Amid national discussion of the tragic outcome of mental disorders left untreated, university communities have become increasingly concerned with providing timely and comprehensive assistance to students dealing with mental difficulties.
Despite last year's shootings at Virginia Tech showing the tragic consequences of untreated mental health problems, Hopkins officials and students alike find students are still reluctant to discuss mental health.
"College students today are more vulnerable than they were 10 years ago," Dean of Student Life Susan Boswell said.
A number of groups within the Hopkins community continue to provide students with services intended to help maintain their mental health. Despite the availability of these services, certain social and cultural barriers may prevent some students from using them.
"It's not a sexy issue," said Juliana Kerrest, president of the Hopkins chapter of Active Minds, a student group devoted to mental health awareness, education and advocacy.
After four years of listening to his fellow students, Aaron Lazorwitz, director of A Place to Talk (APTT), observed that the mental health situation here on campus is "plagued by serious stigmas in regards to seeking help for mental health issues."
Lazorwitz feels that students need to be continually educated on the importance of mental health to remove the stigmas surrounding the act of seeking help for mental stresses or difficulties.
If not, "many students will continue to suffer from mental health problems when there are so many resources here to help them," he said.
Director of the Hopkins Counseling Center Michael Mond considers the stigma a cultural issue. Some people, he explained, are either embarrassed or ashamed of admitting that they are having difficulty because they are concerned that something might be wrong with them.
These attitudes pose a problem to the mental health of students dealing with mental difficulties. Clare King, a psychologist at the Counseling Center, explained that "many students don't seek help until they are in crisis, feeling they should be able to work things out on their own."
But at the same time, Mond pointed out that this "doesn't mean that students don't use the services" available to them. Of the approximately 7,000 undergraduates and graduates at the Homewood, Peabody and School of Nursing campuses eligible for the Counseling Center's services, around 1,000, or about 14 percent, seek them each year.
Most students who use the Counseling Center's services do not suffer from serious mental illnesses. The most common difficulties students face include anxiety, depression and problems with relationships, identity and adapting to a new environment. Mond encourages students to seek help in addressing these types of questions.
"The truth is," he said, "that people who use our services are wise," and not "weak," despite what stigmatized opinions surrounding the mental health discourse - or apparent lack thereof - on college campuses might suggest.
Juliana Kerrest recounted her own experience with confronting and observing mental difficulty.
"Mental illness is such a lonely battle no matter what," she said. "In the end, it's basically you against yourself. It's your own mind against yourself."
Kerrest said the loneliness of mental illness frightens people and makes them reluctant to discuss it with others.
She also observed that much of the stigma surrounding mental illness results from social interaction.
"There is a difficulty with friends not knowing how to react," she said. "People draw away."
The person suffering from a mental difficulty may not be aware that he or she is sending the signals but others pick up on them. "People get scared and draw away, which is understandable," she said.
Kerrest hopes to widen the experience and acceptance of mental illness among students by encouraging more people to talk about it.
"People who can talk about it need to," she said. She has found that it is difficult for students who have not had to deal with mental problems to explain and understand what it is like to confront them. That is to say, she has found two problems to overcome; while it is difficult to understand what experiencing mental illness is like, putting that into words poses further problems.
She considers the misconception around mental illness to be a form of misunderstanding, and insists that overcoming the stigma necessarily involves working to correct the misunderstanding.
Hopkins students have an array of services available to them. These include both services provided through official University outlets, and others available through independently run student groups. Official University mental health resources can be accessed through the Office of the Dean of Student Life and, more specifically, through the Hopkins Counseling Center. Student groups involved in mental health education and assistance include A Place to Talk (APTT), a confidential peer listening group, Active Minds, a group dedicated to advocacy for and education about mental health and the Sexual Assault Response Unit (SARU).
