by MOLLY BOHANNON
Creighton Digital Storytellers

Collegiate mental health is a crisis in America. And a growing one at that.

According to PsychologyToday, “in the 1980s […] perhaps 1 in 10 college students could be readily characterized as needing/wanting/using some form of mental health treatment. Now that number is 1 in 3, with trend lines rising.”

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But a pressing question lies at the base of the mental health crisis among colligates: are we seeing an epidemic or is there a change of attitude that has led to more diagnosed cases?

“My thought is that it’s a combination of greater awareness, less stigma related to asking for help, more acceptance of problems like depression and anxiety, as well as an increase in people suffering from depression and anxiety,” said Creighton University Director of Student Counseling Services Jennifer Peter.

“Demands on people, not just in college, but in life are greater than we’ve ever seen them.”

The Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors, AUCCD, reported 95 percent of college counseling center directors said the number of students with significant psychological problems is “a growing concern in their center or on campus.”

However this rise of students getting help can be seen as proactive on the part of students.

“I’m grateful that many students are willing to ask for help for anything from general stress or unhappiness to major depression, suicidality and trauma,” said Peter.

According to the Penn State 2018 Center for Collegiate Mental Health Annual Report, the most common concerns students seek help for are anxiety and depression, though countless others are reported.

The rise of students seeking mental health assistance, and the positive affects counseling services prove to have, has a downside for universities: an increased need for counseling services provided.

According to the AUCCD, 65.9 percent of centers reported having students on a waitlist, defined as a student waiting for a scheduled appointment.

Creighton has nine full time staff working in their counseling services, along with a number of people in training and a few part time workers to assist.

Maura Murray, a senior at Creighton who has sought out counseling multiple times, appreciated the effort made by her school but felt it wasn’t enough.

“When I called to make an appointment the people I spoke to were incredibly helpful, but told me that for an in-person session I would need to wait about 4 weeks,” said Murray.

“They were willing to connect me to other services and even have a program to help set people up with other counseling in the area, but those kinds of things can be hard to follow through on when you’re depressed in the first place. The counseling center showed me they were willing to help but just didn’t have the resources to fit the demand.”

Different universities face different problems within the mental health crisis.

Connie Boehm, director of student resilience at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, is less worried about a lack of staff and more worried that students don’t know where to go for help.

Universities are introducing different programs and strategies nationwide to combat the rise in those seeking mental health assistance, ranging from frequent therapy dogs on campus to programs designed to help students build resilience to the problems they’re facing.

Due to the recent implementation of these programs, however, there is little data on their success rate.

“As a center we are very open to hearing from students about what they feel is going on with college mental health and the ideas they have to address it,” said Peter regarding the center’s successes.

“Sometimes we think we know what’s going on but there is always more to learn.”