscal Year 2019 budget, the funding for the Department of Health and Human Services or HHS will have its funding cut by $17.9 billion dollars, a 21 percent decrease from 2017.
Helping more students on college campuses is going to take funding and experts. It’s hard to believe that any support won’t go to good use. A question that constantly pops in people’s heads: how much is the mental health of young adult’s worth? If 25 percent of college aged people are suffering from mental health problems, isn’t that enough?
According to NAMI, almost 73 percent of students living with a mental health condition experienced a mental health crisis on campus. But only 34.2 percent reported that their college did not know about their crisis. Most people might say it is up to the student to tell their superiors about mental health issues, and that may be true. But according to the same study done by NAMI the number one reason students did not seek help was concern of stigma.
If universities are not doing enough to help young adults feel comfortable to seek help, how are things going to change?
According to Time Magazine, in 2015, UCLA offered a free online screening for depression. Among these students, nearly 300 who were said to have been at risk and were then seen by a counselor at the school. At Virginia Tech University, there have been several satellite counseling clinics reaching students virtually.
Another important development would be having counselors at individual universities to help students. According to the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors or AUCCCD, “The average university has one professional counselor for every 1,737 students — fewer than the minimum of one therapist for every 1,000 to 1,500 students recommended by the International Association of Counseling Services.”
“In a broad perspective, universities can help the entire population by establishing longer breaks in more frequent intervals to give students who are working 3 jobs and still full-time in school a break to collect themselves,” says Loyola Junior Katrina Demas. “From an individualistic standpoint, they can offer more intense mental health resources on campus to help inform those who don’t realize they have a mental health issues, or for those dealing with a loved one with mental health issues. Academically, professors can help particular students who claim to have a form of mental health issue by giving them longer time on tests, offering more one-on-one tutoring, while on top of it not placing pressure on academics but rather someone’s emotional well-being.”
That should be enough to help students. But funding is low and school counselors are growing fatigued with the number of students needing help. Every day more students are plagued with mental health issues and it seems little is being done about it.