How colleges can help students and survive the crisis opinion
2026
It highlights the importance of fostering supportive relationships to enhance psychological health, manage stress, improve quality of life, and promote healthier behaviours. Overall, the substantial body of research underscores the profound impact of social support on multiple dimensions of well-being. Moreover, social support positively influences health behaviours like physical activity and nutrition. Research has consistently demonstrated that reliable social networks can buffer the adverse effects of stress by reducing emotional distress and physiological responses . Social support is vital in mitigating stress helping individuals maintain emotional stability during adversity. This review synthesizes findings Resources for student parents and pregnant students from 51 research articles to explore the impact of social support on well-being, emphasizing the distinct roles played by various types of support in shaping psychological outcomes.
Faculty Guide to Supporting Student Mental Health
The National Grad Crisis Line helps graduate students reach free, confidential telephone counseling, crisis intervention, suicide prevention, and information and referral services provided by specially-trained call-takers. Two-thirds of students strongly or somewhat agree that they know where to seek help on campus if they or a friend are experiencing a mental health crisis. Increasingly, students are looking to social media and other online resources for mental health information. But who is helping college students when they’re in distress?
Comprehensive Support Systems for College Students: Addressing Mental Health and Wellness on Campus
“Young people are dealing with a completely different world than we were when we were younger,” says Laura Erickson-Schroth, chief medical officer at the Jed Foundation. “‘How do I learn to be a more full human and take all those responsibilities on and be at a university and figure out how to hold that down? Mental health experts say these results aren’t entirely off base, with changing demographics of learners in higher education and a growing consciousness of larger societal issues. Only 42 percent of presidents thought academic stress was highly influential. College presidents, on the other hand, pointed to generational changes in the student experience. Over half (52 percent) of respondents are white, 15 percent are Hispanic, 14 percent are Asian American or Pacific Islanders, 11 percent are Black, and 8 percent are another race (international student or two or more races).
The RADical Health program works to empower students and equip them with knowledge and coping skills to stay well and stay resilient. Students are affected by a range of stressors and challenges, including academic pressure, balancing obligations, social pressures, and more global/societal concerns. College student mental health has been the focus of much attention in recent years.
With these insights, our team created FindHelpNow as a 24/7, digital access point that matches any student, faculty, or staff member to the right support resource, both on-and-off campus, for any type of crisis, in sixty seconds or less. Oftentimes, students either don’t know how to find proper help for the situation they’re facing; or, as noted in this Inside Higher Ed article, they receive conflicting information from their campus about where to turn and ultimately don’t receive help. But you do not have to be a mental health professional to have a positive impact on students’ emotional well-being.
SAMHSA’s National Helpline
- Specialized approaches like EMDR therapy and Brainspotting have demonstrated significant efficacy in helping students process and integrate traumatic memories.
- Educational factors like intensive curriculum, heightened competition, academic difficulties and poor competence of instructors also contribute to distress14.
- Part of the challenge for schools is that it’s not just students in life-threatening crises who are asking for more help.
- Respondents, 46 percent of whom are currently taking all online courses from home, report greater mental health needs if they fall into certain at-risk groups.
- Another survey from a few years prior found that 60% of students had experienced “overwhelming” anxiety and half said they’d been so depressed it was difficult to function.
- Higher education practitioners can support students’ mental health and well-being in the moment help is needed through resource connections for different student groups.
Many universities still lack accessible, evidence-based and culturally competent services to support these learning and mental-health needs8. University students are particularly prone to mental-health challenges. One study in the United States found that although the proportion of students with symptoms who sought help rose from 40.7% in 2013 to 50.2% in the 2020–21 academic year, the only statistically significant increase was in students of white ethnic background.
Kane Zha and Molly Irvin had gotten interested in mental health their first year at Stanford. Back home in Beaumont, Fowler felt like they’d let down the Black community. “I didn’t know if I was going to stay in college. During that time, an assistant dean from the school came to see them. “I remember just the stares I got from being escorted by police, because I’m sure people thought I was a criminal,” Fowler recalled. Whatever the reason, the rising demand has put many schools in a difficult position, with limited budgets to address the growing student need.
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