How Today’s Colleges Can Support Student Mental Health

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How Todays Colleges Can Support Student Mental
Health
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Introduction

• Students are under undue stress all the time, due
  to studies and personal relationships. The
  pressure of college life can take a lot of toll
  on the students. Anxiety, depression, insomnia,
  etc., are just a few to name the diseases that
  can wreak havoc on students if they have poor
  mental health.
• In India, there is an alarming situation of high
  student suicide rates.  According to the National
  Crime Record Bureau data, approximately 12,000
  students ended their lives by suicide in 2020.
  So, imagine how poorly we are doing to manage
  the mental health of the students.
• Colleges have a vital responsibility to respond
  to the issue of public health. It is very
  important on the part of the college to create a
  conducive environment where students talk about
  their feelings openly and come out with their
  problems without the fear of judgment.
• Colleges should have scientific initiatives to
  improve the mental health of their students.
  Sample mental health programs are

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1. Raising Mental Health Awareness

• Colleges must help students to realize that
  mental health is important and there is nothing
  to be ashamed of if there had been a clinical
  diagnosis. Seeking counselling will help. Asking
  for help is not a sign of weakness rather it
  will contribute to emotional and psychological
  growth.
• As college empowers their students with the
  knowledge regarding mental health they will
  easily recognize their own problems effectively.
  Colleges should promote and encourage raising the
  students mental health awareness. Help them to
  track their own mental health and encourage them
  to be more open and receptive. 
• Colleges can help students by making them
  understand that with better mental health their
  retention and attention span increase
  dramatically. All of these preventive measures
  help the International students to make their
  lives better both inside and outside of the
  campus.

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2. Preventive Measures and Identifying Stress
Points

• Stress points identification is important!
  Colleges should actively root out factors that
  are making the life of students miserable, such
  as substance abuse, racial inequality,
  homophobia, non-inclusive policies, coursework
  pressures, etc. All of these factors should be
  worked on the campus.
• Once these factors are identified they should be
  actively worked on with gender-inclusive
  policies, support for substance abuse, and much
  more! These initiatives will create a more
  cohesive and secure environment for the students.
  It will improve the quality of education and the
  environment of the campus.

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3. Providing Resources to Students

• Students must have proper access to the resources
  to manage their mental health problems. Access to
  counsellors and psychologists with support groups
  is crucial to managing the mental health of your
  students. This is the most crucial aspect if we
  want to help the Study Abroad Students. 
• Without access to proper care students have
  nowhere to go because access to counsellors is
  very expensive and students are not able to
  afford the same. So having regular counselling
  sessions, therapy sessions, etc., would help the
  students tremendously!

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4. Workshops and Campaigns

• Regularly conduct workshops and campaigns for
  students to destigmatize mental health problems.
  It will help them to come out as much as possible
  because of a greater understanding that it is
  okay to feel anxious, depressed, and anything for
  that matter! It does not make them weak to ask
  for help or take help, it is just a general human
  emotion.
• Conclusion
• The mental health of the students is constantly
  deteriorating and colleges can help to mitigate
  this problem. Students spend most of their time
  in colleges and it becomes the duty of
  educational institutes to help their children
  with proper resources, care, and management.