Minding mental health

Mental_Health_Awareness_2016

Mental health has long been a taboo topic, but with the help of education and awareness efforts the stigma is beginning to fade.

More and more college students are seeking out their campus counseling centers, as Brian Locke, executive director of the Center for Collegiate Mental Health, wrote in this week’s Focus on Research column.

The CCMH releases a report every year that summarizes data about students seeking mental health care at their school’s counseling center. This year’s report includes information from 137 counseling centers; 100,736 unique students seeking mental health treatments; 2,770 clinicians; and over 770,000 appointments.

The graphic above illustrates the main concern of each student seeking help, from a subset of the data (37,856). The researchers found that anxiety and depression were the most common reasons for students to seek help, at 20% and 15.8% respectively. Academic performance came in at 3.9% and having been the victim of abuse (sexual, emotional, or physical) was the primary reason for receiving counseling for 2.4% of the students.

Ben Locke is also associate director of clinical services with Penn State’s Counseling and Psychological Services.

Members of the news media interested in talking to Locke should contact Tori Indivero at 814-865-6071 or vmi1@psu.edu

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