Over the past decade, campus mental health has bloomed into a crisis, with rates of depression and anxiety symptoms more than doubling. The COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated the problem, with over 60% of college students meeting the criteria for at least one mental health issue in the 2020-21 school year. Now, a new report from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) and UWill, an online counseling platform for colleges and universities, has shown that mental health is continuing to decline.
The report is based on survey responses from student affairs leaders at over 100 institutions, representing more than 150,000 students. The results were unambiguous: 72% of respondents believed that student, faculty, and staff mental health had gotten worse over the past year. 43% said that their greatest challenge was the increased severity of the mental health issues that they were facing.
Dr. John Dunkle, senior director of learning and knowledge at the JED Foundation
Although students may have returned to campuses, the pandemic is still having an effect, according to Dr. John Dunkle, senior director of learning and knowledge at the JED Foundation (JED), a non-profit focusing on young adult mental health and suicide prevention.
“We’ve been traumatized as a nation,” he said. “I think we’re trying to figure out how we reach a new normal.”
Students may be struggling with reconnecting after being isolated, with having lost loved ones, and with the financial impacts of the pandemic. The most common leading stressors in the NASPA survey were personal or family life issues and financial or debt issues, both identified by 76% of respondents. 44% said that COVID concerns were most prominent, and an equal percentage said that the biggest stressor was students meeting their own basic needs.
On the plus side, stigmas surrounding mental health seem to be decreasing. 93% of respondents thought that students have become more comfortable talking about mental health. Just 4% said that stigma was a significant challenge.
“By and large, students are really talking about it more than the so-called adults on campuses,” said Dunkle. “That has resulted in them being more likely to want, and in some cases, demand more resources.”
