Over the past 100 years, society’s view on mental illness has changed considerably. As a society that once considered homosexuality to be akin to paranoia and bipolar depression, we have since progressed and started to address the issue of mental illness in a more serious and open manner. That being said, it is important to note that mental illness is still a taboo subject both around the country and right here on campus.
Now, this is not to say that DU doesn’t help its students with mental illnesses. DU has amazing counselors at the Health and Counseling Center (HCC) on campus. This facility offers 10 counseling sessions a year for students for anything from adjustment issues to couples counseling and substance abuse issues, while also offering unlimited group therapy sessions and workshops. They also work very hard to help students with mental illnesses to set up a network of psychiatrists and to aid students in finding facilities to best serve their needs.
The problem lies in the fact that the HCC needs more resources. According to Jacaranda Palmateer, Director of Counseling Services and Interim Executive Director of the HCC, for a school of over 12,000 students, DU’s HCC has five senior staff, 11 trainees and a select few psychiatrists and specialty counselors. They also must share their facility with the on-campus health center, which makes it so the counseling center can only see a few students at any given time.
There is also the matter of money and funding. Recently, DU received the Garrett Lee Smith Grant, which will help assist in suicide prevention through the expansion of on-campus mental health services and off-campus physiological networks. The HCC must use the money from this grant to better their facilities and create more accessibility, but it cannot issue funds directly to counseling. This kind of preventative funding is great, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is difficult for students to access this network due to a lack of employees or time.
Along with the issue of funding, there is still an issue of accessibility for students with mental illnesses. Though DU does a decent job of reminding its students that they need to monitor their mental health, there is still a stigma around people with mental illnesses. This stigma causes people to unjustly view those with mental illness as lazy, whiny, incompetent or crazy. Because of this, students sometimes do not want to seek out the help they need. The HCC also has problems reaching the students to let them know that these resources are available to them. Together, these issues make it very difficult for the HCC to provide help to students who need it.
DU is doing more than a lot of colleges in regards to mental illness. DU provides a facility for students to go and take care of themselves. It provides counselling and a network of facilities designed to make college life easier. The HCC is an amazing resource. Sadly, there are still issues of accessibility and resources facing the facility.
It seems that DU’s next step needs to be starting conversations about mental illness and providing the HCC with the resources it desperately needs. However, all in all, DU is doing a decent job addressing mental illness on campus.
