There is a quiet crisis brewing on college and university campuses across the United States. Increasingly, the mental health needs of students are more complicated than in the past and cannot be adequately met by overwhelmed mental health services. The sad end in some cases is that students, unable to complete their work and manage their mental health needs, drop out. In the most tragic cases, suicide becomes a preferred way out.
Katie Couric put together a piece on suicide on college and university campuses. She found:
It's unclear what's driving the dramatic decrease in emotional health on campus. It's possible more students now feel comfortable seeking help in the first place, instead of bottling up their problems. Dr. Allison Baker, a child psychiatrist with the Child Mind Institute, also pointed out that more young people are receiving mental health treatment as children, which allows them to go to college in the first place. But many college counseling centers are ill-equipped to deal with these students' more complicated mental health issues.
What can be done? There are several measures that colleges and universities can take to support students with developing mental health issues, before these issues reach a crisis point.
[For more of this story, written by Constance Scharff, go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...versi_b_7583476.html]
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