September 28, 2007

Building Bridges: Mental Health on Campus: Student Mental Health Leaders and College Administrators, Counselors, and Faculty in Dialogue

This report was given by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Center for Mental Health Services. The report discusses how campus resources are often strained to meet the student demand for mental health services. Increasingly, student groups call for awareness, education, and resources for peer and self-help programs. Before, counseling services typically focused on relationship problems and career concerns. Now, colleges and universities are called upon to shift and expand their priorities to address students' growing demand for mental health services.

The complex problem of suicide and suicidal behaviors on campus demands a multifaceted, collaborative approach. College administrators must work to ensure that all elements of the campus and the entire community are working together. A group of campus mental health leaders met in 2005 with college administrators, counselors, faculty members, and a legal expert. The participants discussed access to, availability, affordability, and quantity of mental health services delivered on campuses, interaction of administration policies and mental health services, discrimination and stigma, student engagement and advocacy, wellness and prevention, communication among multiple stakeholders, confidentiality, differing cultural responses to mental illness, disability rights and accommodation, legal and liability issues, college as a safety net, training of multiple stakeholders to identify problems and how to take appropriate action. The discussion offered an opportunity for participants to learn from the experiences of students who live with these issues and also from professionals with institutional policy, service provision, and research perspectives.