mental health in college

1. Addressing the Unique
Mental Health Needs of
College Students
Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes
AllCEUs Counselor Continuing Education
Podcast Host: Counselor Toolbox
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2. Objectives
 Identify the scope of the mental health problem in college
students
 Identify the impact of mental health issues on learning
and student retention
 Learn about the connection between mental health issues
and substance abuse
 Explore unique issues faced by college students
 Identify the components of a good campus mental health
program and other strategies to reduce stressors
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3. Scope of the Problem
 According to a 2016 American College Health Association
survey,
 37percent of students reported feeling so depressed within the
last 12 months that it was difficult to function
 21 percent felt overwhelming anxiety
 A survey of students seen for mental health services at 66
college counseling centers found that prior to college
 10 percent of these students had used psychiatric medications
 5 percent had been hospitalized for psychiatric reasons
 11 percent had seriously considered suicide
 5 percent had attempted suicide.
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4. Scope of the Problem
 The 2015 NSDUH shows that adults ages 18 or older with past year
mental health issues were more likely than other adults in that age
group to have used illicit drugs in the same period (32.1 vs 14.8%)
 The risk of co-occurring disorders is pronounced among college
students as they transition from adolescence to adulthood, an age
when mental health issues often surface for the first time and in a
new environment where substance use is common
 Increased academic distress is associated with increased mental
health issues including suicidal ideation
 Misuse of drugs and alcohol is correlated with
 Need to cope with the pressures of college life (6.4% of college students
report nonmedicinal use of ADHD medications)
 Campus culture of alcohol use
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5. Why Do We Care?
 The overall state of student’s health affects learning.
 Mental health problems and harmful health behaviors such as
substance abuse can impair the quality and quantity of learning.
 They decrease students’ intellectual and emotional flexibility, weaken their
creativity, and undermine their interest in new knowledge, ideas, and
experiences.
 Behavioral health issues such as binge drinking, drug use, cutting and
other self-injurious behavior, eating disorders, pornography addiction,
and problematic gambling can all be understood as maladaptive
strategies to reduce stress and anxiety.
 Several of those behaviors are reinforced and supported in the social
culture of many colleges and universities. (Which behaviors are
reinforced in your university?)
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6. Why Do We Care?
 Students may self-medicate by turning to substance
use
 Substance use is frequently associated with negative
personal, social, and community consequences, from
regretted actions while intoxicated to “hooking up.”
 Students need access to care to cope with these events to
prevent PTSD, depression and suicidal ideation.
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7. Issues Students Face
 Stressors
 New freedoms and independence
 New surroundings and experiences
 New social networks
 Separation from family and established friendships
 New academic demands
 Some students may be afraid to seek certain types of help
or request accommodations for a mental health issue for
fear of being viewed as incapable or being expelled.
 However, without accommodations, their performance may be
negatively affected
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8. Developing Resilience
 A key component of well-being is resilience—the ability to
recognize, face, and manage or overcome problems and
challenges, and to be strengthened, rather than defeated,
in the process.
 Resilient graduates better navigate today’s uncertain and
volatile economic, employment, and career environments.
 Challenges to health and well-being undermine resilience
by making it more difficult for the student to deal with
life on life’s terms
 Less resilient students take fewer intellectual and
creative risks and are poor partners in group learning
situations
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9. Developing Resilience
 Hardiness (Commitment, control and challenge) is a
strategy that can promote resilience
 Hardy personality allows one to have confidence in one’s ability to
handle change, increases belief in one’s general competence, and
helps derive personal meaning from one's social activities
 Learning experiences of all kinds, from academic courses
to student employment, help students develop this ability
 What experiences can we facilitate to help students? (What
problems can we present, in what way, with what expected
outcome?)
 Providing culturally competent, trauma-informed services
and active outreach to specific populations is vital
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Earn a poor grade, not invited to
join, life difficulty during
semester, where to find
answers, how to self-advocate,
money management,
interpersonal conflict

10. Developing Resilience
 Where and how can outreach be done
 Residence halls
 Sports teams
 Panhellenic council
 Student Union
 Email
 Undergraduate courses
 Where/how else…
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11. Special Issues
 Cultural factors may also inhibit help seeking
 Race/ethnic beliefs about mental illness and help seeking
 LGBTQI2
 Gender
 Group membership
 Veterans
 Many veterans face the challenges of injury, PTSD and TBI.
 Adjustment from a military environment to the less formal
campus culture can be quite difficult.
 Providing mental and behavioral health services within a
veterans’ center or focused programming for military learner
support can improve their functioning and learning
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12. Special Issues
 Students with autism spectrum disorders, including
Asperger’s syndrome, also have important needs.
 Early identification, treatment, and effective
accommodations before matriculation can prepare these
students for the academic rigors of higher education.
 Social skills deficits, however, are often problematic for
students participating in the classroom, learning in groups,
engaging in student organizations and activities, and living
in residence halls.
 Collaboration among several campus offices is necessary to
respond to the needs of these students and promote their
learning and retention
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13. Components of Quality Programs
 Strategies to strengthen learning outcomes for
students of any age and in any context
 Improving the quality of the learning environment.
 Provide education, outreach and prevention services to
help students manage unique stressors
 Providing culturally responsive, trauma informed
services to treat mental health and addiction issues
 Ensure faculty, staff, administration and health
personnel are aware of strategies to help students deal
with stressors
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14. Components of Quality Programs
 The best way for colleges and universities to nurture
resilience among students is to promote health and
well-being, especially mental and behavioral health,
at both
 Individual
 Organizational
 Community levels (housing, employment,
activities/engagement)
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15. Components of Quality Programs
 Publicity campaign to
 Reduce the negativity associated with seeking help for
mental health issues
 Educate the campus community (students, residence hall
staff, instructors) about
 The warning signs of mental health issues
 Stress management and wellness strategies
 Demonstrate understanding of different ethnic/racial social
norms and needs
 Raise awareness of the resources on campus and in the
surrounding community.
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16. Components of Quality Programs
 Screen students during orientation
 Provide web-based screening that connects with the
counseling center
 Improve campus culture focusing on discrimination,
trust, respect, dignity, sensitivity and cultural
competency
 Improve access to information focusing on the
information needed and communication and
dissemination practices
 Make services available on campus… even if that is a
clinician from the community
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17. Components of Quality Programs
 Manage expectations of campus mental health
systems and changes to promote mental health
and recovery on campus (How much can the
center reasonably do?) focusing on…
 Student control and choice
 Mental health care expectations
 Administrative expectations
 Accommodations and policy
 Community approaches
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18. Components of Quality Programs
 Other Services and Procedures
 Access to mental and behavioral expertise for faculty,
staff, families, and peers who are concerned about a
student
 Ability for self referral
 Off campus referrals
 Emergency services
 Aftercare programs
 Medical leave policies
 Nonclinical student support networks
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19. Components of Quality Programs
 Onsite counseling centers with an interdisciplinary
team that includes the primary health care providers,
licensed social workers/counselors, life skills support
staff, registered dietitians, peer support specialists
 Onsite medical services and assistance with
prescriptions
 Student and administration leadership to promote
mental health and suicide prevention (Athletes,
Panhellenic, SOTA, minorities, unaffiliated students)
 Life skills development
 Social network promotion
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20. Other Helping Strategies/Stress Points
 Tutoring programs
 Mentoring programs
 Ensure sufficient parking and transportation
 Hold all student groups on campus strictly accountable
for underage alcohol use at their facilities and during
functions that they sponsor.
 Eliminate alcohol advertising in college publications.
 Educate parents, instructors, and administrators about
the secondhand effects of substance use that range from
interference with studying to being the victim assault or
date rape
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21. Other Helping Strategies/Stress Points
 Enlist administrative, community and student assistance
in changing any culture that currently supports alcohol
use by underage students or substance misuse.
 Expand opportunities for students to make spontaneous
social choices that do not include alcohol (e.g., by
providing frequent alcohol-free, late night events;
extending the hours of student centers and athletic
facilities; and increasing public service opportunities
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22. Campus Wide Emergency Plan
 Emergency mental health-related situations that
should be addressed in the plan include:
 Managing suicidal and/or homicidal ideation.
 Managing victims of sexual assault, with clarification
regarding exemption from mandated reporting in this
context.
 Managing highly agitated or threatening behavior, acute
psychosis (often involving hallucinations and/or
delusions) or paranoia.
 Managing acute delirium/confusional state.
 Managing acute intoxication or drug overdose.
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23. Campus Wide Emergency Plan
 Written procedures for managing emergency mental health
situations should, at a minimum:
 Identify situations in which EMS should be immediately contacted.
 Identify situations in which the individual responding should contact a
trained on-call counselor, or the sexual assault center.
 Identify trained on-call counselors who will be able to provide direct
and consultative crisis intervention to the student to help stabilize the
situation and recommend next steps for action.
 Designate expectations for each stakeholder during a crisis
 Specify steps to be taken by each stakeholder after an emergency
situation has resolved to provide appropriate resources and follow-up
care to the student.
 Specify a procedure for reviewing preventive and emergency procedures
after the resolution of the emergency situation
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24. Special Issues for Student Athletes
 Coaches should learn about the importance of being attentive
and empathic in their interactions with student-athletes who
are facing mental health challenges, while understanding that
their role is not to manage the situation themselves.
 Clearly delineate a transition of care plan for student-athletes
who are leaving the college sport environment in the interest of
continuing medical care and student-athlete welfare
 Identify who is responsible for initiating transition of care and
for facilitating the academic waiver process, should a waiver be
needed
 Develop plan for helping student-athletes who have been away
from campus while seeking care for mental health issues
transition back to campus and to sport participation
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25. Special Issues for Student Athletes
 Understand the institutional policies related to athletics
financial awards and team engagement for student-athletes
who are unable to continue sport participation, either
temporarily or permanently, due to mental health
considerations
 Be aware of strategies for financial support of student-athletes
in need of extended outpatient treatment or inpatient care
 Consult campus disability services office on how to increase
inclusive practices that may increase engagement of student-
athletes
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26. Summary
 To thrive, students need access to services and
programs of outreach, education, and prevention that:
 Eliminate fragmentation and improving access to biopsychosocial
services
 Recognize patterns in campus life that suggest the presence of
mental and behavioral health concerns among individual students,
groups of students, or the campus environment itself
 Provide outreach and consultation to prepare all members of the
campus community to recognize and respond to students with
mental or behavioral health concerns
 Emphasize case-finding—using surveys, presentations, self-
assessments, activities, and special events—to identify students
whose lack of psychological well-being is interfering with their
development, learning, and achievement
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27. Summary
 To thrive, students need access to services and
programs of outreach, education, and prevention
that
 Nurture a supportive tone and attitude about mental
health in campus culture to
challenge stereotypes about mental health problems
undermine prejudices and stigma about counseling
provide encouragement to students to reflect on their
own mental health and seek services when needed
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28. AllCEUs Unlimited CEUs $59 | Addiction Counselor Certificate Training $149 | Specialty Certificates $89 28