|
By Layla Khoshnoudi
January 18, 2008
MentalHealthEdu™, an online program designed to aid faculty and staff in identifying and dealing with distressed students, soon will be implemented at Texas Tech.
As the number of college students with mental health issues increases, more and more psychologists are looking to new methods of assisting distressed students.
Outside the Classroom, the company that created AlcoholEdu®, an online alcohol prevention and intervention program, has worked with mental health care professionals across the nation to create MentalHealthEdu.
Eileen Nathan, the director of MentalHealthEdu at Tech and the director of the Tech Student Counseling Center , said she has collaborated with various staff members at the counseling center and Student Health Services to customize the program for Tech.
Nathan said she believes it is important to inform faculty and staff about ways to recognize distress signals, especially at a time when mental health issues are so prevalent among students.
According to the Association of University and College Counseling, 63 percent of universities report an increase in psychological distress among students.
Nathan said she believes the increase in mental health issues among students is a result of added stress factors that young adults face today, such as increased workloads and more competitive job markets.
"College life gets more and more complicated, and as a result, the kinds of concerns that students bring to counseling are multi-layered, and that kind of complexity has been increasing quite a bit over the last 10 years," she said.
Many students with mental health issues are pointed toward sophisticated prescription medications, Nathan said. However, medication is not always enough.
"There's a lot of research that shows that, often times, the most effective therapy is a combination of medicine and psychotherapy," she said. "Medication by itself usually is not the answer. The combination of medicine to level out someone's emotions and the intervention of therapy is what really makes a difference."
The counseling center has a staff of 13 licensed, doctoral-level psychologists who provide individual and group therapy to students, the cost of which is covered in tuition and fees.
Evelyn McPherson, the managing director of Student Health Services, also has collaborated on customizing MentalHealthEdu. She said she believes one of the main advantages of the program is that it will inform faculty and staff of the counseling resources available at Tech.
"I feel like TTU has wonderful resources available to faculty and staff, but there is a question about whether they realize it," McPherson said. "This program communicates to faculty and staff what they have at their fingertips."
Nathan said the program should facilitate the communication process between educators and potentially distressed students.
"The idea is not to bombard people with advice or try to solve all of their problems," Nathan said. "Often times, just offering a listening ear makes a huge difference, and if it's needed, they can connect the student with professional resources available on campus."
The mission of Outside the Classroom is to reduce the consequences associated with public health issues that effect education, corporate, and government institutions, according to the company's Web site, www.outsidetheclassroom.com.
Return to Media Coverage Listing
|
