good afternoon, everyone. and welcome to ksoc-tv, the knowledge network for systems of care. i'm gary blau chief of the child excellent and family branch at the substance abuse and mental health services administration or samhsa. we're working to share timely, relevant, technical assistance on a whole host of issues related to the mental health needs of children, youth and families. today we're going to focus on both the behavioral health challenges and opportunities facing college campuses. as this fall according to the national center for education statistics, over 20 million students are expected to attend american colleges and universities. thn increase of about 5 million students in the15 years. untreated mental illness in the college population, including things like
depression, anxiety, eating disorders, are certainly associated with lower grades and a higher probability of dropping out. this is also true for substance abuse disorders, including alcohol abuse. in fact, according to the national alliance on mental illness, 64 per of young adults who are no longer in college say it's because of a behavioral health reason. in the consequences can be even more hard breaking. suicide is one of the leading cause us of death among college students with at least 1100 deaths each year. and with that in mind, if you or someone you know might be considering suicide, please, contact the samhsa lifeline. help is available 24/7 and you can call 1-800-2 73-talk or 1-800-2 73-8255. you can also suicidepreventonlifeline.org. according to our soon to be
released health among college students resource kid, the highest rates of excessive alcohol use occurring among 18 to 22-year-old who are full time college students. and increased use of medications, both prescription and over the counter, has added a new dimension to college substance abuse, along with alcohol and marijuana use. behavioral health on college campuses is most certainly a growing concern. and is the findings from the spring 2014 national college health assessment bear that out. surveys from the mid 1980s then indicated that ten to 15 percent of the young adults could have been characterized as having significant behavioral health problems. today, that number is anywhere 3 to 40 percent. now, the jed foundation, founded in the 2000, points out
it's important for all students to be proactive about their mental health by making smart lifestyle choices. for students dealing with mental illness college can be an even more difficult time. so we want to encourage you to join today's discussion. you can do that in three ways. you can tweet your questions to hashtag ksoctv, click on the ask a question icon at the top of your screen, or call us at 800-527, 1401. the conversation is ahead but first here's stephanie dukes at our update desk. >> thanks, gary. up first, on site with a system of care community in guam. recently a team from the association of maternal and child health programs traveled to the u.s. territory to help analyze current systems of early childhood education, health, and social
services. they're also working with develop common measures across systems and close gaps in early childhood programs. building on the strengths of guam's diverse families, i care guam promotes system of care values, principles and best practices with the aim of helping children, youth, and their families achieve their maximum potential. i care guam is a territory's mental health anti discrimination campaign. the group recently released two public service announcements. >> i pledge to stop stigma against mental illness >> i pledge to start talking about the importance of mental health health. >> project abc a system of care for young children in families in los angeles also lauchl
a mental health public service announcement >> if your baby cries all the time and nothing do you helps, it's not your fault. >> project abc is a collaborative partnership among professional in child we are fail, mental health and community services working to raise awareness about the benefits of engaging families at the beginning of children's lives. last month marked the 10th an niversary of samhsa's voice awards. this year's event highlighted suicide prevention. actors wayne brady and brittany snow were recognized for their efforts to improve public understanding and awareness about behavioral health issues and the young adult leadership award winner was hayley winterberg from glendale, arizona. having grown up surrounded by
mental illness, substance abuse, domestic violence and homelessness hayley washington diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 12. and lost most of her friends because she was considered different. instead of giving up hope, hayley decided to promote youth voice across the nation. in 2008 hayley founded my life, magellan youth leaders inspiring future empowerment. a group that attracted more than three thousand participants at its first event. hayley has served on the boards of youth move national and national alliance on mental illness arizona. she also worked with the arizona department of health services division of behavioral health to create a protocol for professionals on promoting youth involvement and engagement in treatment.
>> i've receiving this award on behalf of many youth who inspire me, use their voices and experiences to make a difference in the world. it just so hap share that with me. committed to making it better. while my childhood experiences were not ideal, to say the least, i have been provided the opportunity to allow these experience toss build me as a person and make me who i am today. >> finally today, some facts and figures to help kick off our discussion about mental health on college cams. behavioral health issues can be a significant barri academic progress. samhsa reports about 6.4 million or about one in five young adults in the united states had a mental illness in the past year. here's the challenge. compared
to older adults, this 18-year old age group is the least likely to seek help. studies from the prevention and support group active minds point out almost a third of all college students report having felt so depressed this they had trouble functioning. more than 80 percent felt overwhelmed by all they had to do in the past year and 45 percent had felt a sense of hopelessness. some other things to keep in mind. as we've noted, suicide is a leading cause of death among college students. many colleges and universities are actively seeking ways to connect with students about the life-threatening consequences of mental illness. arizona state university's campus care suicide prevention program is designed to reduce symptoms of depression, and life skills development and to develop a
caring community whose members know the signs of stress and distress and take action to refer students to appropriate activities and resources. >> this is the beginning of the rest of their lives. wherever they go, they're going to take that what they learned. i think that for me it's an inspiration because i think we influence not just the students but all of people whose lives they touch in their future >> through the survey students told national alliance on mental illness that the biggest thing colleges could do to raise awareness about mental health is to train faculty and staff on the issues. hosting suicide prevention activities, providing mental health information during orientation and providing peer to peer support and mentoring. you've
seen a bit of what's going on at arizona state university. we'll take you to two additional universities an a little later and introduce you to the teams there working with students and faculty. but first, we'll kick off our discussion by sending it back to d gary blau >> great. thanks, stephanie. we have a lot of ground to cover today. so to help us do that we can welcome our guests. first is nance roy, the clinical director with the jed/clinton campus program. next we have richard lucey junior, a superb assistant to the director of samhsa's center for substance abuse prevention. we also have janee mcfadden, who's the chair ofmontgomery college behavioral health intention team. and ayshah mahmud,
who is founder of the university of maryland national alliance on mental illness. welcome. we're very, very glad you're here today. i want to start with a little bit about the difficulty college students say they're facing in getting help for behavioral health concerns and i'd like to hear what everybody has to think about this. we heard a young woman who was featured in an article in inside higher ed said i was scared to let anyone know about my crisis because i didn't want people to worry. i didn't know who i could turn to and i didn't want to get in trouble. so i'm interested in people's thoughts about this. let me start with ayshah. >> i think one of the biggest things even as a college student for me is that when you're
going into college your parents are sending you off and you'ren enough environment and you don't want to worry your parents. i was overwhelmed. i think for her i think it's just you need peers around to you understand where you're coming from and that everything is going to be fine, things are going to work out and just need to stay positive and be open with your friends and family. >> so for you, you talked about having firsts, first time you were away from home perhaps or first time you might have been sharing a dorm room or something like that. how did that feel? >> it was definitely really different because i know with my parents they made me food,
watched over me, do everything for you. when you're going to go to college have your own apartment it's all on you. you're the one responsible for your grades, you have to go to class. so that's a whole new level of stress. i think that's why faculty and staff really need to just help withthattransition >> one of the challenges is really helping colleges and universities address that issue. helping students with basic life skills, getting adequate sleep, eating right. getting adequate exercise, knowing thousand to manage money. it's amazing with debit cards these days, just put your card in and you get money out but no understanding of what the consequences of doing that really are. and so when they're coming to sdool without
those life skills and then on top of that, are dealing with leaving home for first time, leaving support groups and families, potentially leaving a significant other, certainly a peer group and having a start new on a college cam with no ready made niche, if you will, loneliness ensues and so many students report loneliness as one of the biggest challenges they face on college cam. that makes sense when you think about the support systems they were coming from and the environment they had, and then moving to a college environment that's totally new where they have life challenges and they're also expected to navigate connects, managing studies, their time, et cetera. so we wonder why they're so overwhelmed. i think in part that's why.
>> interesting. and janee, you were part ever behavioral health intervention team. what do you see on the college cam? >> so reflecting on the part of the article that you just shared where the young woman was afraid she would get in trouble, if we look at that from the college's perspective, that's exactly what we don't want. we want students to feel like they have a safe place where they can speak to someone and then whoever they choose to speak with will refer it to the proper part of college that can do the most good. being a part of behavioral intervention team a part of our job is to make sure that our community feels encouraged to report behaviors or feelings that students are experiencing, referring those to us as
quickly as possible so that we can get in touch with those students, and oftentimes i would say that the student may feel fearful that will they will be judged. so maybe they don't report and that's something that we have to as a whole do a better job of making sure that students don't feel sort of stuck, because they feel the pressure of stigma, potential stigma, and then also for students who choose to share something with someone, make sure those folks know who to get that information to. making sure we're all on the same page about being aware of the resources we have is very important to us. i think we are doing a good job of that, getting the word out. we could always be doing a better job. we have a good network of folks that our faculty members know to report
incidents through sort of a single stream reporting venue that we have on the cam. and if that venue isn't available because of maybe where they are, it's an electronic reporting venue, then they have other layers so they can report in a way that's comfortable or convenient. >> and, rich, so you're hearing some of the challenges that are coming up. what are from your perspective, some of these big issues that are going on on college cams >> right now we're in what research has shown to be one of the highest risk periods of time on the college cam. for especially first year students the first six weeks of college are the high risk period of time. and whether it's their dealing with mental
disorder issues or substance abuse issues, this is the period of time when those risks are that much more elevated. and the challenges depends whether you're looking at the mental health side or substance abuse side are great. i think what ayshah said is absolutely right. transitions is the key word there. we spend a lost time looking at that transition from high school to college because it's a completely different environment. as ayshah said, you are the one responsible now forget yourself up and going to classes, making sure you're eating and sleeping well and all of the things that go along with being an adult. but the support systems are also really important pieces and is whether it's faculty members, your fellow students, cam administrators, they're there. the thing
that's important for students to realize is they are not there alone. there's a support system. and it's to help them find that support system and then lastly, it's a bigger issue we don't always talk about that janee mentioned. this feeling that we're dealing with issues that are still considered hidden. that people feel the need to hide the fact that i have a bipolar disorder or that i have to hide the fact that i'm drinking more than i should be drinking. we're just not at a point yet in our country, i think, where we're able to freely talk about these things and get them out in the open so that people who are struggling with them can get the help they need. >> isn't it true like when you go to college, that there's like many more temptations
that -- how do you address that when somebody's going to a party and all of a sudden there's drugs or alcohol that are involved or they're already experiencing that sense of loneliness? how can -- what do you say to a young person who may be making that transition and not necessarily sharing their challenges with other people? >> one of the things that you brought up, janee, that's key that speaks to this, gary, is not only training faculty and other students, but people across campus to know how to have those conversations with students. we know that a very small percentage of stupts on college cams ever visit their college counseling center, for example. but they're going to people like their coach or a greek leertd if they're in a greek system or a peer
or someone in residence life or faculty member or academic advisor. so we need to educate -- these issues need to become a campus wide responsibility. they can no longer fall to the health and counseling center alone. and the more we can get education in th word out to folks not only in terms of of what resources are available but how to have a conversation with the students that are coming to you or when you're seeing something either in a written assignment that someone has turned in or poor athletic performance if you're on a team. helping to engage students in conversation toss ask how they're doing. that also helps to normize and speak to the stigma issue. if my coach or teach is having a conversation and is comfortable having a conversation with me, doesn't necessarily mean
i have to go to a counseling center. maybe ultimately i will. but maybe not. just knowing that someone who i respect cares about me and is comfortable talking with me about these issues can go a really long way. >> and that's really interesting because what you're talking about is how essentially that behavioral health or mental health and substance use issues are important to fln on the campus and administrators which i think can be a daunting tasks for folks there to teach something. that may not be their number one priority. and yet, the reality is is that it's not just one person's issue alone. today everyone has a part to play, helping particularly those older adolescents and young adults become healthy and
productive members of society. one of the things that we have is that we know about some work going on at montana state university. and montana state university is actually one of samhsa's garrett lee smith grantys and working on early intervention and youth suicide prevention and the team there is using its mental health task force to serve more than 1500 students a year. with more on that, here's stephanie dukes. >> been called the gem of big sky country home to the state's largest university. established i offers access to cutting edge research and educational experience and grates learning, discovery and service and something else as well. a counseling and psychological services program that gives students the help and resources they need in the
classroom but in life. any college, any university, struggles with students that present mental health concerns. msu we're no different. the services we offer through our counseling center are critical to our students' success. we know anywhere from 15 to 20 percent of our students utilize those services. it's a critical component to how they progress towards graduation. >> those services include free counseling, outreach and prevention services, as well as consultation to faculty, staff, and other members of the campus community. a survey from the national alliance on mental illness shows that students are seeking collegiate mental health services in record numbers. presenting with anxiety, depression, and relationship
problems along with suicidal ideation, substance abuse, eating disorders and self-injury cases. the clinicians who specialize in college mental health here are working to help students access resources within the university as well as to create a safety net for increasingly changing needs and numbers of those seeking services. >> we've really noticed a number of significant changes our students seem to be coming in with more previously diagnosed mental health issues, more of them are on medications, and just an increase in the severity of mental health concerns that people are coming in with, i would say we've also noticed a significant increase in crisis services and crisis management. so more students presenting with suicidal concerns and more chronic intense
mental health issues. >> in order to address these issues montana state university is developing a comprehensive mental health protocol for the entire campus made up of representatives from residence life, communication, university police, disability and reentry servathletics, student health, and the office of health advancement among others. the goal, creating a culture of support. >> we work together to really reinforce that there are counseling services available on campus, a big push that we have right now is to really institute suicide prevention training across campus, trying to to en graen gatekeeper training to all the folks on
campus from faculty, staff, all the way down to students. >> this protocol is designed to change the way the university deals with mental health challenges, moving from reacting to critical incidents to becoming proactive in preventing them. an evolution where everyone has a part to play. >> you really need to come at this as an institutional issue. it's not just an issue that can be solved by counseling services. it's an issue that needs to be worked towards improving across campus. >> great. so we know that behavioral health issues don't exist in a vacuum. many people are affected. one of the real questions for us is how can families and other students,
peers, support some of the young people having some of these issues and what kinds of resources are available for families and for the young people themselves? let's start again with ayshah. >> as a campus leader i think the most important thing is peer to peer support. it's one thing t counselor but to have your peers saying hey we know that you're going through this hard time but we understand what you're going through and taking the time to educate themselves about it so they're also helping those around them and also educating themselves to also to educate and avoid also having their own mental health issues because stress in colleges can cause that to that happen. i think peer support is the most
important thing and bringing more awareness to resources on campus like the counseling center and telling them this is okay, you're fine, and whatever happens happens. and they're going to support you. i think that's the ultimate thing. obviously kindness. anyone you see is doing something strange or weird, go there and help them. that could be a breaking moment for nem when they realize things are going to get better. >> and ayshah, you've had some personal experience with that. would you care to elaborate a little >> of course. i know for me, i always had interest in mental health. i think ever since i was a little girl. when it really struck me how serious it was is when my own brother
was diagnosed with -- he had a mix of symptoms, schizophrenia and bipolar and it transformed me. he was this warm welcoming really popular guy on campus bshgs when he went to college, everything changed. when he came back we would barely recognize him. and when you kind of see that firsthand you can't help but try to help him and help awareness and help other people avoid that situation. so maybe you could help one person completely changing their personality. when i used to look at him i could barely recognize him. he could barely recognize me because his disease got to bad. so looking back now the biggest thing i wish is he had peer support. and i think that's the biggest thing he lacked throughout his entire journey with his disease is not having enough peer
support and having people around him. he had a counselor, but everyone around him at school kind of -- he was kind of isolated. that's the biggest thing is having friends and people there for you who will stick with you no matter what you're going through and stick through and know that this is a disease and they need help. >>: thank you for sharing that. and that difference. it does strike me that those studies in that t15 percent of young people had a disorder. and now that's like 33 to 40 percent. i'm kind of wondering why is it that we're seeing such an increase? janee, do you have a thought about that? >> i do. i think that the increase is largely attributable to more awareness. i think
that we're getting the word out there as a society, as a whole, a bit better than we have in the past. folks are learning to not sort of push down or hide mental health issues or concerns. i think that bit by bit we're removing some of the stigma so people are seeking more help, people know what to classify things now as opposed to some of the language that was inappropriate then. which is saying oh, that person is just this or that. that's hugely helpful. i think we're asking the right questions. there are lots of more surveys being conducted, more qualitative data is being captured as well as quantitative data and there's more reporting. so i think that that is a large part of why. i just wanted to also double back to something ayshah said with respect to schizophrenia. so we
know that something that manifests around sometimes the initial stages are manifested right at the beginning of college because that's the age range of your traditional age college student where we're going to see that in the health services center, mental health counseling centers, whatever your school has. and so sure, if that student has gotten to that level where they can go see a counselor, great. but what if they haven't? so if you do have peers, if you have friends or other folks that are seeing something that's different where you feel like a person is not their usual self. i think it's tremendously important for us to give people language to understand what may be happening. not to diagnose, not to treat. but to say this is very different. and i'm going to encourage
you to do this, this, or this or at least report so that any treatment that the person receives can be that much more impact full because we're starting earlier as opposed to later. >> and rick, following up on that not just for the mental health concerns that are manifests them and certainly this is the right time for first episode, but we've noticed certainly that binge drinking and substanceuse are also a real concern. and how big a concern and what are your thoughts about how that kind of thing can be handled? >> they're huge concerns. in fact, surveys that have been done among college presidents, for example, they will pretty much say our number one problem on campus is alcohol. and
the statistics will bear that out. for the last 20 years if you look at the percentage of students who are what we call binge drinkers, have had five or more drinks at a sitter if you're a male or four or more if you're a female it's hovered. we haven't been able to make a dent in driving those numbers down. it's really in the 18 to 20-year-old and especially those in college. we look at marijuana, that's another substance issue that's received a lot of attention in the last several years and monitor being future studies came out indicating that six percent of college students are using marijuana on a daily or near daily basis. that's the highest rate it's ever been since 1980. so these are not isolated issues. they are connected to the mental health issue. that's the whole part
of the co-occurring issues happening on college campuses. there's this paradox we've often dealt within the substance abuse field especially in higher education that you hear students that drink because they're either depressed or feeling anxious and yet they're feeling anxious or depressed because they drink. so it's this bidirectional thing, a chicken and egg, which comes first, really doesn't matter. it's trying to help address both of them at the same time. so i'm glad we've zeroed in on some of the numbers. i think janee is absolutely right. it's better screening, more informed screening, and such. but even the national college health assessment which i referenced if you look at some of the numbers between 40 and 50 percent of students are feeling so hopeless, they're
feeling -- difficult to function. they're feeling overwhelming anger. these are the actual questions right from the survey. so these are the feelings that our college students, our future, are feeling right now. >> ild say in addition to survey data, one of the areas, especially on college campuses but also particularly for students not on campus, having primary care play more active role in screening and detection and diagnosis and treatment is really a growing movement and where i think we need to go. if you think about again, the smaller percentage on a college campus of the students that go to a college counseling center, versus the large number that go to their health center, be it for a cold or flu, if we're screening at
regular visits for mental health and substance abuse issues, we're catching huge numbers of students who otherwise may well have fallen through the cracks because they're not presenting anywhere else. similarly, in primary care pediatrician offices for those folks not finding themselves on a college campus your primary care provider can be a central resource. >> i interject and wonder especially for those in these situations, are the college health centers equipped with screening tools, are we doing that more at college campuses or do we need to provide more resources for something like that? janee, what about your college
>> well, my answer will be easy. we don't have a college health center. we're not a residence college although we're very large college. we have three campuses. our infrastructure is such that we don't have counseling from the purest sort of definition of that word. we don't have ongoing personal counseling that we offer to students, although our counseling faculty provide short-term counseling interactions with students, many of them are licensed professional counselors, but they're not necessarily hired in that capacity. so we don't provide that level of service and so for us, while we do see the need and the numbers, there's a lot of -- there are a lot of students who have mental health issues and concerns, i would even say more so at the community college than
at a traditional four-year school, we have that population, they do have the need, we don't have that infrastructure at least at our college. we have -- that means we have a lot of partnering with outside community agencies to make those connections and make those referrals. we have a new position where we have a mental health coordinator who can help coordinate some of those services to refer students out to the appropriate agencies and work with students who have limited resources. so that's my long answer. but it should have been a short answer which would have been we don't have a health center >> some do. and the other thing i've heard about and maybe you can help me better understand this, is something that have been referred to as recovery schools. and i guess
that these are kind of educational opportunities reinforcing some of the decisions to disengage perhaps from an addictive behaviors. can you talk about that? >> sure. so it really does help to look at the comprehensiveness of programming. it's talking from prevention, treatment, and recovery. and in the substance abuse prevention center and those practitioners around the country, we are looking to reduce and prevent the onset. but for those students who do find themselves with the disease of alcoholism and addiction, they're looking at the treatment aspect, but then there's recovery, which is -- within higher education, it's relatively new. it really is really blossomed over the last five years or so. this notion of a support system, which we've mentioned
earlier, and some campuses more formalized and concrete than others. but it's having that network for those students who are maybe coming back from successful trea backan environment that in all likelihood was risk begin with. it's hard for students to maintain sobriety and continue their life and recovery if those kinds of networks aren't there. so cleavage et recovery.org and for our viewers who are really interested in learning more about these types of networks out there, it would be worth going to visit the website to learn about it >> we're starting to get a bunch of questions coming in. from our email and twitter. one of them i think really is a follow up related to a couple things we've been
discussing. one of them is if students were first going toe an advisor cope or instructor but are not knowledgeable about counseling, hou how do they get redirect to more professional kind of health services? >> so one of the things that we do with colleges across the country in the campus program is work with schools to institute what we call gatekeeper training programs with their faculty staff, students, and just to reiterate, students go to students first before they go to anybody or they go to peers first before they go to anybody else. so educating your student base first of all, by gatekeeper training we mean helping coaches, stiepts, faculty, whoever it is to identify the warning signs of when someone may be struggling,
now how to reach out, how to begin a conversation, and then know what the resources are that are available on campus should that person need a higher level of care. and so to answer that question specifically, if the folks in the community coaches, faculty, students, know how to interact, having someone you know and trust facilitate a connection to a counseling center or a healthcare provider is going to be much more successful than just saying to a student oh, you should go to the counseling center. the likelihood they're really going to do that on their own is slim. but if my friend or coach is going to felt that for me, walk me over, pick up phone and say i know john at the counseling center, let me make a call. hield we're going to connect those students is
greater. >> and another question, a follow up to that, is how confidential are these counseling centers if somebody is concerned about the potential for prejudice or discrimination against them, what's that likely? many students may not feel comfortable seeing a counselor or revealing some of the stressors that are affecting them. so how would you respond to somebody who's concerned about going to a counseling center? >> definitely. i know i actually went to a counselor and even, they're extremely confidential. by law technically they can't release any information. so if you have an issue or anything going on, they're basically by law they can't really --
unless, of course, there are certain circumstances like, for example, you're going to commit suicide or if you're going to cause a shooting on carve us, those are certain circumstances where they're going to have to but those are very rare. they understand that where you're coming from and they're not going to make your information out there. they're very, very honest and they're very, very careful with your information >> and some of the things we've been talking about here like focusing on prevention or on the kind of outreach folks are doing, can often help to reduce some of the let's say anxiety or other stressors that students may feel, particularly if they're thinking about asking for help. we know that promoting behavioral health on campus is a critical piece
to making -- bringing that into awareness and other sorts of things. one school which is also a samhsa garrett lee some of it grantee has increased its outreach by 34 percent in past year and plans to do more next year. so we now head to fairfax, virginia and our stephanie dukes to learn more. >> it began nearly 60 years ago with 17 students in a single building. today jarnlg maven university is the largest public research university in vir 34,000 students and 130 countries. that diversity brings together different ideas and perspectives both in the classroom and as it applies to attitudes about mental health. keeping those views in mind the council and psychological services or caps team provides a wide array of services to
students, faculty and staff. >> we have a great student population, a lot of populations that i think often don't get a lot of messages around using therapy. they don't get positive messages around using therapy, so often these are people who really are considering therapy for the first time. there's international students, there's student from diverse backgrounds where culturally it's not seen as a positive thing to need therapy or to use it to help them academically or in their personal lives. >> helping these students understand the value of seeking care and lessening the anxiety they have is key. that's one reason caps is co located on campus with the university's
learning services and student health centers as the three work closely together to get students the resources they need. >> we're all under the same confidentiality laws and all in the same system and oftentimes it's possible for students to come in for learning services that may or may not be able to walk in and say i need psychological services. maybe being on campus and cutting the stigma around mental health services, just going to a learning services appointment, i'm here for my education, so that could be a really normalizing thing for a student to do. i think that's really important. >> the center saw a little more 1300 students last year. up 7 percent from 2013. while
it's difficult to point point exact reasons for the rise, the caps team says it may be because its partnerships campus are working to reach students who may have needed help but were reluctant to come forward on their own. one example of that out veech a program called mason cares supporting suicide prevention and mental health awareness among the entire campus community >> we have a 368 percent increase in the number of parpth in our training went from in the hundreds to close to 600 in the past year. that's something that really stands out to me because it's hard to maintain that balance on prevention and response and yet i believe it's so important.
>> also important, the need and ability to effectively engage senior level administrators on taking a public health approach to behavioral issues. gmu has done just that. this is a university that has prioritized well-being, including physical, financial, and emotional, as part of its strategic plan. committing to the belief that crisis prevention is about mental health health promotion and well-being. >> and we know that while our students are incredibly, they're bright and they're curious and motivated and dedicated to their goals, they're also vulnerable to mental health concerns. so we know it's so important that we are available to them when they need that help, and that we remove those barriers to they can be successful but they can also be
safe. >> we're getting a number of questions now coming in through our media site and email. one of them comes in specifically for janee as a follow up to your discussion about being mostly a commuter college. it says are there current programs or strategies to help commuter students be aware of and access available campus mental health resources or other kinds of resources? is there anything specific related to a predominantly urban commuter campu ? >> we have fairs that happen every semester that we really try to promote. those tend to deal with substance abuse prevention and suicide prevention, but wrapped up in there are
some tools to help understand mental health issues better. we also have a couple of programs that are actually online and sometimes when we think of online it's like oh, boy, but this is an interactive program that's offered to students as well as to faculty and staff that allows students to figure out what is the right choice, if you're given a scenario, you literally have these, i don't know if you've heard of cognito. it's a training that's been helpful because anyone can access and get a scenario and there is a right and wrong answer and you get prompted to know why you chose the wrong answer and then what is the right answer and why. we've brought to the campus first it's called mental health 101, like a first aid quick training to be able to understand the warning
signs and signals for certain mental health issues. so there's certainly more that we could do, always more that we could do with limited resources. i think that the key is really about a general sense of awareness and then where to go for help. our counseling faculty are wonderful in that they promote resources, they do workshops themselves on substance abuse prevention and during a certain time in the semester, they have workshops dedicated to test taking anxiety and other sort of anxiety. they do workshops surrounding depression, they do engage in depression screening and they use that as an opportunity to reach out to people and talk to them one-on-one there as well. i would say those are some of the resources
>> i think community colleges are a huge challenge. because when you have a residential population they're a captive audience. most community colleges the students have many, many things they're juggling in their lives, holding down jobs, families, on campus for class, and then go home. maybe they'll eat in the cafeteria but they're not living and breathing on the college campus. quick things like having public service announcements streaming on monitors in the cafeteria when people are having lunch or table tent information or flyers on the back of bathroom stalls, wherever the students are potentially going to be touching down for however brief a period of time, getting your messaging by students to students in quick bits. and there's tons of free resources
available for that. the jed website has many, many free psas that are done very well because we partnered with m tv for production on those. but there's so many free resources out there that you can blast your campus with for students who only touch down in brief spurts >> you bring up a really important point related to the balancing, the juggling so many of our college students nowadays have to do. you identify for the commuter students, even the on campus students seem to have many more things to balance, like they're holding jobs or doing volunteer work. all kinds of things. and so how do you help a student who may be so busy with struggling things, how might you intervene if all of a sudden they
start to demonstrate some concerning behaviors? what are your thoughts about that? >> i think before that were to happen i would hope colleges kind of educate their students before t and transition. but i think when you're at that point where anterior already balancing so much which i've seen so many students are balancing, i can't even list how much they're doing, but i think when they're at that stage, they have resources everywhere, everyone knows where the counseling center is. so whenever students do reach that point they know active lines and come to us. and they say okay, i'm having this issue, what should do i and talk to us and kind of, eshgs war kind of like that bridge i guess between students and the different authorities on campus. so if someone
doesn't really necessarily know your resources i guess that's where your peers have to come in and have to help them balance and say, hey, like how can you manage your time better. ff it's actually becoming an issue saying, hey, ok where are the resources on campus and kind of taking baby steps and walking them to the counseling center, getting someone they trust to talk to them. i think if you can do that you can avoid a lot of issues. >> one thing you brought up earlier today was that sometimes people have to how to prioritize things. it may be okay to say wow, maybe i shouldn't be doing as much. i don't know how do have that conversation especially when people are driven and want
to do more. i guess that's a tough conversation to have. >> that's a really -- i'm sure my parents -- no, definitely, a lot of students want to do too much. but there's a point where you have to educate them your body is more important than anything else. more than junior education, because if you're not healthy in your mind you can't really do anything 110 percent. i think that's kind of where you have to teach your children or students that your body comes first. >> that's an excellent point. i need to follow up in terms of the connection between wellness and academic performance when we think about -- and what montana state and george mason point to is if you don't have senior stakeholders on board with supporting emotional
well-being and making the connection between health and academic performance and retention, which are frequently the things senior stakeholders are needing to care about, then we're really not going to be able to effect any kind of long term is beingic change on campus on these issues. having buy in from senior stockholders and making that connection between wellness holistic approach to student development and education is key if we're going to make any progress. montana and george mason who are also in the jed campus program which i'm so happy they're doing excellent work, are two really good case examples of folks who have really done a great job at bringing senior folks along with others on campus to make these points that wellness is key.
>> uh-huh. so we have several more viewer questions we want to try to get to in our remaining time. one i'm going to turn to rich to talk about this because the viewer asks about some of the most effective ways to initiate conversations with our older teens and young adults regarding substance use issues. how to engage parents or peers. what are some your thoughts about some best practices folks can think about? >> it's great that to plug one of samhsa's great products out right now which is focused on the nine to 15-year-old and it's the parents of those -- that age range. because as early as nine is when young people are really starting to have different attitudes and experiences with alcohol. and so this campaign which is now a couple of years old,
actually has an interactive app for parents to kind of go through various scenarios, it's to give them those conversation starters and help them have those conversations. and why is that important? because having those conversations early and often can help sustain those conversations as they get into high school and get into college. i think far too often there's this thinking that by the time a young person gets to be age 17 or 18 and is off to college, that the parents' job is done. there's that prevailing thought. not to make light of it, but it's not. and there are still ways in which parents can continue to have those conversations, there are -- there's actually now a brief video and a companion guide called sound of your voice that samhsa recently launched that's
specifically for parents with those college-bound college students. and so it's helpful. we have the tools. i mean, it's not an easy conversation. and it's not a conversation that parents are sometimes willing to have. but we do have the resources out thereto to help. >> uh-huh. and those are excellent resources. i think it's good to plug samhsa resources. we have another question that comes in that's actually pretty serious. so i'm going to sort of ask all of you to think about it. the question is if a roommate is struggling with a mental health issue and confides in you and then asks you to keep it a secret, you've advised your roommate that they should seek help but they don't, what
should you advise this person, because of course, they don't want to break the trust and feel this is sort of confidential, but you're really worried about them. some of your thoughts about that, janee? >> that is a good question. and a tough one. because it's about balancing the trust that somebody has instilled new as well as making sure that they're cared for. one suggestion is for that person to go get some information in a confidential sort of private way, hey, i know this person, what would you suggest? get some advice from a professional counselor or someone else who you feel like has the knowledge that you need depending on the mental health issue that the roommate has shared. so maybe arm yourself in a way
where you can come back and say, you know, i know a little bit about these are some thoughts that i have. if it's -- if the roommate is in a crisis where the person feels like my roommate may hurt himself or herself or someone else, clearly there's really only one answer and that is to -- you have to break that confidence to get help. but also just making sure you wrap it up in love and concern and support and you are too important for me to not share this with someone. i want to get you help. i think that those are two ways to maybe do it where you can preserve some of the trust. >> yeah, i think i'll just reiterate that, that just as the person in crisis has confided in you, which is a significant responsibility, but it's also a huge amount of trust,
i think that then in turn, you turn to who you trust and can have confidence with to say, okay, this is what i've been presented with. i personally feel that, you know, the friendship will retain. i do think any kind of relationship would be strong enough to sustain the breaking of trust, if uchl. if it gets to that point. if you will. but i think that the next step is for that person to -- because it shouldn't be on that person's shoulders alone obviously. and for someone to take that huge step to confide in somebody else, but for -- if it were me, i would want to turn to somebody else and say how do i handle this? >> i think janee's point about if it's a dangerous situation, then breaking that trust is
actually sort of important because you don't want some kind of terrible outcome to happen and it's worth that risk to make sure that somebody is both safe and cared for. i think those are good things. there's another question that came through sort of that expands that to talk about the role of parents. what about parents that have -- their child is at school, maybe they're worried about them. how do they interact there or perhaps folks at school are worried about this particular student? how do you engage parents? what happens? because as rich appropriately says and i will attest to this as a parent now of post-college age young people, that your role does not end just because your older teen, young adult, is going to college. thoughts about that?
>> well, we were talking earlier just in -- over launch that more and more schools are really beefing up their parent orientation programs and this is really where schools are engaging in these kinds of topics and these kinds of conversationsment they're helping kwipt parents who are turning over their students to the care of the institution of higher ed. i think it does start there. i think it really starts at that point to just let the parents know that we're here to help. we also need your help. and here's how to help together. >> especially if your child has a preexisting mental health or substance issue. while, yes, you're right, everywhere the counseling or health centers' point of view they
wouldn't release information even to a pretended unless, of course, it was emergency. but that doesn't mean parents can't share information, history. it can be a one way conversation. so parents should really be encouraged if they're very concerned their student is floundering and the student hasn't come forward to the parent to pick up the phone and relay information can be a very helpful thing for the health and counseling center or the dean's office or whatever administrator at the school. >> certainly helping parents know about that is also really important as part of the college entrance orientation, things of that nature. so as we're kind of coming to the end of our time, i would be interested, especially for -- to those people watching the
program, either today or on demand in the future, what would be the one thing that you might want them to remember from today's discussion? say a particular take-away message. each of you have about 30 seconds to sort of respond. let me start with ayshah. go ahead. >> okay. i'm pretty sure i stated this, but i think this is probably my big things with my personal experience is just peer support. i'm all about the support. i'm all about really making when you're on campus, just really engaging with the entire campus and making an entire community and just helping anyone who you think needs help or even just being nice to someone if you know they're having a hard time and bully yg prevention.
just to be a better person and be positive and just always have good thoughts and to always help those around you and even just by doing that usual creating amazing change in some ways even further than just mental health. and i think that's the best take-away i could probably sum up in a short amount of time >> thank you. janee? >> sure. i'll just follow up with what ayshah just said, that same message. there are so many obstacles already for students trying to complete college which it can be a tremendously challenging, hard situation. and to have this added layer of mental health, this discussion, we have to all be a part of the solution. so the solution is multi-level
layers of support for students. we can all help remove obstacles for students dealing with mental health issues and trying to be in a college environment and being successful by listening, becoming educated about the language and how to speak in a non-judgmental way early before we're confronted with a problem or an issue that we don't feel versed i somebody is talking to you and opening up to you, back to what you saidary, they're asking for support. they need help. so if they've shared with you, be prepared to be able offer that even if you're a bystander, even if you're a third party, but you know of something. get involved and help by educating yourself first. >> good. nance?
>> i would say two things. first is if you're struggling, if you notice somebody is struggling, even if you just have a gut feeling that something might be wrong either in yourself or in a friend, speak up. just know that there are folks out there that can help you that will help you, i think the most important thing is to speak up and get help. and secondly, that these issues are everyone's responsibility and we all have a role to play in prevention and education. >> great. and rich? >> i would zero in on key words we saw in the two campus highlights, montana state university talked about it's an institutional issue and george mason talked about
partnerships. it's what nance said chltsd whether you're dealt with mental health issues or substance abuse issues, this is everybody's responsibility. it's not just the health center. it's not just the counseling center. it's also not just the campus it's the community as well. and so whether there's a campus task force or whether a campus community coalition, it is collectively, we will do great things. and just also what nance said, is for all of our listens and v is that if you are going through something or you know someone who is, help is available. it may not seem readily apparent but it's out there, and our programs and all the folks on campus and in the community are there to help >> that's great. i'd like to thank you each and every one of you for participating
today. not only to our guests here in the studio but all of a you who are watching or who are going to watch on demand. we want to thank you for your comments and your questions. please remember that we have a list of additional resources and we have more information about mental health initiatives on college campuses and you can go to our website samhsa.gov/children/multimedia. and i want all of you to be sure and join us next time, mark your calendars now, tuesday, november 3rd, when we're going to take a look at behavioral health issues in the classroom. so if you know of educators other teaches swell, please let them know. we're going to liv:30 p.m. that day eastern, so that our teaching and education professionals will be able to join us. and that's tuesday,
november 3rd, at 330 eastern time. so thank you all for watching and i hope to see you in november.
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