While the recent mental health crisis among children and adolescents has received considerable recent attention—from the U.S. Surgeon General, most notably—another group has always been at high risk for depression and anxiety: college students.
The transition to college can be fraught with unexpected peril for young adults, many of whom leave high school with a false sense of independence. Although the high school experience may simulate independence and autonomy, students are still protected by a safety net of counselors, teachers, and confidantes who have known them for years and can recognize signs of distress. It’s not until they go away to college that resilience and life skills are truly tested for the first time while their brains are still growing and developing, and at that point, their safety net is largely gone.
To compound the issue, our current college students are a product of two stressful environments at once. They not only face the standard developmental challenges of leaving home for the first time, but they also bring with them the adolescent environmental traumas of recent years—COVID-related isolation, active shooter drills, and social media feeds filled with divisive content.
Perhaps as a result, the mental health of college students has been steadily declining over the past few years, according to recent research from the Healthy Minds Network. Between 2013 and 2021, the number of students who met the criteria for one or more mental health problems had doubled.
By Spring 2023, a national survey from the American College Health Association showed that:
- 76% of students were experiencing moderate to serious psychological distress
- 53% were experiencing loneliness
- 31% met the criteria for suicidal ideation
A new safety net
Colleges are addressing the issue by creating a new safety net on campus, offering updated mental health services to meet a new generation of need. As noted by U.S. News & World Report, colleges are offering not only on-campus counseling, but also national telehealth services.
The pandemic-era expansion of telehealth services has played a role in expanding access to behavioral health service on campus. In general, 88.1% of behavioral health facilities offered telehealth services in 2022 compared to 39.4% in 2019. And, while telehealth use declined after the pandemic for other medical specialties, it continues to remain high for behavioral health.
Colleges are also tapping online therapy services to supplement their on-campus counseling. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, teletherapy vendors are now serving millions of students at more than 700 campuses.
Additionally, colleges are changing their crisis procedures to respond with more sensitivity. For example, the University of California San Diego now sends a crisis team with a clinician to answer emergency calls. This replaces the old system of welfare checks by the campus police department, which often escalated crises with what was sometimes perceived as a threatening response.
New academic policies initiated post-pandemic are also making it easier for students to seek help for mental health issues. Pressure from current and former students forced Yale to change its strict policies on mental health leave that required students to withdraw without guarantee of readmission. On a more day-to-day basis, experts are advising schools to educate their faculty and staff to recognize signs of distress, which may also require Boomer and Gen X faculty to reframe their own attitudes toward mental health treatment.
A technology lifeline
While telehealth and teletherapy are expanding access to mental health treatment, they often represent new relationships with therapists who don’t have baseline histories with the students. College students, therefore, may still lack the backup they had in high school from teachers, counselors, and peers who can recognize differences in their demeanor through daily interactions, beyond what is observed during a therapy session.
The Trayt platform can bridge the two experiences, creating a technology lifeline for college students. Through Trayt’s patient-facing app, students track their between-visit experiences and complete assessments, giving broad visibility to their psychiatrist or therapist. This granular between-session data helps new therapists get to know the student more quickly and thoroughly. If necessary, the student’s entire care team can be added to the Trayt platform, providing the whole ecosystem around the student with the same 360-degree view.
Additionally, the Trayt patient-facing application gives students a safe place to express their feelings and log their experiences. And soon, a new AI-enabled community feature will provide in-app feedback to students, offering life skill strategies and support so that students never feel alone.
Ultimately, life skill strategies and connection will help build resilience, which organizations like the RADical Hope say is essential to thrive in college and beyond. With the proper support systems in place, students will emerge from their college years ready to reach their full potential as engaged and productive citizens.