Mental health, College Campuses, and How They’re Failing.

By Taylor Shea West, Editor in Chief.

College for many individuals is a time to break free from their guardian’s home and taste sweet freedom. 

Living on your own. Fixing or buying all your own meals. Setting your own schedule. The list goes on for students transitioning from living with their parents to living in a dorm or apartment. 

Until college, parents have made all the health decisions and appointments, carefully scheduling every child’s visit and every vaccination. Physical health is neglected enough as is when addressing college students, although what about what’s not visible to the naked eye? 

College students often neglect thinking about their mental health. A mental illness has been defined by The American Psychiatric Association as health conditions involving changes in emotion, thinking or behavior (or a combination of these). Mental illnesses are associated with distress and/or problems functioning in social, work or family activities. 

Mental illness can be diagnosed at any age, though three-fourths of all mental illness is diagnosed before the age of 24. It takes on average 7-10 years after mental health effects for someone to get treatment. College age is where that falls.  

Many students realize they’ve been dealing with a mental illness for a while, but never felt the need to address it. Some families may not be educated on mental health and push it off as their child just ‘going through a phase’.

 Young adults begin to take control of their mental health the years they begin college due to this.  Though, what exactly happens when a university hasn’t clearly established their mental health services? What if the moment a student reaches out for help, faculty and staff aren’t equipped with the knowledge to help? Unfortunately, that seems to be the case across the nation. 

While 1 in 5 adults have a diagnosed mental illness, universities aren’t providing the proper resources for the future of America. 39% of college students experience extreme mental illness at some point. 

Take into consideration, a university with a student population of 9,569. 39% of 9,569 students totals to a rounded number of 3,731 students. Now, 67% of students do not seek treatment, which equates to  2,500 students. Students may feel shame when they reach out for help or they may see a lack of university involvement to find that help. 

Murray State University has established a webpage off the main website that addresses their counseling services that are offered, as well as information for parents and faculty and other self-help resources. The University offers the ‘Mental Health Self-Evaluator, confidential self-evaluator developed by ULifeLine from the Duke University School of Medicine. While this evaluator scans for the 13 most common mental illnesses, it does not give an official medical diagnosis. 

“Over the past three years, Murray State has provided services to approximately 500 students each year. 

Some clients are only seen once or twice, but the average number of sessions is around eight,” Dr. Angie Trezpacz said, director of University Counseling Services.

Trezpacz said she would like to do more, but the funding doesn’t allow it.“I wish we were able to hire a community health education professional to do outreach and coordinate programming,” Trezpacz said.“We would really like to be able to offer groups, but that requires someone to dedicate a lot of time to marketing, recruiting, and coordinating group sessions.”

Besides the lack of mental health education, universities face issues from the lack of funding granted for mental health services. 

“Our budget is separate from Health Services,” Trzepacz said. “Because students at Murray State don’t pay any health fees, our budget is simply provided from Student Affairs,” Trezpacz said. “They pay all of our salaries and give us a small budget for office supplies, travel, and continuing education expenses.” 

Mental health services are not cheap. The average cost to maintain treatment to one individual can range from $150-$500. 

Even with the limited budget, Murray State can provide few mental health services. 

“We provide outreach programs as needed and/or as requested.” Trezpacz said. “For example, we provide RA training every year, and we work closely with the Transitions classes and Residential Colleges throughout the year. We also work with the office of Student Engagement and Success to provide programming and outreach as part of the Racers Empower program.” 

The Racers Empower Program is a collaborative effort put together by students, staff and faculty members of Murray State University. The program promotes mental health and wellness on campus. The program itself has good intentions, though is not well known and word of the program is not spread well. 

Finding new ways to reach out to students can be challenging to make effective. One idea proposed was the idea of sending out wellness surveys once a month for students who want to reach out for help but don’t feel comfortable seeking in-person counseling. 

 “I’m not sure why we would send out wellness surveys every month,” Trezpacz said. “ I have never heard of anyone doing this, and I’m not sure what our goal would be. Most students would just ignore the emails and/or complain that we are cluttering up their inbox with junk mail.”

However, the MKYGuide conducted a non-scientific poll on Twitter about mental health issues on college campuses. More than 190 college students from Murray State and from across the country responded. 82% favored the idea of monthly email wellness checks. 

In these areas, there tends to be a negative stigma surrounding mental illness. David Adams, a senior at University of Louisville, confirmed students see mental illness as a stigma. 

A Murray State alumna, Emma Whitt agreed about mental illness being perceived as a stigma. “There was somewhat — it was encouraged in my department to seek help, but I knew very many students that were struggling. Very many,” Whitt said. 

Students also say they believe faculty are not educated about mental health issues. Maggie Roberts, a Brown University alumna, had an experience when it comes to staff being unaware of what to do. 

“I was told to see a specialist because my issues I was having regarding sexual assault trauma and fears. That made me feel a bit odd,” Roberts said.

Roberts has recommendations to improve counseling services. 

“More staffing,” Roberts said. “ Staffing that cares, and isn’t there just for a paycheck.” 

According to an MKYGuide Twitter poll, 65% of students had expressed that they were not confident in the staffing when regarding mental health. 

At Murray State, faculty lack training regarding mental illness. 

 “We have offered mental health training to faculty in the past, but it wasn’t mandatory, so very few of them participated in it,” Trezpacz said.

Some universities across the nation have implemented mandatory training for faculty members surrounding the topic of mental health, Murray State not being one of them.

“I would not be opposed to it, but I’m not sure how helpful it would be,” said Dr. Katy Hancock, associate  professor of criminal justice at Murray State. “Some faculty might really buy into it, but they are also the ones who probably are already pretty aware, while some would just be annoyed by it and not get anything out of it as a result.”

With students calling campus many of their second homes, they should feel as if the community around them cares enough to reach out and educate on mental health and the dangers of abusing it. 

“I recall receiving emails and taking quizzes regarding the mental health of students,” said Dr. Marcie Hinton, associate professor of public relations at Murray State. “ Also, there are some optional professional development offerings with regard to helping students who struggle. There is a lot of chatter about being aware and caring for students’ mental health (emails, conversation during faculty meetings, etc.)”

“Very little from the university about self and colleague mental health. My department chair is very good about checking in and reminding us to take care of ourselves during these crazy times, which I would call a part of mental health awareness,” Hinton said. “I cannot speak to the student experience with understanding and knowing of the services and education available with regard to mental health awareness.”

College students say room exists for improvement. 

“More accessible counseling services,” Whitt said. “With as many students as we have struggling with their mental health, I think it’s vital to allocate funds to expanding the services provided to accommodate the needs of the campus community. Take students seriously when they are reaching out. be more adamant about students using the resources and know it’s a safe place for them.” 

Adams, who attends University of Louisville, offered specific ideas.“Hire trans staff,” Adams said. “Reach out to the community more.”

Callie Smith, a senior at Murray State, also weighed in on suggestions for improvement. “Literally ANY kind of outreach to make us feel comfortable to come speak to them and associate with them,” Smith said. “Most people don’t even know where they’re located.” 

According to an MKYGuide Twitter poll, 52% of students were not comfortable with going to their university’s counseling and mental health services. 

Partnering with non-profit organizations that specialize in mental illness and treatment may be another helpful option, or even suggesting organizations that focus on mental health even if the university may not be able to afford partnership. One campaign that has helped millions of individuals is IDONTMIND. IDONTMIND is an official program of Mental Health America, the nation’s leading community-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting the overall mental health of everyone. 

With over 200 affiliates and associates in 42 states, 6,500 affiliate staff and over 10,000 volunteers, MHA brings over 100 years of experience and knowledge to IDONTMIND. They’ve created a lifestyle brand working to defeat the stigma around mental illness. Their main goal is to get people talking about their minds and to generate positive messaging about mental health. It’s possible that maybe universities could begin adding in campaigns and organizations at the end of emails regarding mental health to promote more involvement as well as awareness. 

Most students are not educated within the field of mental health unless they have already addressed their mental illness and educated themselves. 

“Yes, I am educated on mental health,” Roberts said. “ But it’s not due to the university ever taking the time to explain or even try to inform me about mental health. My knowledge on the subject is due to personal experience.”

 If students, faculty or the surrounding community do not begin to take responsibility in educating our society on mental health in a positive light, unfortunately, the probability of seeing more student deaths relating to mental illness is not far out of the question. Universities need to begin to take initiative in not only educating students, but breaking the stigma on campus and reaching out frequently. 

According to an MKYGuide Twitter poll, 94% of students had expressed that they believe their university could do more to address mental health issues. 

Not only should the numbers we see be enough to make us want to do more, but due to recent events with COVID-19 confiding many students between four walls and a computer screen, According to an MKYGuide Twitter poll 88% of college students had stated that their mental health had in fact declined during these times.

Various universities across the nation have tried to implement some accessible ways for students to reach out to counseling services during the time of the pandemic, like zoom for example, though their efforts aren’t settling well with some.

With the future weighing on the shoulders of young adults, many in college are trying to ensure a degree to better society itself. Change has to come. It starts here, it starts now. How many students need to suffer, or end up taking their lives to show universities that fighting for better mental health services is anything but mandatory. 

Mental illness does not discriminate. It’s time to bring the importance to light.