Mental Illness on Campus: Accommodations and Resources
By Jessa Schroeder and Jon Huntsman
According to the National Institute on Mental Health (NIMH), “Almost 73 percent of students living with a mental health condition experienced a mental health crisis on campus, yet 34.2 percent reported that their college did not know about their crisis.”
Mental health affects people of all ages, and in this case, particularly focused on college students. It is an issue that needs to be addressed and made awareness of because it can impede student success and well-being, and even lead to much greater concerns, such as failure to function in the classroom or much worse, suicidal tendencies.
NIMH also states that “more than 11 percent of college students have been diagnosed or treated for anxiety in the past year and more than 10 percent reported being diagnosed or treated for depression, while more than 40 percent of college students have felt more than an average amount of stress within the past 12 months.”
Director of Residence Services, Jill Church said “Generally, in campus housing, we would not know whether a student has mental health needs or not — Sometimes students will have interactions where they are having suicidal thoughts or ideations, and in those scenarios, our staff is trained to bond with these students, and help get them the assistance they need.”
Church said in the case of students living on campus dealing with mental illness, they would assure they have university and other resources available to them, including Psychological Services, Coleman Professional Services and others.
She said the “Step Up, Speak Out” services gives a good overview of what all faculty and staff members should be watching and listening for in regards to student behavior. “It’s what my staff used to make sure that students are getting the assistance they need on campus.”
As far as funding, Church said Whitehall Counseling is free to all students, Psychological Services does have a fee associated with it on a sliding scale, using health insurance. If students do not have health insurance, the fee will be reduced based on what they are able to pay, similar to the county services offered.
“We want everyone at the university to be aware of resources. If you are roommates with somebody and they are having a hard time with transition, help and get them connected to the hall staff member, or connected to the resources mentioned,” Church said.
Joel Mowrey, former executive director of the Mental Health and Recovery Board of Portage County said (when talking about college students): “Students have stress and anxiety, as they are dealing with growing up and being on their own, in college, getting jobs and relationships — and even though we don’t have a formal diagnosis for stress, one of the things we always emphasis is that everybody has stress, which means everybody deals with mental health.”
Mowrey said issues may not be severe or chronic, but they are still mental health related. “Some people have more chronic kinds of issues, such as anxiety, depression, and there’s a number of people, such as different college students that we see, who have history of trauma. “They may have been sexually or physically abused, emotionally abused and victims of domestic violence. So they are coming into the adult world already with a history of trauma that they are also dealing with or maybe have never dealt with.”
He said there are more severe chronic mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia- which are relatively rare, but some students will experience those as well. “Stress is number one.”
Mowrey said he believes the triggers of progression in mental illness is a combination of things.
“I think it starts with environmental kinds of things. We talk about stress and so forth, and college students worry about getting passing grades, getting their assignments done, they may have to hold down a job, there are financial concerns, etc. Relationships are always a big one- whether it’s with family, significant others and getting along with other people.
“For some people, it’s not a big deal for them (in terms of a stressor), but for somebody else, it’s a major deal, it’s a major crisis.”
Mowrey said researchers believe biological factors also play into mental illness as well as environmental factors.
According to Mowrey, “The mental health and recovery board is part of a state-wide system of boards. There is actually 53 boards across the state of Ohio, and the purpose of them are to operate the planning, funding and monitoring for mental health and addiction services in the county”
“Here in Portage county, we plan in terms of what services that are needed, and we work primarily with four agencies: Coleman Professional Services, Townhall II, Community Services and Children’s Advantage and Family.”
“What we do is provide funding to those agencies, and then from there e monitor the services they have in terms of making sure they’re providing the services that we need for people with mental illness as well as addiction.”
[pullquote]”I wouldn’t say we are seeing more mental health issues than ever before, but I think we’ve been doing a better job on dealing with stigma”
-Joel Mowrey [/pullquote]
“I think we’ve seen more people willing to get help for these issues, and there actually has been an increase on the help that is available out there. We’ve done a better job in the last 20-30 years in terms of getting the help for people, as well as more publicity saying it’s OK for them to get help,” he said.
Mowrey said that for college students it is a whole transition into adulthood, and in some ways it’s very common and normal to experience these worries and anxieties.
“There are additional pressures for college students in terms of striving to be successful with school and being able to handle that kind of pressure.”
He said noticeable signs are if a family member or friend is noticing there’s a persistent change in their loved one’s behavior, such as becoming withdrawn towards other people/school/work, they have negative thoughts, they even may make statements suggesting they would be better off dead.
“There are resources and there is hope out there to feel better.”
Karyn Hall, the director of community relations at the Mental Health and Recovery Board of Portage county, said Suicide Prevention Coalition, and they utilize some of the boards local services, especially on an emergency level. “We serve all of Portage county, which includes helping Kent State.”
Hall said any student may utilize any of their agencies for services, and while there are services on campus students are familiar with, but campus services cannot provide what specifically what it is they need or if they would prefer to go elsewhere, they are more than welcome to call and be referred to an agency.
Many police officers on campus have taken Crisis Intervention Team Training, which Hall said is “when a police officer goes through a 40-hour training and they learn about mental health issues and conditions and how to deescalate a person who is in crisis. The goal of that is when an officer goes out, they can help the person who may be having the mental health crisis, and maybe not arrest them, but instead probably take them to the Coleman access building, instead of to jail.
CIT officers are available to students in a crisis to come and help with their situation she said.
Psychological Services are available to students on campus in the Health Center, but as for the county agencies, they accept Medicaid, and they have a sliding fee scale.
“It all depends on what kind of insurance a person is on, and that is something they would need to call and talk to intake before setting up an appointment,” said Hall.
“We have an 18 member board which we help with funding, so these are community members of Portage County who sit on our monthly board and come to meetings, and they (along with Mowry) decide how the funds will be used. “The funds we receive are local levy dollars, some state, a little bit of grants and some other miscellaneous funding.”
[pullquote] “About 70 percent of the Mental Health and Recovery Board of Portage County is local levy dollars”
-Karyn Hall [/pullquote]
The local levy dollars ensure that the people of Portage County are getting the services that they need.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), “the demand for mental health services and supports in community colleges is expected to increase in the next several years. The increase in enrollment alone is justification for expanding and enhancing mental health services and supports available on college campuses and communities.”
NAMI states that “without adequate treatment, young adults experiencing a mental health issue are more likely to receive lower GPAs, drop out of college or be unemployed than their peers who do not have a mental health challenge.” Students have emphasized the critical need for the following services and supports to be available on campus:
• Mental health training for faculty, staff and students
• Suicide prevention programs
• Peer-run, student mental health organizations
• Mental health information during campus tours, orientation, health classes and other campus-wide events
• Walk-in student health centers, 24-hour crisis hotlines, ongoing individual counseling services, screening and evaluation services and comprehensive referrals to off-campus services and supports
