Mental Illness in the College-Aged Population
Identifying and Addressing Obstacles Impeding Access to Psychiatric Care

It was an early morning during the beginning of December 2008, a few days before the the start of finals. My television was on, but I wasn’t watching it, as I was too busy getting ready to leave my apartment in order to arrive at class on time. As I grabbed my schoolbag and went to shut off the television, I overheard the beginning of a news story regarding mental illness in the college student population. However, in need of a pit stop at Starbucks before class and at least 5 minutes to warm up my car, I shut off the television, ran out of the apartment, and headed off to start my day.

Fast forward a few weeks, after finals were over and I had arrived home for break. News channels and web sites had become overly saturated with reports from that same study I had heard about that one December morning, conducted by researchers at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Headlines read:

• “1 in 5 young Americans has personality disorder.”
• “Fewer than 25 percent of college-aged sufferers get treatment”
• “College students under-treated for psychiatric conditions”
• “Why do college students shun help?”
• “Young adults hit by mental health issues.”

As a psychology major with an interest in psychiatry, and quite surprised by the statistics the media kept harboring over, I decided to download the article published in the Archives of General Psychiatry titled, “Mental Health of College Students and Their Non–College-Attending Peers” written by Blanco and colleagues, in an effort to understand why this publication was receiving so much attention and press…

Article Abstract: LINK

Considering the academically challenging, high stress environment and unique circumstances college-aged individuals often encounter, I was quite alarmed by the results of the study which found that approximately 50% of college students interviewed met the criteria for a mental illness diagnosis in the past year prior to their interview. And, to make matters worse, fewer than 25% percent of the college-aged students participating in this National Institutes of Health-sponsored study sought treatment for mental illness and/or substance-use disorders while enrolled at their college institution. 

Failure to obtain appropriate medical care, psychological counseling, and/or therapeutic treatment when suffering from a psychological condition can leave a student at great risk for lost productivity, changes in academic performance, relapses, increased severity of chronic conditions, and adverse health outcomes, including suicide and/or death.  And while many articles, including this one, advised that urgent action was needed to increase detection and treatment of psychiatric disorders in the college population, it was highly evident that innovative, effective methods to implement to improve access to psychiatric treatment and care, increase education regarding mental illness, and reduce the stigma of mental illness and treatment were and still are direly needed. 

At the same time this article was published, I found an announcement online from the national Active Minds organization regarding the Thomas Scattergood Emerging Scholars Fellowship, and believed it would provide the perfect platform to investigate, create, and implement new methods to improve mental health care delivery to college students on campus.

Hence, after sending in a proposal and hoping for the best, I was awarded a Fellowship during the first week of the Spring 2009 semester and have focused my efforts on the creation of a mental health-related site and Blog geared toward the college student population, in hopes of reduing the figures that Blanco and colleagues found in their recent research study, educate the campus community, and potentially create an effective model highlighting innovative outreach methods that hopefully can be utilized across campuses nationwide.

And with all that in mind, (no pun intended), came the birth of Inquiring Minds.