Stepping In The Right Direction: Easy Access To Mental Health Encourages More Students To Seek Help

Being a college student can be a very stressful transition to some. That's why it is highly important to have access to mental health services to help students manage the situation. Experts believe that the more accessible mental health services are, the easier it is to solve the situation.

A survey at California colleges revealed that there is about 19 percent of scholars who were suffering from "serious mental distress" thirty days prior to the survey. It was also reported that 11 percent of students were experiencing "mental-health academic impairment in the previous year. However, experts also found that only 20 percent of students have access and using mental health services during college.

The University of California is making sure that actions are done to deal with the issue. The University News informed the public that they are hiring 85 clinicians such as psychologists, psychiatrists, and case managers to make sure that there is an increased access to mental health services and to be able to reach out to more students.

"We're seeing a national trend," said Gary Dunn, Ph.D., Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) director at UC Santa Cruz and chair of the UC CAPS directors group. "The UC system is trying to get out ahead of it. While this is not going to solve the entire problem, it's an important step in the right direction."

In fall of 2015, according to Dr. Nicole Green, interim executive director of CAPS, UCLA Counseling and Psychological Services recorded a decreased number of free visits per academic year from 10 to 6 mainly because they were understaffed. She also said that she thinks the number of visits was significantly lowered to reduce the time students have to wait to talk or visit a counselor.

The Daily Bruin also reported that on Wednesday, the UC Board of Regents was updated about an increase in funding for mental health services in the University from $40 million to $58 million for the academic year 2018-2019.

"Mental health issues don't appear overnight, and some students come into higher education with struggles of mental health that have been unaddressed up until this point in their lives," said Alex Hill who was a mental health peer in UC Santa Barbara. "The university is shining a spotlight to let students know that it is not only OK, but normal, to get the care that they need. There is a lot of work that needs to be done, and we're on track to take those steps," he added.