Welcome back to another article of Chloe’s College Corner. Today we will be talking about mental health in college. Is mental health usually good or bad within those college years? Are there mental health days? What help is there for those who are struggling? Is there even any help they can get?
Mental health problems while attending college are very common. Students are suffering from academic pressure, in which “many college students experience the first onset of mental health and substance use problems or an exacerbation of their symptoms.” According to the article, ‘College students: Mental health’, “Mental health problems are very common among college students [1]. This may be due to the fact that attending college corresponds to a challenging time for many traditional and non-traditional undergraduate students.” As you can see, student mental health is very poor when attending college. Even from personal knowledge of my own friends who are attending their first year of college, their mental health is lacking. Now the real question is, what help can these students get?
In most colleges, there are wellness workshops. Now what is a wellness workshop you may be wondering? A wellness workshop is an interactive session on campus that is focused on improving physical and emotional health. They are offered to students for free for those who need it, almost like free therapy. Along with the sessions, they offer extended due dates for assignments if needed, extra time on tests, study skills, and help with personal finance.
In order to be a part of the workshop, there is usually a form you can find on your colleges’ website if you type in ‘wellness workshop’ and fill it out! Your form will be submitted for application, and then you can attend your sessions for whatever it is you may need!
Addressing the ‘mental health days’ the short answer is college doesn’t offer mental health days. However, you may take wellness days at a few colleges. Some professors will excuse an absence for health, and students can also proactively address mental health by taking a leave of absence, contacting campus support services, or seeking accommodations through the student disability services office for documented conditions.
Some colleges near by our high school, such as OCC, UCI and Cal State Long beach offer lots of help for those who need it. On OCCs’ website, they have a list of numbers, names, emails, to contact in need of wellness help. They have a list of what issues they can help with, from academic pressure all the way to relationships and sexuality. Unlike other schools, OCC has a group therapy session every monday!! UCI also has a contact list, while also stating they have therapy for individuals, relationships, school help, etc. They also provide urgent care if needed! CSLB has their contact line, list of issues they can help out with, and unlike the other two schools, they have a team called CAST, that is there for matters that are urgent and cannot wait.
That’s all today for college mental health. I hope this addressed some questions you may have had, or didn’t even know you had! Stay tuned to see what’s next for Chloe’s college corner.
