University campus struggles to meet growing demand for mental health services

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is seeing more demand for mental health services but is struggling to meet that demand.

More of the university’s students are on psychiatric medication and more students are diagnosed with severe issues such as depression and anxiety than in years past.

Stressed: Mental health on campus – video stories

More students are coming to college with severe mental health disorders like bipolar, ADHD, depression and schizophrenia.

A 2010 national survey shows the number of students seeking counseling for severe psychological problems has more than doubled in the last 10 years. In the worse case scenario, such trends in mental health may cause students to become violent to themselves or others, if there is no early intervention and psychological services are not sought.

Student finds support in campus counseling center

Ball State University senior Krystel Brattain has been dealing with depression and bipolar disorder since she was in sixth grade. Eight years after her initial diagnosis, during her sophomore year of college, Brattain said she noticed her depression worsening. “I felt very tired, very sad,” she said. “I would cry randomly without any real triggers. I felt very alone.”

Those feelings led her to seek help at the Ball State Counseling Center.

Lack of staff force counseling center to make difficult cuts

In 2009, Vincennes University’s counseling center was awarded a $5,000 grant from the Indiana Campus Sexual Assault Prevention Project to serve as a model for sexual violence prevention in the state.

But a year later the center declined to participate in the project because it didn’t want its small staff to reduce the number of clinical hours spent with students needing mental health counseling. The center also discontinued a grant-funded program to reduce underage drinking.

Lack of mental health care providers, information overshadow growing student need

With mental health needs rising on college campuses across America, some of Indiana’s public universities are struggling to deal with student demands for counseling services, a three-month review of the state’s institutions of higher learning has found.

Lack of evacuation plans leaves students, staff unprepared

If a shooter were to walk into a classroom on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus, the University is ready with a campus-wide Emergency Operations Plan , but no campus mandate requires each individual campus building to have an all-hazards evacuation plan.