Home About Us Media Kit Subscriptions Links Forum
APPEARED IN


View All Articles

Download PDF

FAMOUS INTERVIEWS

Directories:

SCHOLARSHIPS & GRANTS

HELP WANTED

Tutors

Workshops

Events

Sections:

Books

Camps & Sports

Careers

Children’s Corner

Collected Features

Colleges

Cover Stories

Distance Learning

Editorials

Famous Interviews

Homeschooling

Medical Update

Metro Beat

Movies & Theater

Museums

Music, Art & Dance

Special Education

Spotlight On Schools

Teachers of the Month

Technology

Archives:

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

1995-2000


MAY 2007

The Aftermath of the Virginia Tech Tragedy; Asking the Right Questions

By Harold S. Koplewicz, M.D.

Once again we are confronted with headlines telling us that violence has erupted in one of our schools. Pundits demand: how could this happen again? Could this disaster have been avoided? As the dust begins to settle one thing is clear, our current college and university mental health services are grossly inadequate.

We need to recognize and act on the fact that growing numbers of American children and teenagers are suffering from mental health problems and are not being identified and receiving treatment. The pressures of growing up in this age of unlimited and unfiltered information have emphasized competitiveness, academic, athletic and social achievement at the expense of promoting psychological well-being. Many students enter college unprepared to handle the new demands for independence and self-organization in addition to new social challenges. Many of those feeling alienated and in need of mental health support are not getting it. Those students who do seek counseling often face understaffed clinics, long waiting lists and insufficient health insurance coverage.

The statistics are alarming. In a recent survey, 94 percent of the college students reported feeling “overwhelmed” by all they had to do, nearly one-third reported feeling “so depressed it was difficult to function” and more than 5 percent reported they “seriously considered suicide.” College counseling center directors are concerned about increases in several areas: the number of entering students with already diagnosed problems, the number already on medications, and students with severe problems. This increased demand for services as well as the growing complexity of psychological problems has not been accompanied by a corresponding increase in resources. The ratio of college mental health professionals to students has fallen in the last decade, and over 24 percent of students who seek services are seen for only one session.

Colleges and universities need to respond to this mental health epidemic they way they respond to a physical health epidemic, much as our government is now proposing to do. In both the state and federal legislatures, parity bills under consideration will require health insurers to provide equal benefits for both physical and mental illnesses. Think about how schools respond to meningitis outbreaks; administrators take concrete action to get their students tested and treated. In contrast, when a student attempts suicide the first inclination of the administration is to hide it or cover it up. And if someone actually kills himself, the traditional response has often been one of excessive hand-wringing (“Oh, if only we had known . . . .”) accompanied by proclamations, mass e-mails and posters about the available counselors (“Feeling depressed?  Stop by the health center!”).  Only rarely is concrete action taken—such as actually reaching out to students individually or in groups or implementing screening to identify vulnerable students who might need help—instead of putting the responsibility of asking for help on the student. 

However, let’s not shoot the messengers; college counseling centers are asking for help.  They are overwhelmed and overburdened and most importantly under-funded.  It is time for the administration, development offices, and alumni to take action and provide the necessary resources.  Instead of building that shiny new sports complex, it is time to invest in the mental health services of our schools. For example: why not endow positions for psychiatrists?  According to the National Survey of Counseling Center Directors, in 2006 less than 1% of the Directors of surveyed centers were M.D.s. The mental health of our college students is worth the investment.

Lastly, an event like the tragedy at Virginia Tech forces us to ask the right questions.  But the reality is we need to take action not only because it will prevent a small number from becoming that killer, but because of the thousands of kids who, while not turning to external violence, are suffering, often in silence, from mental illness. Despite what we see on the news, the real danger in life isn’t the very, very rare school shooter, but the everyday occurrences on campuses everywhere for which kids are not getting treatment.#

Sources: American College Health Association, Spring 2006

National Survey of Counseling Center Directors, 2006

Dr. Koplewicz is Founder and Director of the NYU Child Study Center and the Arnold and Debbie Simon Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLE

Name:

Email:
Show email
City:
State:

 


 

 

 

Education Update, Inc.
All material is copyrighted and may not be printed without express consent of the publisher. © 2009.