What does your institution consider to be a mental health issue and how do you deal with it? In their session, “Mental Health: What Does it Look Like When it Shows Up at Your Office,” Carla Boyd and Kate Meisner from the University of Minnesota-Duluth engaged the audience in a discussion about the mental health issues prevalent on campuses across the country, the challenges that institutions face trying to support students, and how higher education faculty and staff can contribute to the ongoing conversation.
What does mental health look like?
Every campus faces issues, but they are often difficult to discuss. The presenters provided documented evidence of undergraduate and graduate students withdrawing from school due to stress, anxiety, and depression. In addition to these health concerns, other session participants also mentioned PTSD, panic attacks, sexual assault, and alcohol and opioid abuse as other issues affecting their students. In fact, they cited an upward trend for students attending counseling for mental health concerns.
Challenges
There are many challenges for both students and staff when it comes to treating mental health issues. For students, there is often a stigma associated with utilizing campus counseling services. And for international students, in particular, many experience high isolation, but have low rates of utilizing the services available to them. This could stem from cultural or religious barriers.
Schools also face challenges with regards to providing counseling services to their students. These may include:
- Funding
- Counseling staff to student ratios – if not maintained at a reasonable level, it could impact student retention
- A clear definition of the role of the counselor
- Making accommodations but not lowering standards
- Trying to create a nurturing environment and campus culture that shows that it’s okay to seek assistance.
How to contribute to the conversation
A first step towards helping students is to develop ways to identify students who may be struggling. One suggestion was to bring experts to campus and share strategies for how to pick up on students’ social and emotional cues. Related to this, Boyd suggested opening the door to communication by finding the student and saying, “Let me take a walk with you.” She also suggested maintaining communication with faculty and staff. “It’s a community issue.”