Month: January 2017

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Epidemic of Anxiety

By SYDNEY JENNINGS | Decem­ber 8, 2016 

A 2015 study done by the Cen­ter for Col­le­giate Men­tal Health showed a sig­nif­i­cant increase in demand for stu­dent men­tal health ser­vices. Among the 93 schools sur­veyed, results showed a 5.6 per­cent increase in enroll­ment, while the num­ber of col­lege stu­dents seek­ing men­tal health help increased 29.6 per­cent between 2010 and 2015.

The preva­lence of anx­i­ety among stu­dents led UConn to tai­lor their men­tal health ser­vices to deal with it specif­i­cal­ly. (Pho­to by Get­ty Images)

 

Depres­sion, gen­er­al­ized anx­i­ety, and social anx­i­ety are the three main issues stu­dents face. Anx­i­ety account­ed for 20 per­cent of the top con­cern that coun­selors rec­og­nized in stu­dents. Depres­sion ranked sec­ond with 15.8 per­cent, while rela­tion­ship prob­lems were list­ed third with 9.4 percent.

Stu­dents at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Con­necti­cut are fol­low­ing this nation­al trend. UConn has seen a 20 per­cent increase in demand for ser­vices each year in the past five years. Anx­i­ety is the issue seen the most, accord­ing to Eliz­a­beth Crac­co, UCon­n’s Direc­tor of Coun­sel­ing and Men­tal Health Services.

Photo of Elizabeth Cracco, Director of Counseling and Mental Health Services. Photo Credit: UConn.
Pho­to of Eliz­a­beth Crac­co, Direc­tor of Coun­sel­ing and Men­tal Health Ser­vices. Pho­to Cred­it: UConn.

“One sol­id find­ing in our num­bers and nation­al­ly is the shift from depres­sion being the pri­ma­ry con­cern five years ago, to more recent­ly anx­i­ety being the num­ber one pre­sent­ing con­cern,” Crac­co said.

The larg­er influx of stu­dents seek­ing men­tal help has many peo­ple ques­tion­ing why.

“Some have the­o­rized that this gen­er­a­tion of stu­dents is ’emo­tion­al­ly frag­ile’ because more than any oth­er gen­er­a­tion they are engaged in high­ly struc­tured envi­ron­ments where par­ents inter­cede read­i­ly in prob­lem solv­ing,” Crac­co said.

With this belief, stu­dents are thought not to have prop­er cop­ing skills lead­ing to more stu­dents seek­ing aid.

UConn Coun­sel­ing and Men­tal Health Ser­vices is mak­ing changes to their sys­tem of care to try and keep up. “We’ve are con­tin­u­ous­ly eval­u­at­ing and shift­ing our sys­tem in an effort to keep pace with grow­ing stu­dent demands,” Crac­co said.Over the last three years, UConn hired 4.5 new full time clin­i­cal staff, devel­oped “drop-in” con­sul­ta­tions, and expand­ed the refer­ral net­work for stu­dents who need more long-term care.

The preva­lence of anx­i­ety among stu­dents led UConn to tai­lor their men­tal health ser­vices to deal with it specifically.

“Our con­tin­ued offer­ing of modal­i­ties and resources to stu­dents that can sup­port over­all well­ness and pos­i­tive men­tal health, tar­get­ing the num­ber one pre­sent­ing con­cern of stu­dents. Anx­i­ety is a great con­cern of ours right now,” Crac­co said.

Some of the new resources being offered include yoga-based stress reduc­tion, retreats where stu­dents can either get away for a day or a week­end and reflect and de-stress, and apps and videos that can be accessed 24/7 by students.

Next: Men­tal Health Aware­ness