Winter 2009
Task force urges strengthening mental health support system
A Stanford task force charged with assessing the mental health needs of students has recommended strengthening the support system for students who may lack the emotional maturity or psychological resilience needed to cope with the intense stresses of college life.
“Extraordinarily gifted students of promise come to Stanford to be challenged and to be stretched intellectually,” the Student Mental Health and Well-Being Task Force said in a 90-page report released in Autumn Quarter.
“But they come to this environment as complex human beings, not just as students, with new and perhaps unique challenges for which higher education in general has limited experience. They are highly motivated people propelled by—and, at the same time, saddled with—extraordinary internal and external expectations for success.”
Provost John Etchemendy convened the task force in 2006 because of concern about the growing complexity of student mental health problems on campus and at colleges and universities across the country.
“Increasingly, we are seeing students struggling with mental health concerns ranging from self-esteem issues and developmental disorders to depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self-mutilation behaviors, schizophrenia and suicidal behavior,” Etchemendy said.
The task force and its committees—comprising 48 faculty members, students and staff—recommended creating programs to help reduce student stress; improving advising, mentoring and academic support; better promoting the services already available on campus; and making it easier for students to get help.
Vice Provost for Student Affairs Greg Boardman, chair of the task force, said the panel’s 18 recommendations are a blueprint for Stanford, which will establish an oversight committee to monitor progress in carrying out the proposals. The university already has taken several steps.
Vaden Health Center has achieved the benchmark therapist-to-student ratio recommended by the International Association of Counseling Services Inc., the primary accrediting agency for university and college counseling centers in non-medical settings. The university also has expanded efforts in early intervention and risk reduction by training faculty, students and staff in suicide prevention.
To understand the sources of student stress, the task force reviewed scientific studies, conducted a web-based survey of 700 Stanford students and organized focus groups. The panel also reviewed university policies and practices related to counseling services, crisis response, emergency contacts, leaves of absence, and education and training.
The group identified key programs, services and staff as “significant areas of strength,” including new student orientation programs, referral services for students seeking long-term psychotherapy off campus, and the professional and student staff working in dorms.
The report said there is evidence that today's students, at Stanford and elsewhere, suffer from more emotional problems and mental illnesses than earlier generations.
The report cited a 2006 study of 95,000 students at colleges and universities across the country, including Stanford, by the American College Health Association. It revealed that:
- 44 percent felt so depressed that it was difficult to function;
- 28 percent reported that stress negatively affected their academic performance;
- 15 percent reported having received a diagnosis of depression in their lifetime;
- 12 percent reported having an anxiety disorder; and
- 9 percent reported having seriously considered suicide in the past year.
The report also cited a telephone survey of 2,200 Stanford students conducted in 2007 and 2008 by Dr. Maurice Ohayon, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford, who found that:
- 33 percent experienced high levels of stress;
- 23 percent had experienced a depressed mood, often transiently, in the previous month;
- 12 percent had thought of suicide in their lifetime, usually transiently;
- 3 percent met the diagnostic criteria for clinical depression in the previous month; and
- 2 percent had thought of a suicide plan, and less than 1 percent had attempted suicide.
The panel discovered that emotional distress was not limited to students who were struggling academically. Students with stellar academic records also were susceptible.
“We have students, who, no matter what else is going on in their lives, know how to get those grades and know how to do very well academically, and so it masks that they may be struggling emotionally,” said Rabbi Patricia Karlin-Neumann, senior associate dean for religious life and a member of the task force. “They may have no friends. They may not have a sense of belonging. They may feel that no one in the community cares about them. It’s important for us to take away the blinders that keep us from seeing their distress.”
