A community college has stopped on-campus counseling and a university student waits six weeks for services
Counselors at Pennsylvania’s largest community college recently ended individual and group counseling, sparking anger and disappointment from students, reported Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Harrisburg Area Community College students now must see a dean of student affairs who then refers them to off-campus counseling providers rather than benefiting from a college mental health offering on campus.
Mental health among college students is poor. Only 4 in 10 students have good mental health and flourish on college campuses, according to a recent report. Meanwhile, the percentage of students with previous diagnoses or treatments for depression increased from approximately 9% in 2009 to more than 20% in 2019.
And even though California passed a budget this summer that includes $5.3 million for improving mental health services in the University of California system, the growing demand for counseling over the past two decades requires much more funding, said Emily Estus, a researcher at Berkeley Institute for Young Americans and Well Being Trust, in an Op-Ed for CalMatters.org, a nonprofit media venture.
Adding telemedicine programs
Campus counseling centers have been implementing mobile mental health-focused technology tools, Sherry Benton, founder and chief science officer of anxiety treatment provider TAO Connect, wrote in a University Business op-ed.