73.2°'0 ported feeling very sad
reported feeling SO depressed they couldn't function
57.6% reported feeling hopeless
43,9 reported feeling SO depressed they couldn't function
57.6% reported feeling hopeless
11,9~o ad seriously contemplated suicide
1.50/0 made a suicide attempt
*Data collected from Spring 2015 UC Davis Undergraduates ACHA-NCHA II survey
*Data collected from Spring 2015 UC Davis Undergraduates ACHA-NCHA II survey.
2
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT 1111 Franklin Street September 5, 2006 Oakland, California 94607-5200
PROVOST and EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT HUME
Re: Report of the University of California Student Mental Health Committee
On behalf of the Student Mental Health Committee it is our pleasure to provide the final report of our group. The Committee was appointed in December 2005, and was given a charge to assess 1) trends in student mental health, 2) how these trends are being managed nationally and at the University of California, 3) the appropriate level of services on the campuses to address student mental health needs, and 4) whether the campuses currently have the resources to provide those appropriate services. Finally, the Committee was asked to propose recommendations for identifying resources to support any increased needs in this area.
The attached report reflects a summary of our research, findings, and recommendations. The report is organized in the following sections:
• A Background to the current concerns regarding student mental health and the formation of the Student Mental Health Committee and the Committee’s charge. • Our Findings regarding the current trends in student mental health and how these trends are being managed nationally and at the University of California. • Our Recommendations on how to implement new initiatives or reinforce and fortify current programs and services to address the student mental health needs at the University. • The recommendations are framed in a three-tiered model of services and programs which puts into context the challenges and necessary interventions to address student mental health issues at all levels and which, when in place, will result in Healthier Campus Learning Communities. • Appendices which include supporting data, reports, and related documents.
We have been honored to work with such dedicated and experienced Committee members and invited guests. All who participated in and contributed to the Committee’s work demonstrated insight, concern, and dedication to students and their mental health needs as well as an understanding of the complexities and pervasive nature of this issue on our campuses.
Sincerely,
Joel E. Dimsdale, MD, Co-Chair Michael D. Young, PhD, Co-Chair UC Student Mental Health Committee and UC Student Mental Health Committee and Professor of Psychiatry, UC San Diego Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, UC Santa Barbara
Very important, please read. “Campus Mental Health
Crisis: Creating Healthier Learning Environments”
Dear colleagues,
Now that we are taking a little pause out of our
everyday routine, I felt that I must share with you of what I have come to know
about mental health during the last year. It is a topic very close to my heart
because of the widespread and deep silently suffering of many of our
undergraduate and graduate students. We are in the middle of a national
campus mental health crisis for many years. UC and therefore UCDavis is
affected by this crisis and therefore, realizing or not, each one of us as
teachers and research advisors are affected to a large degree. We find it hard
to raise awareness on this issue, because of existing stigma, but we must try
to do so because the benefit is without measure to the whole campus community.
The greater the number of us become aware of the current situation the greater
positive impact will result for improving campus mental health.
In an effort to bring awareness of the situation, I
like to let you know that there is an excellent guide for UC faculty and staff
on “Promoting Student Mental Health”. This guide can be found at: http://www.ucop.edu/student-mental-health-resources/training-and-programs/faculty-and-staff-outreach/PSMH-Handbook.html
This guide is also available as a hard copy in the
form of a very attractive and easy to read book. This guide is extremely
helpful. Some of the topics discussed are how to recognize students in distress
and to know when and how to take action, and what faculty and staff can do to
reduce stress.
There is an office here on campus that you can obtain
these books from. This quarter I plan to give this guide to each one of
my teaching assistants. I wished I knew about this guide earlier. If you
are interested to also provide the guide to your teaching assistants, please
let me know.
In page 149 of this guide it is stated: “Consider
adding the following statement to your course syllabus”. Thus following
this wonderful suggestion, starting from this quarter, I will always place on
the first page of my syllabi the following section. Please feel free to
use it. I have made sure the link works because that in the manual does not.
Mental
Health & Wellness
As a student you may experience a range of
issues that can cause barriers to learning, such as strained relationships,
increased anxiety, alcohol/drug problems, depression, difficulty concentrating
and/or lack of motivation. These mental health concerns or stressful events may
lead to diminished academic performance or reduce a student's ability to
participate in daily activities. UC offers services to assist you with
addressing these and other concerns you may be experiencing. If you or someone
you know are suffering from any of the aforementioned conditions, consider
utilizing the confidential mental health services available on campus. I
encourage you to reach out to the Counseling Center for support (see below). An
on campus counselor or after-hours clinician is available 24/7 (see below).
Student Health Counseling Services (SHCS)
24 HOUR/ AFTER HOURS SHCS After Hours
Counseling (530)752-2349
I
have attached to this email message a page showing the situation in numbers,
Mental Health and College: A 2015 survey of 1,132
randomly selected UC Davis undergraduates. Also I have attached
the 2006 Final Report of the STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH COMMITTEE to the Office of
the UC President.
In
the 2006 report, Appendix D, there is a table showing the number of known
student suicides (as determined by the coroner) that occurred while student was
enrolled at UC. Among all ten campuses of UC, in 5 academic years’ period,
UCDAVIS campus shows the highest number of suicides. Taking into
account that we are 10 years later, and also the unprecedented rate of increase
of mental issues we truly are in a crisis now.
How many of us know that just this last year UCDAVIS
statistics showed that the number of high risk students has increased by
80%. To be able to meet the educational goals of our students, we
must tend to their emotional needs.
As teachers to undergraduate students and research
advisors to graduate students, how we can make a difference in lowering student
anxiety and panic attacks? What changes can we make in curriculum? What is the
appropriate/reasonable amount of material and speed we should apply? How
many problems should we have in our exams for the time we allow? How much
should we use technology for our teaching? These questions and more we could
try to found answers in order to create healthier learning environments.
As chemistry department we are dealing with more than 3000 students during that
day of the final, that is 10% of campus population.
It seems that for years and up to this point there is
a lot of discussion and communication between the administrations and CAPS. In
other words, between the UC Council of Vice Chancellors for Student Affairs and
Counseling and Psychological Services. But the presence of faculty
members in these discussions, who are the ones in daily contact with
undergraduate and graduate students is practically nonexistent.
Psychologists of Student Health Counseling Services in
the UC system agree that there is a high risk for a future tragedy to occur in
our campuses especially in those campuses that have attracted worldwide
attention in recent years for different reasons. We need to look into this
issue seriously and make any possible changes, in many fronts, from curriculum
(amount/speed) to length of exams in order to reduce student anxiety.
More students with more chronic severe mental illnesses are arriving on
campus. Student mental health needs are increasing at unprecedented
rates.
After tragic suicides at Harvard and MIT, school
administrators formed committees to review their mental health services and
make recommendations about how to improve them.
· “The University of Maryland offers for-credit courses
to freshmen aimed at helping them deal with stress and time management.” “Such
courses are now offered by about two-thirds of the nation’s schools”. We are
very behind.
· “The University of Rochester omits first-year grades
from transcripts! It also assigns volunteer faculty members to groups of twenty
to forty students to demystify the faculty.”
· “The University of South Carolina, the University of
Nevada-Reno and Texas A&M offer in-depth seminars on the transition to
college.
· MIT is putting together support teams of physicians,
other health care professionals, and experienced counselors to spend time in
the dorms socializing with the students.
Note: This
was done after a $27 million lawsuit alleged that MIT was negligent in its
failure to provide adequate care for their daughter, Elizabeth, who killed
herself after more than a year of treatment by campus counselors. On
April 3, 2006, MIT announced that the case with the family of Elizabeth Shin
had been settled before trial for an undisclosed amount.
· Johns Hopkins has created a “suicide tracking” list.
Every student who visits the counseling center answers a battery of questions
designed to identify those who should be placed on the center’s list.
If you have any thoughts about the above, please share
them with me. Please forward this to other instructors.
If you are interested to help promote student mental
health on campus, please let me know. We already have a group for that
and we meet periodically. It is a matter of short time, that because of
pressing needs on mental issues, each department on each campus will have its
own “STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH FACULTY COMMITTEE”. And as we are required to
take training on Cyber Security and Sexual Assault so we will be, and must be,
required to have training on Mental Health.
The unprecedented number of deaths of undergraduate
and graduate students with no disclosure of the reason of their deaths in
different departments in every university nationwide is demanding for an open
discussion on mental health. There is no blaming here of what is
happening. But certainly there is going to be in the future if we do not
demonstrate courage to openly discuss the possibilities we have for creating Healthier
Learning Environments.
Yours
Andreas
Ps.
Some of the information on mental health above has been quoted from the book:
COLLEGE
OF THE OVERWHELMED: THE CAMPUS MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT.
By
RICHARD KADISON (Chief of the Mental Health Service Harvard University Health
Services), M.D. and THERESA FOY DICERONMO.
See two attachments:
1.
Mental Health and College: A 2015 survey of 1,132 randomly selected UC Davis
undergraduates.
2.
2006 Final Report of the STUDENT MENTAL
HEALTH COMMITTEE to the Office of the UC President.
--
Andreas
May All Beings be Happy and in Peace
~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~**~*~
Andreas Toupadakis, Ph.D.
Department of Chemistry
One Shields Ave
University of California
Davis, CA 95616
Office: Science Lab Building, Room 1033A
Work: 530-754-5126
Cell: 530-848-9216
atoupadakis@ucdavis.edu
http://chemistry.ucdavis.edu/faculty/department_faculty/andreas_toupadakis.html
http://www.thelifecurve.com
