College Mental Health Services Feel Strain

Rise In Mentally Ill Students Has Campuses Struggling To Maintain Balance Between Safety And Privacy

(AP) 
"It is very difficult to predict when what someone perceives as stalking is stalking, and then how it might translate into violence later," Flynn said. "Clearly, if anyone had any warning about a violent incident, people would have stepped in and acted."

Psychologist Sherry Benton, assistant director of counseling services at Kansas State University, has conducted research concluding that students' mental health problems are more complex and severe than 20 years ago.

"We're well aware that problems are getting worse, but what hasn't happened is increasing funding for mental health services," she said. "Most centers are now overwhelmed. Business has gone up and up, but budgets have remained the same or been cut, and that's a huge problem."

One factor, Benton said, is that mental health services are usually not among the categories assessed during colleges' periodic accreditation reviews. If schools needed good services to remain accredited, they might invest more, she said.

Benton views the rising demand for campus mental health services as a good news-bad news development.

"We do get a lot more students into college who have mental illness but are no problem whatsoever," she said. "They do need support and use medication; they go on to lead full, productive lives."

On the downside, she and her colleagues see stress levels among students far higher than a generation ago due to increased workloads and financial strains, often coupled with lack of healthy lifestyles.

Complicating the overall picture is a web of laws and policies that limit the options for worried staff members. Troubled students generally cannot be forced to obtain treatment, and privacy laws may limit sharing information about them, even to the extent that some parents have sued schools — including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Oregon Institute of Technology — for not advising them of their children's serious disorders.

Nonetheless, officials on many campuses have set up committees to pool information about students with emotional or behavioral problems so patterns can be detected in what might otherwise be seen as isolated incidents. The trick, officials say, is to find the proper balance between respecting a student's rights and protecting the university.

"That's the tightrope administrators have to walk," said Wright State's Gerald Kay. "The issue in most instances is, how do you bring these people into some sort of treatment."

Benton said any student who issues threats should be dealt with forcefully, regardless of privacy guidelines.

"Safety trumps confidentiality every time," she said. "If someone is a danger to themselves or others, then confidentiality is out the window and you notify who you need to notify to ensure the safety of them and those around them."

Peter Lake, a law professor at Stetson University, contends that officials on many campuses have been too deferential to privacy concerns, at the risk of safety at their schools.

"There's a false consciousness of privacy in higher education — as an institution, we don't like to share information," he said.

"Now, you're going to be seeing a greater emphasis on a management team or a safety czar — someone whose job it is to look at students' overall profiles," Lake said. "It's not only a good idea — it's an idea we can't live without."

[betsyross713]

Mental illness comes in many forms. Some are more manageable than others. Medication, counseling, or both may be needed. Educated people are less likely to attach stigma to counseling services than those who are less educated. Calling people "nutburgers" and "wackos" is counter-productive. It discourages people who need these services from seeking them out, afraid of the stigma that comes with it. There are flaws with the system. One such flaw is that in order to be hospitalized for a mental illness, one must be an IMMEDIATE threat to themselves or others. This means having a plan to do harm, stating the plan to a professional, and the professional believing you intend to carry out the plan. If this young man had no plan at the time he left the hospital, they could not keep him there. The key is in providing services that everyone can afford, educating teachers, police officers, and other professionals to see the signs of mental illness, providing a safe atmosphere for people to obtain services without stigma or judgment, and nurturing our children so that we prevent trauma when possible, or treat as soon as possible if not prevented. There is a mental health crisis in this nation. Until we change our attitude about mental health, it will continue. Increased compassion is essential. As long as there are people referring to mental illness as "wackoism" and "nutburgeritis", there will be people too afraid to seek the help they need, and prevent outcomes like this one.

[anniepema]

The university health centers have an herculean task.
It would be best if all future parents knew the connection of increasing paternal age(33 and above) and risk for disorders like autism and schizophrenia. Knowing that a history of autoimmune disorders also is a major risk factor for both autism and schizophrenia might be a great help. See the EBD blog:Fathers%u2019 Age as Contributor to Risk for Autism

There are research papers and much scientific knowledge of the paternal age effect on de novo neurocognitive developmental disorders, non-verbal intelligence, type 1 diabetes, MS, Alzheimer's, cancers, hemophilia, etc.,etc.

These conditions need to be prevented and cannot be cured. The drastic increase in paternal age over the last maybe 28 or so years is leading to a flood of people with chronic developmental genetic conditions such as: schizophrenia and autism.

I suggest reading: Schizophrenia Risk and the Paternal Germ Line
By Dolores Malaspina
also try the male biological clock blogspot and autism prevention blogspot and the paternal age effect: how old is too old blogspot.

[hermit22]

cant sleep. thinking about cho.

for the english ("i KNEW it was one of two....") and psyCHOlogical departments to KNOW cho was having such SERIOUS mental battles for TWO years and do nothing, was criminal and cruel as siting by watching a blind person stagger through boards with spikes jutting up under his bleeding bare feet and doing NOTHING to lead him into a better path.

[gangesdak]

Most parents do not know the extent of mental stress their children are taking in college. Regardless of their "accredited expertise", mental health experts are not of much help in curing mental disorder of a student. The parents have to be involved in the curing process though the law does not allow it in the name of protecting privacy. In most cases privacy is just another name for vanity. Laws should be changed so that parents become partners in the curing process. Let common sense prevail.