How Today’s Colleges Can Support Student Mental Health
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:
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 student’s 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.
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.
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!
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.
