American University Students Struggle With Mental Health

The mental stability of college students has dropped to a staggering low, so low that 1 in 4 college students have reported that the have had suicidal thoughts and actions. That's just the amount that have reported that they are feeling suicidal. So many college students struggle with mental illness and receive no help or guidance in curing and dealing with their illnesses.

Mental health among college students has been proven to be a relevant social issue that our society faces. There are certainly a few different institutions that play a large role within the development of this social issue. The first institution, and the primary institution at play with this issue, is the higher education system. In terms of mental health and having access to resources, college students haven’t always been as lucky as they are today. One study in 2007 explains the story of Junior at Syracuse University (Kravets, 3081). Anita Rutman had a history of mental health issues; she even found herself being admitted to a mental health hospital. One morning in February, she threw herself off of the eighth floor of Boland Hall and landed on a patio and fortunately lived. However, her attempt stemmed from the university sending her letter three days prior that informed Anita that the school was planning to dismiss her because of her suicidal tendencies (Kravets, 3081). Anita later sued Syracuse for ten million dollars for malpractice and negligence in handling her condition.

Some of the most infamous acts of terror on American soil took place on numerous campuses across the nation. School shootings, like Sandy Hook and Columbine, have started to become an ordinary event seen on the news, which causes a numb reaction in the hearts of countless Americans. According to an article written by AJ Willingham and Saeed Ahmed, from CNN, “...30 deadliest shootings in the United States dating back to 1949, 18 have occurred in the last 10 years.” In all of these cases, the news will give the attacker the attention they so dearly crave and always giving the same justification “they were mentally ill”. This one phrase reflects on all of those who also are affected by mental illness, does this make them corrupt like these terrorists?

In recent years, evidence and studies have proven that the shutdown of various mental health facilities across the nation has caused a dramatic increase in the number of incarcerations for people who suffer from mental illness. In 2006, the Bureau of Justice Statistics calculated that there were approximately 705,600 mentally ill adults incarcerated in state prisons, 78,800 mentally ill adults incarcerated in federal prisons, and 479,900 mentally ill adults incarcerated in local jails (“Mentally Ill”). In response to the increase in the number of incarcerations and news stories, people around the nation developed harmful stigmas towards mentally ill people. According to Sarah Glazer’s article entitled "Prisoners and Mental Illness", the state governments do not allocate enough spending to mental health care. In the hopes of reducing funding and saving money, many state governments across the nation forced the shutdown of public mental health facilities, which led to an increase in crimes committed by mentally ill people. According to Dr. Marie E. Rueve and Dr. Randon S. Welton’s article entitled “Violence and Mental Illness”, society believes that mentally ill people are worthless and violent, which is a negative impact of the increase in crimes committed by mentally ill people. In response to the stigma created by society, many people believe that the mentally ill deserve incarceration in order to keep them from harming other members of the community. According to the

The University of Mississippi Counseling Center wants to increase awareness about the services they offer to students, as well as to encourage students to seek help for a mental health problem. The counseling center wants to decrease the stigma about mental illness amongst student’s at the University of Mississippi making them aware that they are here to

Senator Creigh Deeds story is just one of many that end in tragedy because of a mental health system that has failed. While the major proportion of people living with mental illness are not violent, they can become a victim of violence. According to the latest statistics from the American Psychological Association one in five adults has a diagnosable mental disorder, one in twenty-four has a serious mental disorder (SMI), and people with mental illness are no more likely to be violent that people without mental illness (Association, American Psychiatric, 2016). Untreated mental health care is characteristic of the violent crimes that we see happening today. Some of the reasons behind these untreated individuals are the unmet needs of people not having a financial means to pay for services, lack of insurance, knowledge about how to access care, embarrassment about having the need for services, and those that needed care but experienced delays in accessing care (Jones et al., 2014).

The Mentally Ill, or The Mentally Mistreated? Up until the 1900s, mentally ill people were mistreated, abused, and treated all the same throughout the many varieties of mental illnesses. In today’s society, many people brush mental illness aside, as if it’s not a big issue. Little do these people know that it is a big issue, an issue that affects 57.7 million American citizens. Many of these people are under-educated on the types of disorders, the background of mental illnesses, the impact of mental illness, and how to understand and identify people with mental illnesses. Many people know the feeling of suffering from anxiety.

Though the title seems to suggest some final decision, the conclusion should be viewed as a process with many steps. The first question ought to be: what types of danger do students with mental health disorders present, and what differences between them must be considered? Second, in what ways do these dangers come to the attention of the administration and what is the reliability of those manners of detection? The third and ultimate question is twofold: how should the university administration be allowed to respond and how ought they to respond? The former answer should be a legal threshold, and the latter a question should be one about best practices focusing on the normative issues involved.

“Public colleges not liable for violence on campus, appeals court rules”, written by Stephen Ceasar, discusses the responsibility campuses have when dealing with cases of violence that involve mental illness. A lawsuit in California, Katherine Rosen v. University of California Regents, ended with a ruling that public universities do not hold responsibility when dealing with crimes committed on campus when the assailant suffers from mental illness. In 2010, Katherine Rosen, a student at UCLA, was stabbed and had her throat slashed by Damon Thompson, a mentally ill student. Prior to the attack, UCLA professors and officials had received reports of threatening behavior of Damon Thompson and Thompson had been diagnosed as a possible schizophrenia

Some who are resistant to mental health screenings suggest that schools only require screenings for students who show external signs of suffering. The problem with this idea is that many students would receive treatment for their mental illness, but those who do not show symptoms would not. For example, if schools used academic performance as an indicator

While untreated mental illness sufferers pay the ultimate price, stigma not letting sufferers get treatment also pays a toll on society. The first item that proves this is the money spent on large amount of medical costs from attempted suicides. In another finding from the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, among suicide attempts the medical costs such as ER visits and hospital stays

Thesis: Mental Illness in colleges needs to be addressed because of the rise in college students being diagnosed in mental health problems.

Plans for making up work and maintaining physical health already exist; for example, students going homebound due to illness. However, these plans often are not sensitive to the unique needs of students struggling with mental illness, and can even exacerbate their problems. For example, disregard

Because the stakes for treating mentally-ill students continue to increase, university choice to value liability management over student health remains short-sighted and ineffective. The mentality of liability management – the idea that colleges and universities should limit exposure to risk (legal or otherwise) when handling cases of mentally ill students – flies in the face of a trust-oriented approach, as the university removes agency from students in the administration’s best interest. According

Mental health issues occur in every group of people in our nation, especially those that identify as minorities (Masuda, et al., 2009). Mental health addresses many internal issues or is commonly referred to as ‘a battlefield of the mind.’ Mental health issues are not only common, but often frowned upon by others. Though there are an array of ways this occur, the most common challenges that college students face include depression, anxiety, suicide, eating disorders, and addiction (Oswalt & Lederer, 2017). One of the primary reasons that college students struggle, is in some cultures, children are raised to keep their issues within their household. In other words, what happens within one’s household should stay within that same household. With the number of first generation college students, it is imperative that children are raised with the understanding that it is okay to seek help when needed. Furthermore, that professional help is more beneficial than not, to those in need. The purpose of this paper is multifaceted. First, the intent of the researcher is to define and describe common mental health issues amongst African American college students, coupled with not only ways to mitigate the current trend, but highlight the relationship between mental health stigma, self-concealment, and race.