The Kids Are Not All Right: College Mental Health Needs an Intervention | Big Think

The Kids Are Not All Right: College Mental Health Needs an Intervention
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Big Think and the Mental Health Channel are proud to launch Big Thinkers on Mental Health, a new series dedicated to open discussion of anxiety, depression, and the many other psychological disorders that affect millions worldwide.

In the fourth video in the series, Dr. Victor Schwartz of The Jed Foundation runs through some staggering stats about mental health in college. University students are, in general, a very stressed-out demographic. Factor in things like alcohol abuse, homesickness, and elevated risk for sexual assault, and you've got quite the cocktail for mental health issues. Does the typical college student, asks Schwartz, really understand the sort of care options available to her? One of the major challenges of college mental health care is encouraging students to step forward when they are depressed or suffering from anxiety. It's in everyone's best interest for mental health to be a big priority. The trick is to remove the stigma from the process.
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VICTOR SCHWARTZ:
Dr. Victor Schwartz is Medical Director at The Jed Foundation, which strives to promote emotional health and prevent suicide among college and university students. Dr. Schwartz has over 20 years of experience as a psychiatrist working in college mental health. He was medical director of NYU's Counseling Service, established a counseling center at Yeshiva University and was most recently University Dean of Students there. He was an original member of the American Psychiatric Association’s Presidential Task Force on College Mental Health and co-chair of the APA working group on legal issues in college mental health. Dr. Schwartz is a member of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry Committee on the College Student and has served as an advisor to Active Minds on Campus and Gun Free Kids. He is co-editor with Dr. Jerald Kay, of Mental Health Care in the College Community (Wiley, 2010). His work has focused on crisis management, legal issues and the community/public health model in college mental health.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Victor Schwartz: There’s no legal requirement for schools to provide health or mental health services to their students. Colleges do it because it’s the right thing to do and because it’s prudent. I think there’s a growing understanding and it’s something that we at the Jed Foundation are trying to really make schools aware of that it’s in the school’s and the student’s best interest to provide a really broad array of support services to their students. The more we can keep students on track doing well in school and getting to the graduation line, the better it is for everybody involved. One of the big challenges in providing services is that most schools actually provide these services for free. It’s very, very rare for colleges to charge for the mental health services. Of course students and their parents would say they’re charging plenty already. But services are usually provided without extra cost to the students and that creates a real challenge for the schools to balance the cost and benefit of the range of services they’re providing. The other challenge is that in the 18 to 25 year old age group many people have had either no experience with health or mental health care. People who’ve had experiences as teens often haven’t had the greatest experiences because they’ve often actually been forced into treatment or, you know, sent to treatment outside of their own will. So getting the people who need treatment into the system is often a very, very significant challenge. And then it’s a challenge for the system to have the resources, the personnel, the number of clinicians and visits in order to take care of everybody who needs care.

The one thing we do know is that college students drink more alcohol than their non-college attending 18 to 25 year old cohort. So clearly we know that college is a risk factor for increase in alcohol use. And there are a series of problems that are coincident with that and that does present a serious concern. We know about a third of college students will report an alcohol binge every two weeks or so. So that’s a really significant number and we know that there are a lot of negative consequences associated with especially the high intensity drinking that sometimes goes on. We know that there are fights that occur. Obviously car accidents that occur.......

[TheSpazModic]

Parents often do a poor job of easing their children into the adult and working worlds.  It should be years-long and confidence-building process.  Children don't magically mature and integrate into adult society at age 18.

[Akerfeldtfan]

The comments in this video are a good illustration of why this video needs to be made. Depression and anxiety has been a major part of my graduate career, and I see it in so many of my peers. Nobody wants to talk about it because you are supposed to just grow up and deal with it but things just aren't that simple.

[Jessx]

My college's "counseling services" are paid for through tuition and fees but they call it "free"

[ExistentialistDasein]

"He is mad because that is what people tell him and because he has been treated as such."
Michel Foucault - History of Madness

[sukamamule]

my school was quick to diagnose me at 10 with A.D.D. and A.D.H.D. but only when I was 23 and had completely dropped out of school because of the problems I faced did I find out that I am Dyslexic, and my school teachers know about it and said nothing. I was told by my old 9th grade teacher that they would be fired if they told me that I might be Dyslexic. Collage is not the only place where there is a need for change.

[OmniphonProductions]

I'm constantly amazed at how mentally unstable our MONUMENTALLY privileged society is.  It's sadly ridiculous that those who have opportunities, which literally billions of people will never have, manage to need "supplemental psychological support".  That said, it's NOT surprising that more and more young people, these days,  crumble in the presence of the heightened responsibility that comes with those opportunities, considering how few of them are taught responsibility BEFORE college.

[thinkingofreality]

ITT: People who have no idea what it's like to be under pressure at school handing out advise or "wisdom" like they know exactly what it's like to deal with today's economy and labor pool or just "walking off" the pain like so many libertarians prescribe boot-strapping. Some of these "old timers" and lucky individuals need to admit when they're out of the loop and start listening to the experts instead of acting like they know better, which they simply do not.

[felipegarcia]

as a foreigner who recently moved to the us, the educational system is excruciating

[ZeroHBRPro]

The 18~25 demographic are really beeing infantilized nowadays. It's sad to see a generation stalling to get into adulthood and avoiding responsability for their actions.

[Ankara_Solaris]

I think the intervention required would be changing the university system and the root cause of the issues, not just increasing levels of support after the fact. I think our society has just become too accustomed to depression and stress in the school and work environment being accepted or at least expected but not actually changing the factors that are attributed to the distress in the first place. The box method of education is outdated and doesn't accommodate for the differences in our population from person to person beyond disabilities.

[Skyfilly]

Unfortunately drinking, drugging, partying and multiple sex partners take a toll on the mental health of our children caught up in the college milieu

[normalguycap]

This upsets me greatly. The support services I had at UW Madison were woefully inadequate. I was screwed over many times by both faculty, professors, counselors, academic advisers and my experience was quite simply terrible and I didn't even drink, use drugs, or do any bad behavior. I was just a student trying to do well and the school basically took my money and shit on me. Literally none of my stress or problems were my fault. They were all external and directly from the school, but I can't sue. Seriously, don't go to UW Madison unless you know exactly what specific type of engineer you want to be. Their other programs are shit.

[RunescapeGod]

How about free tuition and we pay for these services if needed?

[moptfor]

I felt like he was talking about me when he said that kids get bad experiences with mental health are are often forced into it.

[Oolliwan]

I'm a current engineering student and the pressure is really not that bad. I'm at a "higher end" state school so I can speak to the Ivy League experience. Honestly you can't address the problem in college because it starts during the first few years of life where everyone in this generation are told how special and good at everything they are. Which is false, most people aren't very good at anything, and that's OK... that's why we work hard. is to BECOME special. The breakdowns in college come from kids who their whole life were misled(by a flawed grading system that rewards busy work as opposed to mastery, or by their parents, or the media) to think that they are the creme de la creme who come to find out that they are just a regular person.

[mescalinemonkey]

Involuntary detainment does more harm than good with patients that aren't suicidal.

[Battleganz]

College is illogical, so it's natural that you wouldn't feel right when attending. If someone asked you today if you would take out fifty to a hundred thousand dollars in loans so that you have permission to purchase an over-priced book and skim through it for three months at a time, you wouldn't even bat an eye. But we push our kids into this.

[Idkidk]

I'm a uni student I have 1.5 years left and my anxiety/insomnia/binge eating is starting. If I didn't go gym I'd be a complete fat bastard and that would've pushed me into depression. Recently lost the most important girl I've ever loved second to my mum and I feel like my life is meaningless and I'm only 20. My heart and mind feels so heavy and talking about it doesn't help. Anyone have any suggestions?

[SupremeIntentionCrew]

I've been to my college counselor multiple times to ask for anxiety help and every time they try and coax me into dealing with it myself. I fall the pieces in any class that requires on speech. Before I asked for help I gave a speech in my art class and asked to be the first to do it. So I absolutely tried to deal with it myself. It didn't turn out well. I just need some one on one speech instruction. But every time I talk to the counselor they just give me a sheet with some pointers. Maybe I'm just whining but it seems so counterproductive.

[moe.a.]

I thought that moving out of the household's authority and comfort and into a new life of independence and maturity is supposed to be accompanied by some anxiety and struggle. If a person can't undergo this evolution stage by himself, he will carry along the weakness associated with being under the wing of a guardian. Offering psychological support will reinforce the person's dependence on guardians instead of liberating him from the trait that is mostly prevalent among helpless children and which is not supposed remain with older people. However comforting the idea of emotional or psychological support might sound, it will prove to be a hell of an obstacle in the way of one's maturity.