M: Mental Health Awareness
Around the country, conversations surrounding mental health and wellness have become commonplace. While they often are in relation to violent crimes and other horrendous acts, it is important to remember the importance of discussing the mental wellness of students on college campuses. In a recent survey done by the ACHA, 55% of college students noted that their academic performance was affected due to a personal experience that led to a mental health condition. Over 75% of students also responded that they felt overwhelmed by everything they had to do. These numbers are, and should be, of concern as these are our friends, family and peers and in order to best solve this problem, we need to do MORE with mental health.
The Problem:
Within the past 2 years, Purdue has taken enormous steps to protect the mental wellness of students. The Counseling and Psychological Services Center (CAPS) received permanent funding. These services, however, are only available during the day to students. While Purdue does have 24-hour on call clinicians, the funding for that service is not permanent and is set to run out by 2020. In addition, student and professional faculty/staff are often unaware of the specific factors on Purdue’s campus that are prone to causing mental health issues.
Our Solution:
As current students, the responsibility of ensuring the wellness of future students partially falls on us. We must secure permanent funding to ensure that resources for student mental wellness are available 24/7. All faculty and staff should receive more extensive, Purdue specific training to recognize the causes and signs of mental health issues so that they can be adequately equipped to deal with situations students might find themselves in. Before all of this, however, it is important to do more with the educational resources provided on campus pertaining to mental health issues. Students should receive more extensive training at orientation events such as BGR with an emphasis on various stressors unique to Purdue. All this will enhance the quality of student life by improving peer to peer as well as faculty to peer relationships and open campus-wide conversations about mental wellness.