Attention-grabbing articles, backed by research.

Mantra Health surveyed counseling center directors and clinicians at colleges and universities in the US about their experience with burnout in the Fall 2020 semester. What follows is key findings from the survey data, as well as expert recommendations by Drs. David Walden and Harry Rockland-Miller on reducing employee burnout at college counseling centers as the Covid-19 pandemic continues.

Download our Provider Burnout Whitepaper here today.

Data surveyed, collected, and contextualized from counseling centers and clinicians across 120 schools. 

Signs and symptoms of burnout that may be prevalent on your campus. 

Implications and recommendations for providing quality care and keeping a healthy counseling center culture.


Whitepaper: Provider Burnout in Counseling Centers due to Covid-19

The importance of quality mental health care on campus comes into focus when we turn our attention to the experiences of students in crisis. One of our team members shared a personal story about his nephew that offers valuable framing for this discussion:

"He began college in September 2020 but withdrew four months later due to mental health challenges that went untreated. He was experiencing depression and anxiety and didn’t get the kind of help he needed. Despite his track record as a happy high-achiever in high school, after his brief college stint he was left with unfinished courses, substantial debt, a relationship breakup, and an overwhelming sense of defeat. At the heart of his crisis was mismanaged medication. Now, he’s back home with parents getting help he didn’t know how to find on campus but with greater uncertainty about how to succeed in college going forward. He has a tarnished relationship with the college experience, in general, and his university, in particular."

Stories like these are too common—and perhaps what is most devastating about them is their preventability: 83% of students believing their academic performance has been hampered by poor mental health. Depression and anxiety are manageable with quality mental health services. It is widely accepted among mental health providers that combining medication management and psychotherapy drives the most effective outcomes for common disorders including anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder. However, most centers only staff psychologists with patient session caps, and less than two thirds of centers offer psychiatric services at all. 

With telehealth emerging as a strong candidate to help fill these resource gaps, universities are faced with the choice of how to invest in mental health services that are indispensable to student success. 

University Leadership Is Advocating for Students

There is a new wave of empowered students and parents who recognize that mental health services are essential to student success. As stigma around psychiatric illness dissipates, student affairs and counseling leadership can usher in new technologies and approaches onto campus to meet student demand and propagate meaningful change.

A simple Cost-Benefit Analysis by the American Council on Education illustrates the ROI of investing in mental health services:

Consider a university onboarding clinicians to care for 500 additional depressed students. The investment to provide these services costs $500,000 at most ($1000 per student is a generous estimate of treatment cost). By averting student dropout rates, this program would yield $1,000,000 in tuition revenue for the institution. Lifetime economic returns for students are predicted to be over $2 million. 

Mental health services yield economic returns for universities far exceeding their cost. The ROI suggests a huge potential to deliver a better academic experience to students while also realizing important incremental revenue. This analysis does not even account for less tangible, yet still meaningful, benefits of quality mental health care to student wellbeing and institutional reputation.

Investing in psychiatry drives quality care.

Psychotherapists, or talk-therapists, are often more accessible to college students than psychiatric providers. But high quality care requires access to both psychotherapy and psychiatry. A meta-analysis of 101 studies on treating moderate depression found that combined treatment was more effective than both psychotherapy alone and pharmacotherapy alone. 

According to a recent large-scale study, while the proportion of college students taking psychiatric medications has risen in the last decade, the proportion of students receiving medication management via psychiatric providers has been stagnant. There is also a trend towards polypharmacy, with 40.8% of college students using multiple categories of psychiatric medication in the last year. As college students seek care for complex conditions, the imperative to connect them with psychiatric providers is heightened. 

Despite the fact that psychiatrists provide the most informed mental health care, primary care doctors are prescribing the majority of psychiatric medications in use—prescribing 58.8% of psychiatric medications versus psychiatrists prescribing 36.1%. While it can be challenging for colleges to afford in-house psychiatric providers, telepsychiatry offers a compelling solution to the need for highly qualified practitioners who can manage complex treatments for college students.  In light of extensive evidence that general outcomes do not differ between in-person treatment and telepsychiatric treatment, telepsychiatry has the potential to fill in gaps in care.  

Telehealth solutions make quality care scalable. 

Telehealth in general is well-suited for college students with busy schedules, enabling greater appointment availability and remote therapy sessions. According to a review of recent literature, “College students find Telemental Health to be convenient, accessible, easy to use, and helpful. Telemental health also helps to overcome the barrier of stigma, which may help ethnic minority students in particular to seek care.”  

While the efficacy of telehealth in treating moderate to severe psychiatric illnesses has been met with skepticism, treatment results are proving that virtual therapy is an effective complement to face-to-face treatment. Supporting ease of collaboration and oversight, telehealth enables universities to employ non-M.D. licensed clinicians like Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners who deliver high quality care with the supervision of a psychiatrist.  Without telehealth, schools often lack the resources to provide that supervision. Colleges often lack access to Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners—particularly in rural areas—so telehealth connects universities with qualified, affordable clinicians, removing barriers of geography and scheduling. 

Empowering Students through Telemental Health Services

Students care about having access to quality mental health care. In a 2020-2021 American Council on Education survey series, college and university presidents consistently designate student mental health as the most pressing issue on campus. 

Students’ enthusiasm for improved mental health services suggests that treatment is likely to be highly effective. One of the most powerful predictors for treatment efficacy is internal motivation of patients. As stigma around mental health treatment lessens and students are empowered to gain control over their mental wellness, institutions have a responsibility to offer robust and flexible care.  

At Mantra we believe that high quality mental health care is a right of every student. Practitioners have long waged the battle to increase awareness and support for the treatments that help students thrive. Now is the time to augment face-to-face services with affordable, effective and critical telepsychiatry care and teletherapy services, so that each semester leaves students more empowered, capable, and motivated than before. 

The Cost of Crisis: Making the Budget Case for Telepsychiatry on Campus

“You have to take action and tell the story about what and why you are changing”: Learnings from a Mental Health Roundtable Discussion with Diversity and Cultural Center Directors

It’s widely acknowledged that minoritized students seek support within the communities that feel safe to them. Craving a reflection of their own lived experiences, students often look for support from the staff at campus diversity and cultural centers (e.g., LGBTQIA+ centers, African American Cultural Centers, Latinx Cultural Centers).  While some cultural center staff may possess counseling training, many  are cornered into a position of becoming adjunct therapists without the adequate training, resources, or compensation to address students’ mental health needs. This dynamic highlights another instance in which a lack of institutional investment and commitment to holistic well-being disproportionately impacts BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ students, faculty and staff. 

This month, I had the unique opportunity to host two roundtable discussions with various higher education stakeholders from diversity and cultural centers nationwide. The roundtables aimed to carve out space for necessary discussions about not only the intersection of equity, identity, and mental health, but also opportunities to better support the well-being of historically-marginalized students on campus. Often, the conversation surrounding mental health services on campus, and the burden of providing them, gets limited to counseling centers. With the abundance of on-the-ground expertise within their communities, we hoped to elevate these voices to better understand how campus mental health services can better meet the needs of all students, not just those already accessing care. 

Key learnings from the diversity roundtable discussions:

Minoritized students may have a (warranted) lack of trust in the institution’s intent and ability to support them, and may believe that the traditional mental health services at their campus counseling center will not be helpful. 

Students who do overcome cultural barriers to help-seeking are often met with waitlists for limited, short-term care during working hours provided by therapists who do not reflect their identities. In the words of one of our participants, “students don’t want to give the racism 101 or sexism 101 talk. By the time they’re at session 4-5, their time is up and they’re outsourced to a therapist in the community.” 

Negative perceptions of the counseling center become strengthened by confirmation bias, which may dissuade other first generation, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ students from seeking counseling services. 

When minoritized students don’t utilize the counseling center, they may turn to cultural centers for support (or not seek support at all). 

If students turn to cultural centers, the already overburdened and under-resourced staff are put in the uncomfortable position of doubling as therapist, care navigator, case manager, and mental health educator.  

Cultural centers are rooted in community and trust. When referring students to services outside of campus, staff want to feel confident that their referral will provide a supportive environment. 

The current model of mental health pathologizes natural, communal experiences, such as racial trauma and grief. One of our participants noted, “students have reservations using certain resources due to a fear of being pathologized.”  

Ask minoritized students what they need— listen to them and implement real sustainable policy changes with wide-reaching impact. 

Hire therapists to represent a wider range and intersection of identities and lived experiences. If recruitment is a challenge, explore why it’s so difficult to recruit and retain therapists of color— is compensation high enough? Is the culture inclusive? Also, consider alternative options such as telehealth partners to increase access to culturally-responsive care during extended hours.  

Anticipate the impact of current events instead of waiting for students to demand timely responses and increased resources. 

Acknowledge the ongoing impact of racism/racialized trauma, homophobia, transphobia, and indigenous erasure. Carve out spaces for students to address the impact on their mental health and well-being. * Words matter: call things what they are (e.g. white supremacy, communal trauma). 

Expand the paradigm of mental health care to be more inclusive of community-based practices and approaches. 

Extend resources to families and/or incorporate families into care

Create a deliberate counter-narrative to address the negative perceptions of the counseling center on campus. The counter narrative may be action (hiring more diverse therapists) or knowledge-building (“we do have therapists of color on campus and you can get an appointment within 2 weeks”). In the words of one of our roundtable participants, “You have to take action and tell the story about what and why you are changing.”

These two roundtable discussions provided actionable insight on the experiences of Diversity and Cultural Center staff and their observations of the mental health care needs of minoritized students. We view this conversation as the first of many as institutions work toward systemic change, and are confident in our own ability as a company to continue prioritizing the voices of historically marginalized students, faculty and staff. 

A summary of roundtable discussions on diversity in college mental health

College Students Need Quality Mental Health Care Now More Than Ever

On campuses across the country, the need for accessible, high-quality mental health services is rising. Grace Wickerson (Rice University Student Body President, 2019-2020) told Mantra, “A national study done by RISE found that 75% of college students have had increased anxiety, depression, or stress due to disruptions to their education. On my own campus I’ve seen this first hand, with mass calls from students for increased mental health support especially since their University is their main mental health provider.” 

Heightened demand for mental health services should be met with increased access to services. Yet, according to a recent Healthy Minds Network Study, 60% of students indicate that the coronavirus pandemic has made access to mental health care more challenging. Although demand for mental health services is rising, many college students are not visiting counseling centers to have their needs met. The Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH) reports that the average number of students seeking treatment from college counseling centers declined significantly during the pandemic.  

Emergency Relief Funding for Mental Health Care

One of the greatest obstacles to improving mental health services on campus is budgetary constraints. Thankfully, the latest COVID-19 relief bill allocating $40 billion in funding for colleges and universities includes funds targeted for mental health care. 

The federal government’s Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act established the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) model in March of 2020: at least 50% of funds must be allocated to student grants, while the remaining 50% can be spent on institutional costs arising due to the coronavirus pandemic. The American Rescue Plan (ARP), signed into law on March 11, 2021, builds upon the initiatives in the CARES Act by further funding the HEERF. 

The Department of Education has not yet released information about whether institutions that received CARES Act funding must take additional steps to secure ARP funds. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators will update their reference page as more information becomes available.

One of the “emergency costs” that the institutional portion of HEERF can be allocated towards is mental health care. Colleges and universities that received funding through the CARES Act and are waiting on ARP funding have resources to bolster mental health services on campus. Institutions of higher education now face the challenge of allocating funds to optimize student wellness. 

Higher Education Needs to Meet Growing Demand for Mental Health Services

Prioritizing quality mental health care poises colleges and universities for success. Students utilizing college counseling services report being more satisfied with their quality of life and academic performance. 

Not only do colleges with thriving wellness cultures and quality counseling have happier students, they also have higher retention rates. Struggling with mental health is the most common reason students drop out of college.  A Healthy Minds Network  study estimates that treating 100 depressed students in a school year can prevent 6 dropouts, saving colleges and universities an average of $240,000 in tuition costs. 

Unfortunately, colleges and universities lack the infrastructure to meet the diverse and extensive mental health care needs of their student bodies. In an Inside Higher Ed article, Kelly Davis, Director of Peer Advocacy Supports and Services for Mental Health America (MHA), characterizes the present challenges facing mental health care in higher education as “a larger version of the same problem we’ve seen on campus–people are struggling, we tell them to reach out for help, but we didn’t build the help.” 

A common challenge for college counseling centers is being under-staffed with resultant long appointment wait times. Luckily, necessity breeds invention: Shifting to telepsychiatry has convinced Dr. Davis that telehealth is “an effective way to provide the treatment that students need to thrive, without compromising outcomes.”

A substantial body of evidence finds telehealth to be equally as effective as in-person therapy in both levels of patient satisfaction and treatment efficacy. Dr. David Mohr, Director of the Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, who researches telepsychology and digital mental health, told the American Psychological Association, “What we’ve seen is that telehealth is essentially just as effective as face-to-face psychotherapy—and retention rates are higher.” 

Telehealth also has unique benefits for colleges, universities, and their students when incorporated into existing campus structures. According to Larry Moneta, Ed.D., former Vice President of Student Affairs at Duke University and longtime advocate for telehealth in higher education, “Even prior to the coronavirus crisis, the contemporary lives of college students–perpetually on the go, highly stressed and with little time to spare–showcased the need for telehealth as augmentation to the excellent health care provided through student health and counseling centers on our campuses.”

Here are three of the most impactful ways telehealth improves mental health care for college students: 

1. Higher conversion on long-term care referrals.

A major challenge for mental health care on campus is appointment attendance within the community after a referral from the counseling center. Especially for students already struggling with their mental health, the directive to seek care off campus can be daunting. Telehealth is advantageous in that it lends itself to collaboration between the university and external providers, augmenting counseling center services instead of trying to replace them.  

Increased appointment availability and ease of scheduling translate to better follow-through for students referred to telehealth. Mantra’s internal research indicates that more than 95% of referred students attend their first telepsychiatry appointment when effective telehealth services are in place. 

On-campus counseling offices that take advantage of a digital portal have the added benefit of supporting students in pursuing self-care on their own time. Dr. Nora Feldpausch, Staff Psychiatrist at Michigan State University, explains that one of many benefits of telehealth is that it “support[s] patient self management by offering modules or links to resources such as psychoeducational handouts, empirically supported self-help apps, and crisis intervention services.” 

2. More inclusive care for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ students.

Utilizing a telehealth service designed by medical experts with college students in mind can enable more patient centric care. With access to more specialists, diverse therapists, and customizable self-care resources, students can feel supported by therapy tailored to their needs. 

Telehealth also promotes culturally competent care by connecting students with therapists who “look like them,” or therapists who understand unique challenges they may be facing. Especially for students of color and LGBTQ+ students, the ability to transcend geographical boundaries and gain access to therapists they feel comfortable with can be a game-changer. 

3. Appointment availability on nights and weekends.

Telehealth allows more students to receive quality mental health care by enabling scheduling of exponentially more appointments. While high-risk students are understandably prioritized by counseling centers with limited services, with telehealth, preventative care can be offered to any student who wants to proactively manage their mental health through telehealth.

Many students are unable to take advantage of traditional counseling center services, which operate during the same hours as classes. By providing access to nighttime and weekend appointments, telehealth accommodates students with busy schedules. Not only does this support individual students’ wellbeing, but it minimizes stigma by normalizing therapy for everyone. Effective telehealth can transform campus cultures into emotionally enriching environments in which mental health care is celebrated. 

Optimize Relief Funding for a Mentally Healthy Student Body

Funding alone does not ensure quality mental health care on campus. Transforming mental health services to be easily accessible and widely utilized by college students requires thoughtful new infrastructure that complements and strengthens the existing campus structures, processes, and goals. 

To learn more about how Mantra can expand telehealth services on your campus through your CARES Act funding, get in touch to speak with our partnerships team.

The CARES Act and University Mental Health

NEW YORK, April 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Mantra Health, a digital mental health clinic that partners with higher education institutions, today announced an extension of $2 million bringing its total funding to $5.2 million. The round includes new institutional investors Canaan Partners, City Light Capital, and Baleon Capital, as well as strategic angels, including Dr. Nitin Nanda, the founder of Aligned Telehealth, acquired by Amwell. Mantra will use the extension to continue to expand its network of psychiatric and therapy providers to all 50 states. Additionally, the company will continue to sign and support contracts with health insurance carriers across the country to increase access to evidence-based mental healthcare for the 20 million post-secondary students in America. This move will help increase payment options for colleges and universities, and increase continuity of care for students during seasonal breaks and after graduation. 

While a recent survey indicates 72% of college and university presidents have reallocated or identified additional funding to address mental health, more than half (58%) said if they had unlimited resources they would hire additional staff—mostly in the counseling center. Mantra Health uses telehealth technology to deliver evidence-based mental health treatment by integrating directly with on-campus counseling and health centers to help them expand their services and make seamless off-campus referrals that meet the specific needs of their student populations. This improves student outcomes by making it easier for schools to access high quality mental health providers that can work across traditional daytime hours, as well as evenings and weekends, aided by the flexibility of telehealth.

Mantra Health's program is currently deployed across 26 college campuses with more than 180,000 students enrolled. Historically, counseling centers have said only 40-50% of students make it to their first appointment when referred to a community provider, with an even lower percentage among rural schools. Through a mix of software and care navigation, Mantra has seen that referral success rate spike to 97% when referring students to a Mantra-affiliated provider. 

"Mantra Health has seen a dramatic increase in demand from colleges and universities for their telemental health services since the beginning of the public health and civil rights crises last year, which caused a surge in students experiencing depression and anxiety," said Byron Ling, Partner at Canaan. "We seek to invest in category-defining teams with ambitious visions and believe that Mantra Health is building the preeminent digital mental health solution for universities and colleges. Their collaborative, evidence-based approach to telemental health leverages technology to improve access and outcomes, while deeply integrating with university counseling teams for comprehensive care."  

With the increased demand and associated costs among school counseling centers, Mantra Health started accepting in-network insurance from UnitedHealthcare, Aetna and Cigna in January 2021. The latest capital infusion will help the company bring on additional health insurance carriers. By doing so, Mantra eases the financial burden that schools have been facing when providing behavioral health services to their students. Students also benefit by having the opportunity to remain in the same ecosystem of care whenever they leave campus for seasonal breaks or graduate and transition to post-college life, which can often be a vulnerable time for patients.  

"We're thrilled to welcome these new investors as we look to become the leading digital mental health player focused on Higher Education," said Ed Gaussen, co-founder & CEO of Mantra Health. "Covid has exacerbated the prevalence of mental health issues on college campuses, yet students aren't getting the care they need due to various structural issues. By launching our insurance partnership capabilities, we're taking a major step in our mission to democratize access to care for students across the country."

After bringing on Dr. Nora Feldpausch as Mantra Health's new Medical Director last month, the company is in the process of expanding services and obtaining licensure in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. in time for the Fall 2021 semester. 

According to Mantra Health's co-founder & COO, Matt Kennedy, "Offering 50 state coverage to our university partners through our collaborative clinical model will fundamentally change mental health delivery for university and college students. Our ability to deliver care across the country will improve access and enable continuity of care for the 20 million university students in America over summer and after they graduate. Furthermore, we are doing it entirely through our provider group under Dr. Feldpausch's leadership, keeping a tight control on clinical quality and continuing to build on our reputation as the most clinically-informed partner in our space."

Mantra Health Announces Multi-State Insurance Network Contracts and Fifty State Expansion; Brings Total Funding to $5.2M

Our story and inspiration behind the scholarship.

Since our founding in 2018, Mantra Health has been committed to serving and supporting diverse patient populations through the unique mental health challenges they face. Research demonstrates the inequities that BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities face in finding, accessing and maintaining quality identity-affirming care and support. According to the American Psychological Association, 84% of psychologists identify as White, making the mental health workforce less diverse than the American population (APA, 2018). With the dearth of diverse providers across our country, particularly in rural areas where many campuses tend to be located, colleges and universities face challenges in meeting the needs of historically-marginalized students. We believe that it's paramount to connect college students to mental health providers who can reflect their identities and experiences, and/or integrate them into the core of care with cultural humility.

Mantra’s affiliated provider group, Wellround Provider Group which is led by Medical Director and psychiatrist Dr. Kristel Carrington, recognizes the need for more diverse providers in the field of mental health. As telehealth now enables us to recruit and train providers from all locations in the country (so long as they are duly licensed), Wellround aims to fill this gap in care on campuses and maintain at least 50% representation of providers from diverse identities to better meet the needs of students.

Being in the higher education space, we understand that it is difficult for many students to get the support they need to achieve their academic and career goals. The mission of this scholarship is to support individuals from diverse backgrounds who are interested in becoming mental health providers. Our aim is to reduce barriers for BIPOC to enter the field, not only to provide equal opportunity and support for aspiring providers, but also to address disparities in mental health care at large.

Eligibility​: Graduate and postdoctoral students of color in the US who are actively pursuing a degree related to mental health (e.g. social work, counseling, psychiatry, occupational therapy) and are currently completing (or will complete) fieldwork/practicum/rotation in a university or college counseling center. Candidates for the scholarship are graduate students with historically marginalized identities (e.g. Black, Hispanic and Latinx, Native American, Asian and Pacific Islander). Graduate programs can be at the Master, Doctoral, or Professional/Medical level.

Application requirements​: Applicants must provide the name of the university counseling or health center of their current or upcoming placement, the dates of their placement, and the contact information for their supervisor at the university.

Our aim is to reduce barriers for BIPOC to enter the field, not only to provide equal opportunity and support for aspiring providers, but also to address disparities in mental health care at large.

If you know of a qualifying student or university representative who would like to learn more, visit our scholarship application page and share here.

Introducing the Mantra College Mental Health Provider Diversity Scholarship

The past year has brought heightened mental health stress to college campuses, not only because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but because of a nationwide reckoning with racial injustice. College students in the US have been at the forefront of activist movements since the Civil Rights Era. This year was no exception. They watched or participated in protests following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, and are investing time and energy into holding institutions accountable for diversity and equity. We know that protests, even when nonviolent, contribute to adverse mental health outcomes, which makes it more important than ever to support the mental health of college students.

Mental health consequences of societal unrest

There are many reasons that social unrest contributes to mental health challenges, including anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These consequences can be particularly pronounced among college students as they navigate a new experience away from home, surrounded by new people.

News that defies our basic expectations of society, including personal safety and being treated equally, forces us to re-evaluate. Confronting facts that contradict our world view provokes anxiety. It leaves us feeling less in control of our surroundings and our own lives. For many, student activism is a way to re-exert a sense of control.

At the same time, student activism is time- and energy-intensive. It takes individuals away from their regular schoolwork and extracurriculars, can interfere with healthy sleep habits, and can cause mental depletion and exhaustion – all of which exacerbate anxiety and depression. Students of color, who often represent the most invested campus activists, already face increased risk of depression and thoughts of suicide. Add to this the pressure of being a student activist, of feeling responsible for change, and it is clear why mental health support is critical for these communities especially.

Images of violence make people feel unsafe and can trigger PTSD for individuals who have previously experienced trauma. Again, students of color are particularly vulnerable to PTSD symptoms upon seeing damage done to people who look like them.

For those already in the mental healthcare system, social unrest may compound feelings of hopelessness and lead students to disengage from their care routine. It is important to acknowledge how current events interact with students’ mental health and to offer a variety of resources to meet their changing needs in a changing social/political climate.

Author-activist Angela Davis said it best: “Anyone who’s interested in making change in the world also has to learn how to take care of herself, himself, their selves.” Colleges have a role to play in spreading this message across campus.

How to fulfill these mental healthcare needs

Alongside this message, schools should promote existing campus mental health services to their civic-minded students and should try to increase appointment capacity during periods of heightened unrest. Beyond this, there are specific features of a mental healthcare system that allow it to best serve student activists and all participating in protests:

Minimize barriers to accessing care. Signing-up for a therapy intake appointment should be a quick, seamless process for already-overwhelmed students. Provider referrals for therapy or psychiatry should similarly be as fast and straightforward as possible.

Encourage self-care practices. Mental health providers can share strategies and resources to help students make self-care a habit. In between appointments, student activists can practice prioritizing self-care through measures such as turning off news notifications before bedtime, scheduling low-stress social activities at regular intervals, or adhering to a healthy exercise regimen to relieve stress.

Offer 24/7 support to parallel the 24/7 news cycle. Being able to securely message a mental health provider at any time, even without receiving an immediate response, is a helpful outlet for students experiencing anxiety related to societal unrest. News can break at any time of day or night. It is valuable for students to have access to mental health resources around-the-clock as well.

Make a range of resources available through stepped care. Not all students will feel ready to speak to a therapist right away, even after acknowledging a personal mental health concern. Some might feel more comfortable with telehealth visits to start, or may prefer digital resources to guide their own self-care. Given that societal unrest can also lead to disengagement from a prior mental healthcare routine, it is important that schools offer a variety of resources for students looking to scale up or scale down their treatment.

The call-to-action has never been louder: Students need expanded capacity and improved quality of mental healthcare from their colleges and universities as they live through a pandemic and a year of unsettling current events.

1. Ni M, Kim Y, McDowell I, Wong S, Qiu H, Wong I, Galea S, Leung G. Mental Health During and After Protests, Riots, and Revolutions: A Systematic Review. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. 2020; (54)3, 232-243. doi: 10.1177/0004867419899165

2. Caporino, N, Exley S, Latzman R. Youth Anxiety About Political News. Child Psychiatry & Human Development. 2020; 51(5), 683-698. doi: 10.1007/s10578-020-00972-z

3. Brownson C, Becker M, Shadick R, Jaggars S, Nitkin‐Kaner Y. Suicidal Behavior and Help Seeking Among Diverse College Students. Journal of College Counseling. 2014; 17(2), 116-130. doi: 10.1002/j.2161-1882.2014.00052.x

4. Wang X, Hegde S, Son C, Keller B, Smith A, Sasangohar F. Investigating Mental Health of US College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-Sectional Survey Study. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 2020; 22(9), e22817. doi: 10.2196/22817

5. Aymer S. “I Can’t Breathe”: A Case Study – Helping Black Men Cope with Race-Related Trauma Stemming from Police Killing and Brutality. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment. 2016; 26(3-4), 367-376. doi: 10.1080/10911359.2015.1132828

6. Cornish P, Berry G, Benton S, Barros-Gomes P, Johnson D, Ginsburg R, Romano V. Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Today’s College Student: Reinventing Services through Stepped Care 2.0. Psychological Services. 2017; 14(4), 428. doi: 10.1037/ser0000158

What societal unrest means for mental health on campus

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