AG捕鱼

Randy Scott says AG捕鱼’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) team has seen a dramatic uptick in the number of students seeking mental health help in recent years. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

As Senior Associate Director of CAPS, Scott says there are two reasons for the rise:

• The generation now in college has a more developed mental health vocabulary and awareness and have grown up where seeking help isn’t as stigmatized.
• There is still significant fallout from the COVID pandemic and the trauma it produced, which Scott expects to continue for perhaps another decade.

“That collective trauma hit young people hard,” Scott says. “They feel cheated out of experiences.”

COVID presented a challenge that went beyond the immediate physical health emergency. The shutdown of nearly all social gatherings for more than a year meant long-term isolation to a degree most had never experienced. Scott says that as a profession, mental health was not prepared to deal with that trauma.

“There was a learning curve because the need got so big so fast,” he says. “Now I look at our system here and we’re very well prepared if something happened again.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, the top mental health issue CAPS has been addressing in the wake of the pandemic has been loneliness. Scott says isolation stunted young people’s development of skills on how to interact with each other away from a computer screen.

They blame themselves, feel like there’s something wrong with them and that they are doing something wrong, when in reality, even under the best of circumstances, feeling lonely is a normal part of the college experience.

“We hear that college is the best time of your life, you’ll have a great time, all of that,” Scott says. “But that’s simply not true for everybody. Many people have a hard time making friends and finding their place and so we work to normalize those feelings. The uptick in depression and anxiety is all exacerbated by the loneliness.”

The challenge, then, is two-fold: Helping students recognize that feeling lonely isn’t abnormal and the result of them doing something wrong, and helping them work through the loneliness. And that, really, is a university-wide effort.

A CAMPUS AG捕鱼PPORT SYSTEM

Counseling is an important first step. Any AG捕鱼 student who reaches out for help is given a mental health wellness check to determine what services would be more beneficial, whether it’s on campus or via an outside care provider.

If the student is seen by CAPS they’re set up as a client and work with a therapist with no limit on the number of sessions, though it’s designed for short-term therapy – longer-term needs are typically referred out, as are issues such as substance abuse and eating disorders.

CAPS also offers urgent care for students in distress that is disrupting their daily functioning—could be issues with their family, in the classroom or their personal life. The student meets with a counselor and comes up with a plan. An offering called Talk Now offers 24-hour assistance as well.

“It’s been a great resource to give people outside of business hours,” Scott says. “At 3 a.m. they can access a professional immediately and get help.”

A big addition to the counseling team is Kristine Highlander, a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. Scott says Highlander will particularly help the team with medication management, which many students benefit from.

But as the saying goes, it takes a village and CAPS relies on partners across campus to help with students’ mental health needs. Every year before fall classes begin, Scott and his team do a presentation to incoming students and families to introduce them to the care resources available. During the year, anyone who is concerned about someone’s mental health can fill out a care report which goes to a team whose job it is to reach out to offer assistance.

“It comes down to collaboration,” Scott says. “Mental health is an entire campuses' job, not just the counseling program.”

It often starts in the classroom. Scott says mental health challenges can first show up in academic performance, something faculty would notice. They are able to offer assistance and resources to the student and be first in line in offering support. Family, friends and fellow students can also be part of the solution in recognizing changes in behavior or demeanor.

A COMMUNITY EFFORT

Scott says CAPS works closely with other parts of campus including Campus Ministry and the MOSAIC Center, which creates Meaningful Opportunity for Student Access, Inclusion and Community. There’s also the office for Wellness and Health Promotion and its student organization, the Wellness Crew.

With loneliness being such a driver of student mental health challenges, socialization is one of the big steps to helping. Introducing students to other students, providing opportunities for interaction, can often make a big difference. Scott says that while students today have grown up spending lots of time online, whether it’s for school or entertainment and engagement, the need for in-person human interaction is strong.

“One thing we’ve noticed is that students want to have in-person interactions,” he says. “They are craving connection right now. While we learned a lot during the pandemic about offering alternatives that can be helpful as far as making things accessible through remote options, they still want to engage in person, they just don’t always know how to do it.”

College will always be challenging, especially for first-year students and international students. Learning to be on your own, sometimes in a new city, with more challenging academics while trying to meet new people and figure out how you fit in. That’s a lot and it creates a high demand for mental health help. AG捕鱼 has positioned itself to tackle the challenge and support its students through a campus-wide effort.

“It’s always a challenge to keep up with it so it’s so important to engage with all parts of campus,” Scott says. “Empowering everyone to be part of the solution so that we aren’t afraid to approach someone who may be in distress and ask if they’re OK and knowing what to do if they need more help, is really important. Sometimes students just need to talk to someone and we’re all capable of just listening.”