The mother had found a therapist for her daughter, but it didn’t work out. “I think she met the therapist once, and it’s like, ‘Well, that didn’t really click, but I’m fine. I’m fine,” her mother said. (She and the other parents spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues.)
Except she wasn’t well. Soon his mother was answering calls in the middle of the night. “It’s really, really hard to be…2,000 miles away…and have your daughter call at midnight — sobbing and crying and having a panic attack,” she said. She would sometimes stay on the line until her daughter was calm enough to fall asleep.
At some point, the mother called the school to ask someone to take care of her daughter. The school suggested her daughter to go to the hospital. Instead, she and her husband took their freshman home for a visit. Their daughter passed the semester, but the family decided she would not return in the spring.
Mental health problems in children and adults have been increasing for years. Pre-pandemic data from the Center for Collegiate Mental Health showed that the number of students seeking mental health services nationwide increased by more than five times the enrollment rate. Outcome: Counseling centers shifted to “short-term crisis support and increased clinician caseloads, both of which are associated with reduced treatment and less effective care”, noted the center in its 2021 report.
“Most counseling centers say they see more students coming through each year, and that’s why they’re changing some of their service models, because we can’t do one-on-one therapy every week anymore,” Becca said. Smith, board director in Berry. College in Georgia and President of the American College Counseling Association. Smith added that many counseling centers have stepped care in place, a triage system that could decide when a student can go to group therapy or a support group instead of individual therapy.
In addition to mental health issues, students have to deal with the “newfound freedom” of college, a mother has said. “There is a lack of structure beyond a class schedule. There are some really weird sleep cycles, which definitely affect your mental health. Or alcohol.
On top of that, many current students have spent much of their high school education remotely, which has made the transition more academically and socially difficult.
These factors combined have left families to chart their own course, with often painful results.
“Given the current situation – the growing number of students with mental health issues which may have been exacerbated by the pandemic, as well as the inability of college counseling centers to keep up with demand – it is important that parents and students are taking steps to manage the transition to college,” Smith said.
Brett Scofield, psychologist and chief executive of CCMH, suggests parents and students research what kind of mental health services a school offers and what the limits are – for example, how many counseling sessions a school will offer .
School size can make a difference in the level of care, Schofield added. According to CCMH data, the number of standardized cases for counselors increases with enrollment.
Ask about average wait times for therapy. A mum says her daughter signed up in August, didn’t have an intake appointment until the end of October and only received one therapy appointment before the summer vacation. winter. In the meantime, the student’s home therapist had gone on maternity leave. “So she didn’t have anyone for a while,” his mother said.
“If you already know that your student has a mental or physical health issue and will need ongoing care, it is important to have this in place before the student arrives on campus,” said said Nance Roy, clinical director of the Jed Foundation (JED), a nonprofit organization that works with high schools and colleges to strengthen their mental health services.
Finding out that a school doesn’t provide adequate services for your child “doesn’t mean the institution wouldn’t be a good choice,” Scofield said. You may be able to arrange for your child to continue seeing their teletherapy therapist, if state laws permit, or find an off-campus therapist.
Many schools offer counseling services such as Thriving Campus or Welltrack Connect. Another option is the Psychology Today database.
Understanding Your Student’s Privacy Rights
Federal Educational Family Rights and Privacy Act generally protects the confidentiality of a student’s treatment records unless that student poses a threat to themselves or others. “If a student sees a therapist on campus, that information cannot be shared with parents unless the student specifically gives permission or in an emergency,” said Roy, who is also an assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine.
For this reason, parents should have a conversation with their student before going to college to find out if the student is willing to sign a waiver of confidential information, Roy said, adding that parents should know who l student listed as emergency contact. .
Although a school cannot give a parent inside information, a parent can contact a school at any time to share information with a therapist or ask the Counseling Center or Dean of Students to monitor a student.
Check in with your child – appropriately
Don’t focus your conversations on grades or whether your student is taking care of themselves. “It’s probably not helpful to call your child every day or text and email them and say, ‘Are you okay?’ “, said Roy. “You can glean a lot of information about how someone is just doing in regular conversation.” If you think they are at risk or in danger, ask directly if they are having suicidal thoughts and let the campus know if so.
A sophomore who struggled during his freshman year with undiagnosed attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder echoed that advice. “If my dad…was nagging me…I wouldn’t be as willing to open up and say, ‘Yeah, well, actually, I didn’t do too well on that test because it was happening,'” he said.
Smith said students are often reluctant to let their parents know when they’re having trouble. “They’re really scared that the parents will be upset or stressed out,” she said. “And often we find the opposite.”
After their daughter dropped out of school, the West Coast parents sent her to an intensive therapy program. She was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder and started taking new medications. The treatment allowed her to return to the same school this fall, where she sees an off-campus therapist and does a better job of taking care of herself. “She definitely struggles at times, but she loves it too,” her mother said.
When she recently asked her daughter what made the biggest difference in getting through that tough first semester, her daughter said it was “knowing that no matter what, she had our unconditional love and support. So if things went wrong she had to go home, she had to change schools, she was failing school, she knew she could tell us and we would be fine.
As the second student with ADHD said, “It’s always good to just have a ringing in your head, ‘I’m going to do it, but at least I know I have people behind me, if anyone something is wrong for some reason.’ ”
