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National emergency declared in child and teen mental health – what this means for college students
Photo by MGN. In early October, a group of health professionals and psychiatric experts around the nation gathered enough data to declare a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health.
This comes nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, and for young adults specifically in higher education, their mental health is also taking a toll.
“With the environment constantly changing, it’s kind of hard to reach stability in mental health,” Nicole Hillyard, a student at University at Buffalo said about her own struggles this year.
This includes SUNY Oswego students who have been feeling the effects of keeping up with mandates as the school resumes in-person activities.
“We’re so used to just having all these online classes, and not doing as much, and now we’re doing so much more,” Seth Nesbitt, a SUNY Oswego student said in regards to coming back in person. “I feel like a lot of my peers and I are having a hard time with the readjustments.”“I just needed to take this semester off to help fix my mental health”
KEAUNDREA HANDFORDA study called Healthy Minds Network found that last fall, college students in particular reported peak levels of depression and anxiety.
The study is led by four professors at different universities, and it details the rising trend over the last several years of mental health concerns, especially depression and anxiety, among college students.
Experts with the study reported that 47% of students screened positive for “clinically significant symptoms of depression, and/or anxiety,” which is the highest percentage since the trials began in 2007.
This data comes from the Healthy Minds Network website – it shows the percentage of students who have screened positive for depression and anxiety from 2007 to 2021. Graph created by reporter Melanie Higgins. “I have terrible anxiety attacks, like constantly, so I kinda knew that if I lived alone, especially two hours away, I would have to come home every day, and I knew that wouldn’t have worked,” Keaundrea Handford, a student at SUNY Brockport said about why she took this semester off. “I just needed to take this semester off to help fix my mental health.”
The Healthy Minds Network also studied that feeling of isolation, something Handford said she dreaded about going back to school.
In the study, they found that about 66% of students indicated feeling isolated from others sometimes or often, which experts said is a key risk factor in mental health.
At Wayne Behavioral Health, a mental health center located in Wayne County, representatives said most facilities no longer have enough staff to cover the rise in mental health concerns. However, the introduction of telehealth services during the pandemic helped them bring a new resource to patients in need.
“Because of the fact that a lot of insurance companies now kind of across the board are allowing telehealth, which is either by telephone or video conference,” Suzanne Catholdi, the communications liaison for Wayne Behavioral Health said. “A lot of people who weren’t seen before now have more accessibility.”
Mental health facilities all over the country have been struggling to keep up with the rise of these mental health concerns, and many have also been utilizing telehealth services as a result.
Catholdi said younger people and college students being seen at Wayne Behavioral are taking advantage of the virtual services now offered if they aren’t already using their on-campus college therapists.
However wait times across the board for many mental health facilities are becoming problematic for those in need. For Strong Hospital in Rochester, they said over the summer that wait times for those seeking therapy reached over one year.
“Our mental health therapists, they need to be able to be available and be on top of the needs, and we need to be supportive of our medical staff as well,” Catholdi said about facilities falling behind.
“They lost that, they lost those contacts, they lost that structure, a lot of kids were at home alone…”
SUZANNE CATHOLDI
She emphasized that staff all around are “suffering,” so It’s important to keep working through the pandemic and keep schools open as a resource for those struggling.“There were a lot of kids who were struggling already, that really needed that contact in the school with the teachers and professors,” Catholdi said while talking about the effects the shutdowns had on students.
“When there’s nothing for people to do, and no support in place, and a big question mark day-to-day about what they’re doing,” Catholdi added. “It was a big disaster waiting to happen.”
She said that students and adults “lost that structure,” and it led to a huge uptick in mental health concerns. Now therapy has become a big point of discussion.
“I did start therapy, and it actually helped quite a lot,” Nesbitt said.
But Nesbitt also said that despite these concerns being more publicly talked about, some students aren’t opening up enough.
“I would recommend that help to anyone,” Nesbitt explained, “Those who may be going through something, but even if you’re just alive, it’s good to just have that outlet.”
As things continue to open up, and people adjust to a normal life after two years shut down, those mental health concerns continue to be analyzed. The Healthy Minds Study is still in the process of gathering data during this time, and more colleges are being enrolled to help diversify the results. -
Excelsior Scholarship
by Ilyssa Weiner
OSWEGO, NY — Governor Andrew Cuomo’s recent Excelsior Scholarship is the first program in the United States to offer free tuition to four year public colleges. The program, however, has its setbacks, critics say.
SUNY Oswego Financial Aid Director Mark Humbert says the hard part for students who receive the scholarship will be keeping it.
“You have to successfully complete 30 credit hours per year and most of our students don’t do that,” he said.
SUNY Oswego currently has a 48% acceptance rate. Humbert says the Excelsior Scholarship will cause the rate of all SUNY schools to decrease.
“It’s going to make SUNY more selective, which in some way goes against our mission which is affordability and access,” he said.
The initial cap for students who qualify will be an annual family income of $100,000. By 2019, the cap will rise to $125,000. Humbert says many students will still need loans despite the qualification.
”The cost of college is more than just tuition,” he said. “The same students that might be eligible for this still are going to need their loans to help pay for room and board.”
Students eligible for the program must stay in New York State for four years after they graduate. If they move out, the free tuition turns into a loan.
SUNY Oswego student Asha Bey is a broadcasting major and is concerned if she ends up with a job outside of New York.
“I know there’s plenty of job opportunities in other states other than New York,” Bey said.
While she is hopeful about the scholarship, Bey believes the kinks need to be worked out.
“I just want a group of people to just go through it so we can see what is there or what we can expect,” she said.
The Excelsior Scholarship program will take effect Fall 2017.
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International student prepare for December graduation
By Fan Shi
OSWEGO, NY– SUNY Oswego’s career services held a graduate school fair and career fair to help students prepare for their December graduation and some international students were searching for a promising future.
International student Zhixing Zhai said that he is nervous for graduation and hopes to find an opportunity that will allow him to stay in the United States.
“You can see a lot of opportunities and chances here because there are so many universities. But you are not sure which one you are going to get in eventually. And this process made me very stressful,” Zhai said.
Other international students said they are struggling to find jobs. South Korean Senior Soyoung Moon said she finds it is difficult to accomplish a perfect resume.
“The resume structure between our country and the United States is very different.” Soyoung said.
SUNY Oswego career services offers help to students trying to put together a resume. They have a resource room where someone works with students in resume writing, guiding them towards internships and doing the same with job opportunities. Some of their other services include taking professional photos for LinkedIn profiles and helping students plan their future.
SUNY Oswego director of Career Service Gary Morris said they are improving their services for international students.
“We have some staff members who are kind of specialize to the systems we can give advantage to the international students. We try to stay a breath of the changing landscape of visa. We explore different products and software online like going global that details information that literally hundreds of countries out there to help our professional staff and our students staff better understand and be sense to the culture differences in different countries,” Morris said.
For more information on SUNY Oswego’s Career Services, visit https://www.oswego.edu/career-services/.
