A Brief Note On Mandatory Screening For Mental Health

979 Words4 Pages

Mandatory Screening for Mental Health Issues Among College Students: Literature Review Today, mental health issues are becoming increasingly popular for college students. The transition to college is extremely difficult because students are moving away from home and getting out of their comfort zone. College can be a high stress/risk environment creating vulnerability among this population. This can then create mental health issues that students have not experienced before and create a hostile environment due to not knowing or having resources available to help. Specifically, depression, anxiety, and suicidality rates are increasing among college students in the United States. The typical onset of psychiatric conditions develops during late …show more content…

Structural supply shortfalls are partially responsible for low treatment rates. Some barriers to treatment include the perception that treatment is not needed, lack of time, perceived stigma, and preference for self-management (Ebert et al., 2019).
This review will show the high importance of the need for mandatory screening for mental health issues among college students. In a high stress/risk environment like college, it is crucial to screen for these issues before they potentially escalate. Many of these issues are missed due to lack of screening and lack of tools available to providers to help treat these …show more content…

At a young age, it is sometimes valued as “weak” or “crazy” to be diagnosed with a mental health issue. The transition to college can be especially hard and can involve an increased amount of stress and change.
In a study by Ebert et al., they found that college students would rather handle the problem alone and want to talk to friends or relatives instead due to embarrassment. They also found that further research is needed to determine which intervention strategies need to be adjusted to student characteristics. Due to this bias, a vast majority of college students with significant mental health disorders and suicidal thoughts remain untreated (2019).
It is important to combat the bias amongst college students and mental health. By regularly screening for mental health issues, treating, and educating students this will diminish the bias. Hopefully by diminishing the bias against mental health issues in college students they will be willing to receive help/treatment.