College-level students are struggling with mental health in various campuses around the world. Colleges and universities are also having difficulty providing support and services to their students.
It was previously reported that universities and colleges in the United States are struggling to keep up with the rise in demand for mental health care. This has led to a lot of students being stuck on waiting lists and not receiving the help they asked for.
Several higher education institutions were surveyed on their mental health services. It was found that students would often need to wait for weeks in order to take an initial exam to review their symptoms. Waiting to see a psychiatrist for prescription or adjustment of medication is longer.
This issue is not exclusive to the United States alone. BuzzFeed reported that Australian college students are also facing the same problem. Honoree Kalisa, 23, felt a lot of burden as a student.
Majority of university students said that they felt in a low mood in the past 12 months of study. A third had gone through thoughts of self-harm or suicide. 83 percent of students felt stressed while 56 percent had trouble sleeping.
TIME shared the story of Oliver, a student at Kenyon College, who suffered from a mental break during his time in school. He was a student athlete who showed all the signs but, one day, he just retreated to his room, did not hang out with his friends anymore and stopped answering calls from his mom.
He revealed that he began to hear voices. Moreover, he even felt that his neighbor was trying to kill him.
The 18-year-old student showed all the signs of a mental health crisis but his friends and dorm mates were not informed with the knowledge on how to detect these signs. His mom was also informed about his situation only much later on.
Mental health awareness is important for students and staff in campuses. Higher education institutions should already start working toward improving services and support to help the campus community.
