• National Center for Mental Health Promotion & Youth Violence Prevention

• Campus Mental Health

• State-Level Suicide Prevention
  • Preparing First Responders

Responding to an Urgent Need: Mental Health on College Campuses

Today’s college campuses have an unprecedented opportunity to create a healthy environment to assist and respond to students who have mental health issues and refer them to appropriate services. Colleges and universities can create an environment that supports healthy adjustment to college life, assist students when they encounter emotional and social difficulties, and respond to both the needs of students who bring with them a history of emotional or psychological issues and those who develop a mental health problem while enrolled.

SAMHSA’s (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) at HHD, working closely with HHD’s Center for College Health and Safety and drawing on its partnership with The Jed Foundation, has developed a comprehensive framework guiding campuses in their response to these challenges. Titled Promoting Mental Health and Preventing Suicide in College and University Settings (PDF), the framework provides college administrators and personnel with a blueprint of seven areas of strategic intervention.

The framework is based on three fundamental assumptions: (1) Mental health problems affect and involve the entire campus and community, (2) addressing them requires both prevention and treatment, and (3) success comes only with comprehensive solutions. Going beyond mental health promotion to include both intervention and care, the framework provides campuses with the information, strategies, and resources to create environments that support students in remaining healthy and are responsive to others in need of assistance.

“Mental health must be addressed in all facets of campus life and across the entire campus environment, engaging broad participation from partners,” explains Laurie Davidson, who coordinates SPRC’s efforts to assist campuses with suicide prevention and mental health promotion. “Our framework is grounded in the notion that you don’t just attend to students in crisis, but also lay the groundwork to promote mentally healthy college campuses for everyone and identify students in need earlier, before a situation might turn into a crisis.”

The framework encourages campuses to think about how they can help identify students at risk by implementing screening and identification strategies. This may include training students and other “gatekeepers,” including faculty, advisors, residence life staff, and campus security, on how to identify students who may be in distress and then offer them assistance.

Campuses are also directed to encourage students to seek help and to reduce the stigma around doing so. These strategies include educating students about mental health and wellness and encouraging them to use mental health or other supports. Reducing stigma is emphasized as a critical component of facilitating students to seek help.

To ensure that students have access to appropriate treatment options, the framework emphasizes that campus administrators can work to provide sufficient mental health services to diagnose and connect students to appropriate treatment services and resources, such as on-campus or off-campus counseling and other mental health supports.

In addition to policies and interventions, campuses may also need to consider physical environmental changes to promote student mental health. The framework directs campuses to establish and follow crisis management procedures and to restrict students’ access to potentially lethal means. For example, campus officials should consider devising and implementing policies and strategies directed toward students experiencing extreme levels of distress. The framework also urges campuses to make every possible attempt to limit student access to sites where students could harm themselves or others, including balconies and rooftops, and to agents of committing such harm, namely, weapons.

The framework provides examples of how campuses can encourage life skills development and promote social networks among students. For example, deans of students, faculty, and residence life staff can assist students in developing stronger social networks by fostering smaller living and learning communities within the larger campus community. This can reduce student isolation and promote a feeling of belonging, a critical factor in nurturing positive mental health.

Across these areas of activity, the framework identifies critical personnel to carry out the activities (e.g., the Vice President for Student Affairs, faculty members, residence life staff) and the target of the activities (e.g., students, the entire campus, mental health service personnel). Campuses are encouraged to adapt the framework to their individual environments, focusing on spheres of activity that best address their problems and opportunities for progress.

Campuses also are receptive to assistance with planning and strategic positioning of their mental health efforts and establishing better linkages and collaboration across different areas of the campus. Davidson has been surprised at how much fragmentation exists among administrative offices. On one campus, she reports, “a student could receive counseling services at five different places, yet there isn’t a routine system in place to ensure coordination between those venues. A major challenge that SPRC is addressing with campuses through its training and technical assistance is the need for better planning and coordination, especially with the constraints of limited resources. ”