Larry Kohn, director of development at the Boston University Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, said although many programs for mental health are available through Student Health Services, it is difficult to help people seek the treatment they need, especially students.
“The goal to have the culture on campus seeking help for emotional struggle should be as easy as seeking help for a common cold, but it’s not,” he said. “People feel lonely, despair and pain. You walk by them everyday.”
In response to the death of Amanda Todd, a 15-year-old Canadian girl who was bullied to the point of suicide, universities such as York University in Toronto are reexamining their mental health programs.
BU students and professionals said it is more important than ever to be aware of mental health issues and utilize the resources available to help.
College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Rosie Bauder said although there are resources on campus for people who struggle with mental health or behavioral issues, students might not be fully aware of them.
“[As] college students as a whole, we’re definitely more aware than we were in high school,” she said. “There are so many resources on [mental health] education, but there might be a lack of education on how to use those resources.”
Bauder, who helped organize a suicide-awareness walk with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in April, said it is important to be compassionate when dealing with the issue of suicide, and that it is preventable.
“We kind of read these stories and they don’t really affect us like they should — we’ve kind of been desensitized to it,” she said. “They don’t think that they’re worthy of help, and it’s important that people are aware of this.”
Active Minds at BU mailed blank notecards to 8,000 students and told them to anonymously submit their secrets to BU Secret, modeled after Frank Warren’s PostSecret.
The organization received about 1,000 cards from BU students who admitted to eating disorders, suicidal thoughts, depression, self-harm, loneliness and other issues, Kohn said.
“It was a great thing that we did in the third year of Active Minds at BU,” said Ashley Waters, Active Minds president. “You need to be aware. Active Minds is there for if you feel stressed, you can come in and just talk to someone about it.”
Waters, a School of Management junior, said people who are familiar with the struggle against depression, loneliness and suicide need to know that someone will listen to them and the feelings they are experiencing.
Waters said in Todd’s case, her passing could have been prevented if someone had encouraged her to seek help for her emotional issues.
“If one person said something, like, ‘It’s going to be okay,’ or if someone just stepped up and said, ‘Let’s go to lunch together’ — if she just knew someone was there,” Waters said.
The Student Support Network trains students to recognize warning signs for suicide and distress in their peers and teaches them how to encourage these students to get help.
“The students were there to try and get them [distressed students] to get help,” Kohn said. “They didn’t give advice, they just listened. You want to be part of a community that notices someone who’s going through a hard time and help them.”
Kohn said the top indicators students in the SSN are trained to look for include a decline in grades, emotional deregulation, over-eating or sleeping and vice versa, alcohol or drug consumption, risky sexual behavior and isolation.
“Your life is like plates spinning on sticks in a balancing act, where each plate is a part of your life,” he said. “You try to keep them all spinning, but sometimes when a plate begins to wobble, there’s a ripple effect, and the other plates start to wobble too.”
The SSN, Active Minds and SHS mental health programs and professionals are available at BU for students who want to talk to a professional or get help for mental and emotional concerns.
“If you’re allowed to get the help that you need, then by all means, it should be there,” Bauder said, “but there’s so much we’re unaware of that might prevent getting that help.”
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