Campuses must confront mental-health challenges
The minivans are packed. Across the country, teens are headed to campus residences, stocked with dorm-friendly auto-shutoff kettles, mini refrigerators, and posters to plaster the walls with symbols of their emerging independence.
Colleges and universities try to give emerging adults a soft place to land with on-campus supports. Is it enough to keep them safe?
Campus safety efforts tend to be responsive to tragedy. The fatal stunts of years past led to proactive measures to discourage dangerous hazing rituals. More recently, schools have been compelled to step up their game on campus sexual assault.
But the biggest emerging challenge on campus may be the toughest yet. More and more young people are experiencing serious mental-health issues, according to a 2016 survey of 25,000 Ontario students, conducted by the Ontario University and College Health Association (OUCHA).
Compared with findings from 2013, students who experienced overwhelming anxiety in the preceding year rose to 65 per cent from 57; 46 per cent said they’d felt so depressed it was difficult to function, up from 40 per cent; and the number who had “seriously considered” suicide in the past year had jumped to 13 from 10 per cent.
These alarming numbers are compounded by new data suggesting young people aged 16 to 24 have the poorest access to mental health and addictions services in Canada, according to a study released this week by the Centre for Applied Research in Mental Health and Addiction.
Problematically, that age range coincides with the onset of serious psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Early diagnosis and treatment can make a critical difference, but resources are thin.
The combination of increased mental-health difficulties and restricted access to care puts added strain on counsellors. In addition to helping students manage stress and navigate relationships, they’re increasingly caring for students struggling with serious disorders or experiencing a mental health crisis.
According to OUCHA, 80 per cent of Ontarians aged 18 to 24 are enrolled in a post-secondary institution. There is no cohesive approach to services from one campus to the next; wait times for counselling or support groups often exceeding students’ capacity to cope. Some end up dropping courses or quietly failing.
“College and universities currently have inconsistent, reactive, unstable, underfunded, and fragmented initiatives and services for mental health,” a report by OUCHA concluded back in 2009. The organization advocates for a co-ordinated strategy for postsecondary mental health services.
One positive measure is the province’s Good2Talk helpline for post-secondary students, launched in 2013. The 24/7 anonymous resource offers professional counselling and connections to local resources.
Individual institutions have developed creative approaches to mental-health promotion, from inviting St. John Ambulance therapy dogs to comfort students during stressful exam weeks, to a new mental health and suicide awareness program for student athletes at Algoma University. But it’s a patchwork of services.
Fitness is not a core mandate of educators. But, faced with a childhood obesity epidemic, Ontario implemented a requirement for daily physical activity in all elementary schools. The province recognized it was a serious public-health issue, and schools had the reach to make a positive impact.
Mental health is critical to students’ success — and survival. Suicide is the second leading cause of death (after accidents) among Canadians aged 15 to 24. It’s a public-health crisis.
Colleges and universities are uniquely situated to promote mental well-being for students. It’s where the young adults are, when they need help the most.