Mental health is a key concern for most college students. In 2013, about 11 out of 100,000 students between the ages of 15 and 24 died as a result of suicide, and there has been an increase in the percentage of psychological problem on campus in recent years.
The Center for Collegiate Mental Health at Penn State found that anxiety and depression are the most common medical diagnoses on college campuses. This fact is horrifying.
However, while I thought this fact was bad, I was more shocked at why students say they were struggling. Students don’t feel that their colleges are doing enough, and I agree.
A good amount of my friends have some symptoms of a mental illness — whether it’s anxiety, depression or obsessive compulsive disorder. This is fine — mental illness is an illness and should be treated as such. It’s not something to be ashamed of.
The stigma of mental illness contributes greatly to people not wanting to talk about it or refusing to believe that they have it. However, many of these same friends refuse to seek treatment because they simply can’t afford the cost of counseling.
Counseling is considered a luxury for many students, many of whom have to pay for their own rent and school. While the two free sessions per student provided by IU Counseling and Psychological Services are useful, they’re not enough.
Counseling or therapy requires more than two sessions.
IU has a lot of problems that it needs to combat. It needs to better its sexual assault services and work on making the internet more reliable, but it especially needs to work on its mental health services.
It’s great that the school offers two free sessions. However, mental health disorders are diseases and should be treated as rigorously as the flu. CAPS needs to not only offer more sessions but also expand its services to be more inclusive of its general population: students.
The IU Health Center is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. These are peak class hours, which means that it’s difficult for students to attend if they want to. Additionally, a suicide hotline for the school would be useful.
While the national suicide hotline is always open — (800) 273-8255, for those who need it — offering one through the school may make students feel as though there is a more direct connection to the speaker.
Mental illness is one of the most biggest risks for students our age. It should be taken seriously. Not only that, it should be fought vigorously by the school.
There is nothing I find more discouraging than hearing depression levels in college are so high that it’s the leading cause of death for college-aged students.
We can fight this disease, and we can do it well. IU needs to play its part. It needs to take care of its students. While none of these solutions will eliminate suicide, they could drastically reduce its rates.
npatwari@indiana.edu
