Mental health issues on rise in US colleges

nearly half the students who get counselling have a serious mental illness,more than double than a decade ago

Rushing a student to a psychiatric emergency room is never routine,but when Stony Brook University logged three trips in three days,it did not surprise Jenny Hwang,the director of counseling.

It was deep into the fall semester,a time of stress with finals looming. On a Thursday afternoon,a freshman who had been scraping bottom academically posted thoughts about suicide on Facebook. If I were gone,he wrote,would anybody notice? An alarmed student told staff members in the dorm,who called Dr Hwang after hours,who contacted the campus police. Officers escorted the student to the county psychiatric hospital.

There were two more runs over that weekend,including one late Saturday night when a student grew concerned that a friend with a prescription for Xanax,the anti-anxiety drug,had swallowed a fistful.

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On Sunday,a supervisor of residence halls,Gina Vanacore,sent a BlackBerry update to Dr Hwang,who has championed programmes to train students and staff members to intervene to prevent suicide.

Stony Brook is typical of US colleges and universities these days,where national surveys show that nearly half of the students who visit counselling centres are coping with serious mental illness,more than double the rate a decade ago. More students take psychiatric medication,and there are more emergencies requiring immediate action.

Its so different from how people might stereotype the concept of college counseling,or back in the 70s students coming in with existential crises: who am I? said Dr Hwang,whose staff of 29 includes psychiatrists,clinical psychologists and social workers. Now theyre bringing in life stories involving extensive trauma,a history of serious mental illness,eating disorders,self-injury,alcohol and other drug use.

Experts say the trend is partly linked to effective psychotropic drugs (Wellbutrin for depression,Adderall for attention disorder,Abilify for bipolar disorder) that have allowed students to attend college who otherwise might not have functioned in a campus setting. There is also greater awareness of traumas scarcely recognised a generation ago and a willingness to seek help for those problems,including bulimia,self-cutting and childhood sexual abuse.

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The need to help this troubled population has forced campus mental health centres to take extraordinary measures to make do. Some have hospital-style triage units to rank the acuity of students who cross their thresholds. Others have waiting lists for treatment sometimes weeks long and limit the number of therapy sessions.