DAVID HERRING
Special to The Leader
Do you know why the Kauli tribe of New Guinea are so happy? Daniel, a junior here at SUNY Fredonia, thinks he might know. “I think it’s because they get a lot of vitamin C.”
Daniel isn’t talking about the vitamin you get from supplements or food like oranges. Daniel means vitamin C as in social “connection.” He views connections with his peers and community members as a key component of his mental health treatment. Though Daniel has made progress opening up about his mental health issues, he preferred to remain anonymous for this interview.
“I learned you have to get outside of your own head, leave the house once in a while and talk to people,” he said. “Yes, I struggle and suffer, but so does everyone else. I could, for instance, have a neighboring country trying to take out my people.”
Unfortunately, Daniel is part of a growing majority. A Healthy Minds Study using the 2020-2021 academic year, revealed that 60% of college students met criteria for at least one mental health problem. COVID-19 contributed to this high percentage, but the trend was already rising over the last decade.
But Daniel hasn’t always sought out support from peers. He says he used to suffer in silence even among his closest friends. He didn’t want anyone to know he struggled with mental health issues because he was afraid of being looked at differently. But it’s 2022, not 1950. Is mental health stigmatism still a key issue for college students?
Recent research strongly indicates that mental health stigma is still relevant and even worsens the impact of stress on mental health and suicide in college students, according to a 2017 article published in the journal Stigma and Health.
Perceived stigma isn’t the only barrier students face when contemplating mental health services. Fear unrelated to stigmatization can create uncertainty about asking for help as well.
Dr. Tracy Stenger, director of Student Wellness and Support services and Interim Vice President for Student Affairs, notes a variety of reasons why students might not seek help for mental health issues. Stenger, a seasoned, licensed counseling psychologist, cites concerns regarding fear of disclosing personal information and vulnerability that may follow, the prospect of change and having to hold oneself accountable.
So, the initiation process itself can be the Mount Everest of barriers for some students. That’s where having someone on a mental health team besides counselors come into play. A facilitator — someone like Julie Bezek.
When Bezek talks about her role here at SUNY Fredonia, her face lights up as though she’s reliving a cherished memory of one of her children. Paul Ekman, the psychologist who made his name studying facial muscles and the associated emotions, would be quick to point out the “crow’s feet” in the corner of Bezek’s eyes. For Ekman, that’s a sign of genuine positive emotion. Like compassion, for instance.
Bezek wears many hats, but her primary role is being the care coordinator for students. A large portion of Bezek’s duties involve co-chairing the Student of Concerns committee. This multidisciplinary team collaborates on how best to respond when reports are submitted by anyone at SUNY Fredonia or beyond. Bezek then follows-up with the person who submitted a student concern report to understand the student’s situation better and to determine potential recommended courses of action.
Bezek sees herself as a coach or facilitator for students.
“For some who have uncertainty about counseling or assistance, I often can be that facilitator to help show them [that] help doesn’t have to be scary,” she said. “It allows them to dip their toes into the water of assistance.”
Bezek noted the critical support Resident Assistants (RAs) also provide in facilitating mental health services for students.
“Other students sometimes feel more comfortable talking with RAs because they’re someone students can identify with,” Bezek said. “You can see that maybe they’ve gone through similar things.”
One such RA is Justin Carrington. Better known by his peers at Nixon Hall as RA Poppas.
Carrington emphasizes fear as a barrier to reaching out for help, too. He’s seen a number of students equate reaching out for help as a sign that failure is imminent.
But there’s another part of the barrier to reaching out for help: unbeknownst ignorance. “I just don’t think students are aware of all the options they have here,” Carrington said.
Carrington and his fellow RAs “preach” mental health services regularly. He tells his peers to let him know what they look like when they’re not themselves. Unfortunately, very few of his peers take him up on this.
Carrington might be onto something. The peer-to-peer mental health group Active Minds performed a large-scale, multi-university survey study in 2020. One of the key statistics uncovered from this study was that over 55% of the students surveyed did not know what to do for immediate mental health assistance. Hence, lack of knowledge about mental health isn’t a problem specific to SUNY Fredonia.
Still, it’s troubling to think there may be a substantial number of students here at SUNY Fredonia not able to navigate the many services available to them. After all, the university puts several safeguards in place to make sure students are clear on what resources are at their disposal.
During first-year orientation, the Counseling Center provides information and resources for new students. The Counseling Center staff visit most freshman seminars and often do “meet and greets” with individual departments. Resident Hall and Counseling Center staff ensure RAs are trained rigorously and well prepared for the front line on campus.
Because every student should be knowledgeable about what tools are in their mental health toolbox, here are some (but not all) of the key SUNY Fredonia sites packed full of mental health nuggets. Review these sites, which will lead you to other useful ones.
You likely don’t need reminding, but finals are around the corner and knowing what resources are available will go a long way for you now and down the road, should you need some help.
And do this regardless of whether you think you’re already knowledgeable about mental health resources at this campus. A refresher won’t kill you. Tell your friends to do it, too.
Now that you’re more familiar with SUNY Fredonia’s mental health resources, what’s next? Consider this quote from Benjamin E. Mays, the inspirational civil rights activist and college mentor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr:
“The tragedy of life is not found in failure but complacency. Not in you doing too much, but doing too little. Not in you living above your means, but below your capacity. It’s not failure but aiming too low, that is life’s greatest tragedy.”
There’s a lot to be excited about here at SUNY Fredonia with the mental health services and resources that are available. Nevertheless, given the current mental health crisis, let us not become complacent. Here’s three exciting opportunities that demonstrate both SUNY Fredonia’s and our students’ commitment to supporting mental health:
1.) A systematic assessment of mental health service needs
Much of the focus on college campuses — SUNY Fredonia being no exception — has historically been intervention-service driven. That is, what can mental health professionals do for students when they need urgent or crisis services? (As noted in the infographic, the Counseling Center does reserve time slots for students needing a walk-in crisis session.)
It’s tempting to put most of the mental health resources in the now basket. The logic goes something like, “We’re facing a mental health crisis now, so let’s tackle this problem with more counselors.” A brute force approach.
The SUNY Fredonia Counseling Center typically provides services for 8-13% of students, Janicki notes. This demand for student counseling services is par for the course for a campus the size of SUNY Fredonia, according to the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors 2021 Annual Survey.
Despite serving a typical percentage of students for counseling services, a brute force approach is a reactive strategy. Reacting to the demand of student mental health needs now is a given for mental health providers. That’s the intervention component of services.
But being mostly reactive to mental health demands is a precarious position. Not the position a community wants to be in when, say, a pandemic strikes. Stenger and her administrative colleagues know this.
What’s needed is a more proactive strategy. “What can we do before students get here that helps them be prepared for this experience and that supports them?” Stenger asked.
As such, SUNY Fredonia will be working with the JED Foundation, a nonprofit suicide prevention organization named after the son of Donna and Phil Satow. Over a four year period, SUNY Fredonia professionals will work with JED to take a more systematic approach to understanding the unique needs of their students.
2.) Novel approaches for services outside of working hours
Availability outside of university working hours is a concern some students express. Janicki and colleagues are aware of this concern and are considering novel ways to expand service offerings.
In the Counseling Center’s defense, they offer 140 hours of counseling services per week. The amount of service hours SUNY Fredonia offers are well above average, according to the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors 2021 Annual Survey.
Janicki mentioned the Counseling Center has narrowed in on an online peer support organization. Janicki and colleagues hope to share more details with the campus community soon.
3.) Megadosing vitamin C with a peer-to-peer mental health chapter.
The following call for action doesn’t imply the university has an issue with open discussions about mental health. It also doesn’t imply that there haven’t been adequate peer-to-peer opportunities available.
Instead, the proposal of a peer-to-peer mental health chapter is in keeping with the spirit of resisting complacency and being more proactive about mental health at SUNY Fredonia.
You’re probably wondering why you should take more time out of your already busy schedule to make another commitment to something you likely don’t have time for. The answer is because the mental health of our campus community matters, is a priority, and having a peer-to-peer chapter devoted to mental health predicts important outcomes.
For example, students at universities with peer-to-peer mental health chapters are significantly more knowledgeable and hold less negative beliefs about peers living with mental health problems, according to a 2018 study published in the “Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.”
These researchers also found that students’ involvement in peer-to-peer mental health chapters helped peers more often by providing emotional support or helping a peer seek assistance from a mental health professional.
If engagement in a mental health chapter that promotes greater awareness and destigmatization of mental health issues interests you, then please keep an eye out for advertising next semester for an initial interest meeting (date, time and location TBD). Please also enter your name and email in this form to receive a reminder email about this initial event once the event details are determined. In the meantime, see the Active Minds and U Bring Change 2 Mind sites to learn more about student-led mental health chapters.
“What I mean by vitamin C is that the Kauli peoples are so connected and supportive of one another that they don’t let each other get down. There’s this genuine need to help one another and to be supportive. It’s just their way of being,” Daniel explains.
Daniel’s reference to this hunter/gatherer tribe raises the question, what environment or culture is most conducive to our mental health? Does one group of people thrive more emotionally because they focus on the greater good of the whole group (collectivism) compared to another group struggling emotionally because the emphasis is on the individual (i.e., individualism)?
Maybe Daniel’s individualism versus collectivism argument is a stretch, and it’s hardly original. You can find this idea in the back of “Learned Optimism,” a book by the positive psychologist Martin Seligman.
Yet, there’s no denying that humans are an inherently social species. The late pioneer of social neuroscience, John T. Cacioppo, demonstrated time and again that the body breaks down when humans perceive themselves isolated from those around them.
Forming a student-led chapter focused on raising awareness and diminishing negative beliefs about mental health ultimately leads to a more inclusive and supportive culture.
What do we have to lose by improving upon the already fantastic resources the administration and mental health professionals provide?