Dec 01
- December, 01 2018
- Dr. Sam Ozersky, MD
The Centre for Innovation in Campus Mental Health (CICMH) recently published a paper examining systemic issues in the postsecondary mental health sector. Stress (42.2%) and anxiety (32.5%) were among the most prevalent factors affecting students’ academic performance. Furthermore, the survey noted that 14.7% of students had a formal diagnosis of depression, which was a 47% increase from 2013.
Institutions report struggling with an increase in student psychopathology, severity of issues, and counseling service usage. Many counselors believe they do not have either the resources, or in some cases, the training necessary to serve the population of students presenting with significant psychiatric distress.
Counselling services are over burdened for the following reasons:
- economic constraints on counseling centers has led to the development of limits on services (e.g., maximum allowed numbers of counseling session) or the introduction of the brief psychotherapy model.
- increased waiting time before a student can initially be seen and decreases in the number of therapy sessions
- the prevalence of co-morbidities with other mental health problems and physical problems is very high.
There is a call for innovative services and new models of mental health support at post-secondary institutions. Mensante Corporation developed FeelingBetterNow®, an innovative online mental health prevention service which augments in person traditional care.
It provides comprehensive gold standard best practice screening assessments immediately linked to personalized action plans for self care and decisions making tools for mental health professionals. FeelingBetterNow® currently offers a specialized service to meet the need of post-secondary counsels by providing comprehensive screening assessments, identifying physical and mental co-morbidities, and reducing wait times.
FeelingBetterNow® is currently available, through it’s distributor Gallivan and Associates at over 20 colleges and universities.
For further information, please contact Cory Wright,
[email protected]
Full Article Link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11469-018-0015-5