Mental health care as a standard

Shane Wade

Columnist

A recent survey by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at UCLA reports that incoming American college freshmen have hit record highs in perceived academic drive and ability, but also record lows in emotional health.

College is, if nothing else, stressful. Students contend with the pressure of newfound independence, paying for classes, providing for their basic needs and meeting new people, not to mention all the academic pressures that send students streaming into the library; it’s downright nerve-wracking and an emotional diving board for students already edgy from their final year of high school.

Nobody can – or should – go through it alone, which is why both four-year institutions and community colleges need to increase the availability of mental health services for all students.

Unfortunately, in trying economic times when budgets need to be reduced, mental health services are among the first services to get cut. And while the Americans with Disabilities Act and mental health parity laws require colleges to provide services to students in need, the students truly in need often do not seek out the services available to them, either out of embarrassment, pride or fear.

Colleges have the responsibility to broaden mental health services, but they also need to help disprove the common conception that only crazy people need to see therapists. Healthy people meet with therapists; it’s the people that don’t seek help and hide their true feelings that we should worry about. Neglecting your emotional health can be as damaging as neglecting your physical health. Just as you would see a doctor before beginning a new fitness regime or diet, incoming freshmen should be advised to see a therapist.

A culture of silence has developed and evolved around an issue that is remarkably commonplace in our society. Issues of depression, self-doubt and perceived inadequacies have been collectively swept underneath the rug to become the filling for nighttime horror stories, campus legend and pop-culture fiction.

Reality has been substituted in favor of the popular fables concerning college students, copious amounts of alcohol, flighty relationships and raucous parties. But the reality is that depression exists and thrives on our college campuses where students wear a happy façade in order to hide their inner sorrows, while drowning their pain with alcoholic substances under the guise of fun and partying.

If suicides and tragedies of the same stripe only affected a single individual, perhaps you could argue that the cost of maintaining mental health services outweighs the potential risk.

But death affects us all, indiscriminate of our relationship to the deceased. The cost is irrelevant, and the need is dire. In the increasingly competitive world of higher education, where American students are being pitted against foreign students for a finite number of job opportunities, academic success is dependent on the mental well-being of our students. If you think you need help, or are even considering seeking help, do so. You are not alone.

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