The last ten years have seen an increase in many student services and essential officers in higher education. Chief Diversity Officers, counseling centers and identity-based offices have become staples at most universities in the country. Though the introduction of these services represents a commitment to improving campus climate for the increasingly diverse campus constituents, it also presents new areas for inquiry and research. One of these areas has been very prominent on my mind, the increased medication of students and the long-term impacts that has for students who are under insured.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), 1 in 4 adults between the ages of 18 and 24 have a diagnosable mental health condition. In addition, more than 25% of college students have been diagnosed or treated for a mental health condition in the last year. With the increases in enrollment and diverse enrollment at that, counselors have noticed increases in the “prevalence and severity” of mental health issues resulting in record breaking numbers of students take psychotropic medications.
Many colleges and universities are struggling to keep up with students’ needs (https://www.usatoday.com/story/college/2017/05/04/more-and-more-students-need-mental-health-services-but-colleges-struggle-to-keep-up/37431099/). As these institutions try to navigate supporting students, they also are working against a bottom line. This leads to limitations on mental health services including long wait times to get triaged, long wait times between appointments, session limits, movements away from individual counseling to group counseling, increased reliance on psychotropic drugs and more.
Although, these issues are difficult to address, yet another issue lies beneath the surface. As enrollments are becoming more diverse in terms of class, family background, ability, race and even nationality – it means services for students need to be equitable. There need to be mental health providers that can speak to culturally specific issues as it relates to wealth, sexuality, race, immigration status. Many students may be attempting to access mental health services for the first time. It’s important that students are made aware of the long-term prognoses for their condition and the role the institution plays in helping them stabilize their health.
Communication with diverse constituents is especially important for students at the margins. Many institutions require students to have student health insurance while on campus. This creates opportunities for many students to obtain quality medical care for the first time in their lives. However, it’s important that university policymakers and administrators try to ensure that it is also not their last. Many students get on psychotropic drugs for the first time in college. Depending on the cultural background or filial context, the student may be the only person aware of and responsible for their out-patient treatment. This situation may become difficult for a student who is diagnosed with a serious mental illness as they exit the safety net of the institution and enter the next stages in their lives.
Imagine spending 2-4 years of your life taking strong psychotropic drugs and graduating to find out that you no longer had access to the medicines you were told you needed to sustain your mental health. How would that impact your ability to find a job? How would your inability to find a job impact your ability to enroll in affordable health care?
Imagine spending 2-4 years taking mental health drugs that your family does recognize therefore leaving you with no support in your psychiatric mental health care? What do students do when they go home to families who don’t prioritize their mental health? Especially after university counseling centers have created year-long chemical dependencies to psychiatric medications.
Imagine spending 2-4 years normalizing your condition and accepting that you need out-patient treatment, only to graduate and find yourself withdrawing from strong drugs as you’re trying to start the next chapter of your life. What do you do to manage the withdrawal? Do you even know that the symptoms you’re experiencing may be related to chemical withdrawal?
That is the reality of many students who come to college unaware of the issues that may be festering in their minds. That is the reality of many students who grow up in places where mental health is seen as a generations oversensitivity to life’s challenges. That is the reality of many students who seek out mental health support in college.
So, as we’re developing services to ensure that different places and spaces in the academy are safe, I urge higher education researchers and administrators to see students as a product of their collective histories. It’s important that during this age of diversity and inclusion awareness, that we continue to see students in the context of their difference and embrace those differences in a genuine way. As university policymakers consider making strategic changes to student services, especially mental health services, I hope they hold these differences in mind to ensure policies support the dignity, health and future wellness of all students.