University mental-health resources strained under increased need

By Clara Ritger, USA TODAY Collegiate Correspondent | USATODAY College

Mary Wheaton, 21, is an honors student at the University of Notre Dame. She was diagnosed with depression near the end of her freshman year.

"I came home for spring break and never left the couch," she said. "I thought I could get over it with sheer will power."

College has been a roller coaster ride for Wheaton ever since. She searched for the right medication, therapy and doctors, but found school options limited. She studied abroad in Angers, France her junior year, but returned home early when her medical condition got in the way. The university pushed her to take a leave. Instead, she completed a successful spring semester in South Bend, Ind.

Wheaton hoped she would graduate this May. In the fall, she enrolled in classes to make up lost credits from that first semester in France. She thought she would enjoy them. Then she hit a wall.

"By midterms, I wasn't leaving my room," Wheaton said. "I wasn't going to class and I wasn't responding to professors' emails. I felt like I was failing on a personal and an academic level. I thought, 'I've already lost, so why try to bounce back?'"

She is now on medical leave.The 2012 National Survey of Counseling Center Directors (NSCCD) determined that approximately 2.2 million students across the country sought professional counseling assistance last year. The annual survey included 293 counseling centers, which represent 2.7 million students who are eligible for counseling services at their institutions.

The survey also found that the number of students seeking help has increased in recent years and 88% of directors said accommodations for more students with serious psychological problems has posed staffing problems.

The University of Notre Dame Counseling Center does not have a full-time psychiatrist. Instead, a psychiatrist comes two days a week to serve the nearly 1,000 students who use the counseling services offered each year.

Jerald Kay, professor and chair of psychiatry at Wright State University, said many counseling centers do not have permanent psychiatrists, and report needing more personnel.

"We have an obligation … to take care of our students and the dollars should follow that concern," Kay said. "I believe we should increase funding and professional support."

When the counseling centers are ill-equipped, students such as Wheaton choose to leave to seek better care.

"If you treat students who are struggling with mental disorders, then you can keep many of them in school," Kay said. "Recruitment and retention are critical financial issues to institutions of higher learning."

Wheaton sought a care program that would be more proactive about improving her lifestyle to lessen her down days. She worked closely with Notre Dame's new student case manager to decide if medical leave was the best option for her.

"I had a good support network in that process," Wheaton said.

Trent Davis, a counselor at Virginia Tech's Cook Counseling Center, said Virginia Tech has also added a case manager who checks in with all students who have been in the hospital for their condition.

"The research supports that more and more students are coming in with more and more mental health problems," Davis said. "No one had case managers five years ago, but today it's a new way to improve care for students."

Davis said he has students check in daily and weekly so that he is sure they are going to class. He said greater contact with advisers and reduced course loads are among his recommendations for colleges to alleviate the stress put on students.

"Personally I feel there are certain things that are built into the college system that make students less happy," Davis said. "Academic stress has increased since I was in college."

At least 50% of the students who come in to the center have some form of anxiety, Davis said. He listed concerns about grades, social relationships, the transition to college, family issues and finances as prevalent among anxiety patients. The second-most common psychological problem he sees is depression. According to the NSCCD survey, 80% of all reported student suicides were also cases of depression.

"When I work with students, I check to be sure they're eating and sleeping well," he said. "It's important for them to exercise, have a balance in their social lives, to be connected with their family, to exercise and to not isolate and be more socially involved."

Though Davis and Kay said one of the toughest obstacles is getting students to admit they have a problem, Wheaton said she knew she was isolating and that she needed help. After a stay at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, and subsequent day sessions, Wheaton developed a routine that has helped her to get back on track.

"I keep active," Wheaton said. "You have to have a healthy balance of activities. You have to keep in touch with your friends and make sure you get up every day to do the things you enjoy."

Wheaton described the difference between the proactive program at Johns Hopkins and the counseling at Notre Dame as "sitting around and talking about feelings." She hopes colleges will diversify their therapies and find the resources to make psychiatrists a permanent fixture on campus. She plans to enroll back at Notre Dame in the fall.

Clara Ritger is a Spring 2013 USA TODAY Collegiate Correspondent. Learn more about her here.