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Schools reorganize
services to meet
students' needs
(August/September
2005 Issue)
By Ami Albernaz
As greater numbers of students report feeling stressed or depressed,
university mental health services throughout New England are taking
stock of their resources and in some cases, reorganizing to better
meet the needs of these students.
At Harvard and Boston University, mental health services that used
to operate separately are now more tightly coordinated. At the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT), so-called "docs in the dorms" - doctors
and counselors assigned to student residence halls - are on hand
for counseling. Some schools, like MIT, have drop-in hours at their
counseling centers for students and faculty members. By making support
services more visible and integrating them into college communities,
university officials hope to de-stigmatize conditions like depression
and anxiety, and reach the students most in need of help.
"The good news is that depression and anxiety are treatable," says
Richard Kadison, M.D., director of mental health services at Harvard.
"But if students don't seek care, they can't build the tools" to
combat them.
According to a 2004 American College Health Association survey
of 47,202 college students nationwide, 14.9 percent reported having
been diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives, compared
with 10.3 percent in 2000. Nearly 40 percent of all men and 50 percent
of all women surveyed reported feeling so depressed that they had
difficulty functioning one or more times during the last school
year, while one out of 10 students said they had seriously considered
attempting suicide at least once.
Reasons suggested for the increase in the prevalence of mental
distress among college students vary. While psychological disorders
tend to emerge in the late teenage years through the mid-20s, some
cite the complexity of today's world versus that of a few generations
past.
"Culturally, it's more confusing than it used to be," says Gertrude
Carter, MSW, director of Psychological Services at Bennington College
in Vermont. "Children today are supposed to be pseudo-sophisticated.
But they're not ready for everything they're expected to deal with."
Some students, she adds, may find the lack of structure in college
life confusing. "Kids arrive and are dislocated without an internal
base to rely on. It's asking an awful lot of someone to plunk them
down with no roots."
At large city schools, where some students might feel anonymous,
officials try to create a more congenial atmosphere. At Boston University,
"prevention programs are not just through the mental health center,
but there's a whole program articulated," says Ira Reiskin, M.D.,
chief of mental health and counseling, citing a university-wide
system of counselors in dormitories.
Indeed, there has been a big push within the past few years to
achieve a sort of seamlessness between counseling services and campus
life as a whole. "We try to be active and engaged in the community,"
says Alan Siegel, Ed.D., chief of mental health services at MIT.
In addition to a heightened presence of mental health staff in
the dorms at MIT, sessions in yoga and other relaxation techniques
are offered and counselors work with athletics programs to identify
students who might be over-exercising or have disordered eating.
"We want to be a resource as well as a clinical facility," Siegel
says.
At most schools nationwide, including Harvard, MIT, Boston University
and Bennington, the number of students seeking out counseling has
increased. Thirty percent of Bennington students came into mental
health services at some point last year, while at MIT, the number
of students seeking out counseling has more than doubled over the
past decade. Part of the increase, the mental health directors say,
comes from outreach efforts. "If you tell people to seek care, they
will," Kadison says, adding: "But you need to have the resources."
While some schools, like MIT and Harvard, have been able to hire
more therapists and expand mental health programs, others are more
constrained financially. Kadison cites the 2002 National Survey
of Counseling Center Directors compiled by Robert Gallagher of the
University of Pittsburgh, which found colleges offer an average
of 2.6 psychiatric hours to students. While Harvard, Kadison says,
offers 11 times that amount, "if we're flat-out, where are students
[at schools offering fewer psychiatric hours] getting help?"
Funding for university mental health services has been pledged
at the federal level, as the Senate approved a bill last September
that will provide $15 million for competitive grants for colleges
and universities to expand these services. Meanwhile, many schools
are making the most of lower-cost measures, using their Web sites,
for instance, to link students to Internet-based mental health resources.
Some university sites link to online self-tests, checklists of depression
or suicidal behavior warning signs and tips on how to help someone
who is troubled.
Schools also rely on student-run support groups to reach troubled
peers, and lessen the stigma that may still be attached to seeking
counseling. "Students listen to other students," Kadison says. "Sometimes
counselors are seen as old guys who are like their parents."
Ultimately, strengthening mental health services on campus is self-serving
for universities, Kadison suggests. Since psychological distress
often impedes a student's functioning in the classroom, addressing
psychological problems boosts academic performance.
"Some schools stick their heads in the sand when it comes to dealing
with mental health issues and that's a bad idea in terms of retention,"
he says. "When students are suffering emotionally, they don't function
to the best of their ability."
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