School can suck. Get help if you need it

School sucks.

Not always, mind you — a lot of the time it’s incredible — but sometimes, it’s excruciating. The intense pressure of university life, the freedom that comes along with it and all of the attendant challenges can make post-secondary education tough.

Exams, breakups, sex, drugs (for the most part, the rock ’n’ roll is OK), alcohol, family, finances, deaths, lost friendships, moving away. And that’s just what comes to me in a split second.

It can be so tough that last year the Ontario University and College Health Association said mental health on campus verged on crisis, with administrators unable to keep pace with demand for care. Its research showed 68 per cent of all students “felt very lonely” in the last 12 months; nearly 75 per cent “felt very sad;” nearly 14 per cent had seriously considered suicide. Almost half reported feeling so depressed it was tough to function.

At Carleton University, 3,000 students — out of a total student population of around 29,500 — used the school’s counselling services.

Those students made 10,307 visits last year. “We provide students with shortterm counselling but there is not a fixed number of sessions provided,” says Steven Reid, a media relations officer.

All of which is to say, 3,000 students benefited from having those services available, and more than once, for many — and Carleton has added a sexual assault/ trauma counsellor to its staff. “Wait times vary depending on the mental health issue and severity as well as time of year — some students are seen immediately and others less urgent might wait for a counselling appointment for a couple of weeks,” says Reid.

The University of Ottawa says it works to provide emergency counselling on the same day, whereas nonurgent requests are dealt with within days.

There, 2,052 students requested counselling services, receiving 7,229 appointments in 2016-17, which is down from 7,800 appointments the year before. These services are not, however, psychological services — those must be accessed outside the university. “We understand the challenges that some of our students face and we sympathize with them but we have no control over waiting times to see a psychologist in Ontario,” says an email from the school.

So what’s the point of all this?

Students should avail themselves of these services as needed, even if they’re not perfect. One of the fantastic things about universities is they have these options; once you’re out in the real world, accessing mental health support becomes far more challenging. Not all health plans cover them (and even then, only 60 per cent of Canadians have workplace health plans); not all jobs offer Employee Assistance Programs where people can get short-term help; and it can be expensive, with triple-digit hourly costs being entirely normal.

The numbers don’t lie about the importance of this care. By age 40, the Canadian Mental Health Association says half of all Canadians will have, or will have had, a mental illness. Among those ages 15 to 24 — note that includes university-age people — 24 per cent of all deaths are attributed

to suicide. Eight per cent of Canadians will, over the course of their lives, experience “major depression.” And 75 per cent of those diagnosed with a mental disorder will be between 16 and 24.

Those university years, any parent will say with some clichéd fondness, ought to be the best in every person’s life. I don’t know if that’s true; I don’t know if mine were. Your mileage may vary.

The biggest universities in Ottawa have services available, with waiting times that, while unpleasant, aren’t outlandish, even if there’s room for improvement.

So, if there’s one message for incoming students, it’d be this: get help when you need it. Future you will be thankful for it.