More students seeking mental health support

As a first-year master’s student in social work, Amanda Brenner thrives off chatting with her classmates about what they learned, what they found difficult and what they’ve enjoyed.

But these days, Brenner’s classes through the University of Connecticut are totally remote. She tries to catch up with classmates virtually, but she said this doesn’t quite live up to informal chats after class. When one of her supervisors mentioned going to a colleague’s retirement party, Brenner realized what she was missing: Not just networking, but making connections.

“I feel like I don’t have a personal connection with the professor. I see their face, but they have 20 boxes to look at,” she said. “The people in my classes are

going to become colleagues and I definitely do not feel I have a good grasp on why they’re there, what their passion is and everything you need to have a connection with each other. ... With missing out, there’s a sense of grief.”

Across the state, those working with young adults report seeing this sense of loss along with increased anxiety among this age group as they balance the changes and pressures of their late teens and earlymid twenties with a global pandemic.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness’ Connecticut chapter, where Brenner works as a policy intern, has seen an uptick in demand for student support groups as young adults battle with the mourning that comes with missing out on certain rites of pas

sage because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The feelings are particularly poignant as many students head home from campus for the holidays and are unsure of when they will return, the group found.

University of Connecticut officials said they did not see a spike in referrals for mental health services; however, this may be because fewer than 5,000 students were at their Storrs campus this fall as opposed to the normal 12,300. However, the referrals coming in now are more from faculty and staff as opposed to Residential Life and public safety officials.

“That’s also not surprising, given that our faculty and staff continue to work with students whether they are on or off campus; whereas Residential Life and on- campus public safety workers are encountering far fewer students than they usually would,”

said university spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz. “However, even though our referrals haven’t jumped, we know from research and anecdotally that anxiety is particularly high now among many groups, including college students who are away from their campuses due to the pandemic.”

When the pandemic hit in March and the need for these grew and students left campus, UConn added online and virtual options for mental health services, including counseling, support groups and self- help resources. This coincided with a previously planned initiative to assess mental health and well- being efforts currently underway at UConn.

Valerie Lepoutre, manager of peer initiatives, education and training for NAMI CT, said their organization added two weekly support groups to their roster, including a student support group which began last month. The Connecticut chapter is also working with NAMI chapters on college campuses to figure out how to support students going to class in a hybrid or virtual model.

Lepoutre said students working or not going to class full-time are experiencing pandemic-related anxiety and disappointment in missing out on milestones, on top of other mental illnesses.

“The silver lining is young adults are able to connect with people from different part of the (through virtual support groups),” she said. “Even though communication and connections are not as organic the connections online, they are starting to grow in support groups.”

NAMI CT Executive Director Lisa B. Winjum said, as a whole, the chapter has seen an increase in calls. From July 2018 to

June 2019, NAMI CT took 545 calls with people seeking resources. Now, they’re averaging 100 calls a month with 342 coming in from March to May during the first three months of the pandemic. Some of the calls have been coming from teens and young adults as young as 15 and 16 years old and their family members, she said.

“For young people, there are milestones they look forward to,” she said. “No one should minimize the grief and loss kids are feeling about not having these milestones be what they expected. We need to talk about them. We need to grieve life losses, big and small. It’s important to recognize them.”

The calls are especially increasing as the holiday season approaches, Lepoutre said, and many face the challenges that come with that: Missing out on a large family gathering or celebrating the holiday

season without a loved one who died, trying to make the holidays special after losing their job or being trapped at home with unsupportive or abusive family.

On top of that, she said many are struggling as the days grow shorter and temperatures drop, making even socializing outside difficult.

NAMI CT said it would continue to run support groups virtually to maintain a sense of normalcy throughout the holiday season.

“You have people with the holiday blues who experience stress and anxiety during the holidays,” Winjum said. “During the holiday season, we’re going to see an uptick. It’s important for people to know there’s places they can get help if you're experiencing stress and anxiety.”