By Donna Volpitta, Ed.D.
Although the mental health crisis started long before the pandemic, COVID-19 kicked it into overdrive, particularly for adolescents. Consider adolescence a butterfly's period, like a chrysalis enveloped in a protective layer as it develops its wings. Did you know that if a benevolent passerby helps the butterfly break out, it will not survive? The process of "breaking free" allows the butterfly to develop the strength needed to fly. In this analogy, higher education has been that benevolent passerby.
Here are three things we are doing that contribute to the problem, followed by ways to get back on track and help our students survive and thrive.
"More than one in three currently enrolled students have considered stopping out of their degree or credential program within the last six months."
1. Let's Get Proactive
What if Smokey Bear taught us only how to put out forest fires, but not how to prevent them? When it comes to mental health, that is the tactic we take. We focus on services, attempting to provide more and more opportunities for students to talk to therapists. Services are essential, but they are only one part of the solutionÐand a reactive one. If we move upstream, we can prioritize prevention and early intervention.
"64% say emotional stress or mental health concerns are significant reasons. This is more than twice the percentage who say the cost of their program is what may cause them to stop out."
According to the American Medical Association, "(Health) Literacy is the single best predictor of health status, correlating more closely with health status than age, income, employment status, education, or race and ethnicity." Most of us are familiar with aspects of health literacy, but mental health literacy (MHL) has often been missing. We need to develop mental health literacy (and we mean EVERYONE). Most educators do not even know what MHL is, so we need to start by providing foundational knowledge about what it is, why it is important, and how to bring it to a community.
"Did you know more than 50% of today’s current college students meet the criteria for a mental health concern per a Healthy Minds 2022-23 study?"
2. Let's Level the Playing Field on Neuroscience
"The real problem of humanity is the following: We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology. And it is terrifically dangerous, and it is now approaching a point of crisis overall."
― Edward O. Wilson
That's a pretty terrifying quotation, isn't it? Our brain is our most powerful tool. Despite this, we learn very little about the brain. However, social media and media companies have been educating themselves. Their business depends on our engagement, regardless of the potential risk to their users.
When we develop knowledge about the brain, how it evolved, and how it responds to challenges, we can make more mindful, intentional choices that allow us to work with the brain -and not against it.
3. Let's Scaffold Opportunities to Build Resilience
We build resilience by facing challenges. During adolescence, people must face challenges, experience calculated risks, and build independence. When we do those things, our brains release neurochemicals critical for healthy brain development. When we shelter students from challenges, we keep them from getting those neurochemical releases.
As a result, students are struggling because they have not had opportunities to build resilience. There are several reasons for this.
First, the introduction of technology has posed a dilemma for parents, who have been bombarded with companies offering products to monitor their children's every move. Understanding the risks can undermine opportunities to develop trusting family relationships and build independence.
Second, COVID-19 limited the ability of adolescents to engage in experiences needed to build foundational skills.
Third, we have begun to pathologize normal human behavior.
Fourth, because of that, many actions that we have taken to help have made things worse.
Without an understanding of brain-based mental health literacy, people can conflate facing challenges with mental health disorders. For example, a student may be viewed as having anxiety when they are just experiencing the stress of an upcoming test.
Students, faculty, and families would benefit tremendously from education about how to build resilience and foster mental health. Learning about the brain and mental health literacy is a great place to start.
For more information about mental health literacy, why it is important, and how to bring it to your community, visit themhlc.org.
1healthymindsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/HMS_National-Report-2022-2023_full.pdf
2news.gallup.com/poll/647573/student-wellbeing-mental-health-concerns-threaten-enrollment.aspx