Reaching out to students - By G. Jeffrey MacDonald, Special for USA TODAY
USA TODAY - Posted 12/6/2004 9:38 PM CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - All seems idyllic under the windswept trees of college campuses nationwide. But behind the scenes, therapists are scrambling to treat a rising tide of mental and emotional problems among students. Independent research portrays a student body struggling to cope with normal college stressors and chronic conditions alike: . Nationwide, one-third of students report symptoms of serious mental illness, a 2004 study by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill says. . The percentage of students ever diagnosed with depression climbed from 10.3% in fall 2000 to 14.9% in spring 2004, the College Mental Health Association says. . The number of students counseled each year for depression doubled from 1988 to 2001. And the number counseled for suicidal thoughts tripled, a long-term study of more than 13,000 Kansas State University students found. In the wake of mounting evidence, as well as highly publicized tragedies such as five student suicides at New York University since September 2003, colleges and universities are working to help students maintain stability. Why students appear to be struggling more is something of a mystery. Theories vary: Maybe awareness of mental health has led to more diagnoses and treatments for not-so-new problems, or maybe college life is more intense and isolating than it used to be. Whatever the cause, campus mental health counseling is changing - perhaps forever - from a resource used primarily in times of crisis to a routine part of college life. "Most people now think, 'If I'm depressed, I'll go get help,' and that's a positive development," says Gregory Eells, director of counseling and psychological services at Cornell University, which he says has an undeserved reputation as "a suicide school." "The challenge now is meeting the demand." At Cornell, 12% of the university's 20,000 students sought mental health services during the past year. That marks a 63% increase from just seven years ago. Over those same seven years, the university's counseling staff has doubled to 22, which reflects a trend not uncommon in higher education. At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., the full-time mental health staff grew from three to four last year. The newest counselor's main purpose is outreach - that is, to meet regularly with students and head off problems before they get out of hand. "It used to be more likely (we would) deal with crisis situations," says Keith Anderson, a staff psychologist at RPI. "But we'd much rather be more preventative." For a growing number of incoming students, crisis prevention in the realm of mental health already is a way of life. That's because they have been diagnosed with some sort of mental illness in high school or earlier, experts say, and now they have brought their conditions with them to college. "A lot of people are getting to college who couldn't have done so before, but they can now because they're on anti-depressants," says physician Richard Kadison, a mental health service director at Harvard and co-author of College of the Overwhelmed: The Campus Mental Health Crisis and What to Do About It (Jossey-Bass, 2004). Such students might have found the daily demands of collegiate life unbearable, Kadison says, but mood-stabilizing medications enable them to do what's necessary to stay in school. A mix of factors seems to be shaping an unbalanced, unhealthy environment for many students. Some bear the weight of pressure that began for some in early childhood, Eells says, because in many cases "their lives have been scripted since they could walk." Uncertainty bred in a fickle economy and an age of terrorism also might conspire, at times, to overwhelm relatively healthy students. Alcohol and drug use can exacerbate other problems. With so many factors in the mix, professionals in charge of student mental health are choosing to teach good habits rather than respond to the consequences of bad ones. At RPI, for instance, one psychologist doesn't wait for frazzled students to seek help but instead travels the campus with a portable workshop on good sleep habits and other practical topics. At Cornell, student populations that are considered at heightened risk for mental health problems, such as African-Americans, Latinos and international students, have an outreach counselor come to them for consultation each month. Sigrid Pechenik, Cornell's assistant director of counseling and psychological services, visits Latino Studies Program (LSP) students on Fridays without appointments. "Not everybody is comfortable or serious enough to go to the clinic," Pechenik says. Cornell senior Emmanuel Escot started seeing Pechenik four years ago and prefers seeing her in the LSP sessions. "There is definitely less anxiety involved," he says. Prevention efforts make good sense from a liability standpoint, too, says Daren Bakst, president of the Council on Law in Higher Education. He cites a case in which a federal judge declined in July 2002 to dismiss a lawsuit accusing Ferrum College in Ferrum, Va., of wrongful death and negligence. The judge let the case go forward on the grounds that the college may have had a duty to act more assertively when the student confessed to having suicidal thoughts. The college later settled the case out of court. "This is the kind of case where a school may be held liable," Bakst says. "Schools are literally having to protect somebody from themselves, and that's tough." But "schools understand this is a big issue." --- MAINTAINING SANITY Staying mentally healthy in college is for many students a matter of maintaining good habits. Here are a few tips from the office of Psychological Services at Cornell University: * Watch for symptoms of stress in your behavior, such as increased alcohol consumption or social withdrawal. * Watch for physiological signs of mounting stress, such as difficulty concentrating, frequent illness or changes in sleep patterns. * Maintain a balance of academics, play and leisure. * Don't allow irritating relationships to dominate your life. * Tell others about your stressors and difficulties as they arise; see reaching out to others for help as a sign of maturity, not weakness. --- Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2004-12-06-college-mental-health_x.htm - c.a.t. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.298 / Virus Database: 265.6.6 - Release Date: 28/12/2004 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/vzIolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> �timo dia pra voc�. <*> Para assinar a lista onde se comenta: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Para enviar um coment�rio: [email protected] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/goldenlist/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
