Protecting The Pride
Protecting The Pride
Mental Health Activism Collective
WGS 496 Capstone 2020
The College of New Jersey
Mental Health Activism Collective
WGS 496 Capstone 2020
The College of New Jersey
The TCNJ WGSS Activism Capstone commits to making a lasting impact on our campus community regarding mental wellness. Our focus is to engage with the student population at TCNJ on this issue. In light of the COVID-19 crisis, we have adapted our approach from tabling and an in-person expo to producing a website providing information on mental health topics that are important to students as well as accessibility and resources. Despite this shift, we are still guided by our original goal: we hope to add nuance to the conversation on mental health on campus and initiate institutional change while being informed by and focused on the student experience.
The need for a higher level of mental healthcare among college students is not a new or innovative concept. However, the urgency of this issue was further exposed in the wake of the global pandemic that is COVID-19. Prior to the outbreak:
Anxiety was found to be the top mental illness of college students, with "41.6%" of students reporting it as their foremost mental health concern (American Psychological Foundation, 2013)
Anxiety was the leading diagnosis for college students in New Jersey according to on-campus resources and offices (JED Foundation, 2016)
19% of members of the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors find mental health resources on college campuses to be inadequate (American College Health Association, 2015)
Mental illness, including anxiety, is the second leading cause of death among college students (JED Foundation, 2016)
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 and the closure of college campuses and off-campus resources, mental health concerns have spiked, including:
A 36.4% increase in anxiety, ranging from mild to severe symptoms (Gao et al. 2020)
A spike in social anxiety related to ongoing social isolation and decreased access to coping mechanisms and professional care (Barnes 2020)
Increased prevalence in Generalized Anxiety Disorder, depressive symptoms, and sleep quality in college students, specifically (Huang Zao 2020)
An estimated 53.8% of the population experiencing "a moderate or severe psychological impact" due to COVID-19 (Gao et al. 2020)
Anxiety and mental health have always been one of the foremost concerns of college-aged students, however, this crisis has exposed how paper-thin the current, available resources are and how easily progress and accessibility can be stripped away. We find that, with or without a global pandemic, there must be an increased range of available resources for the mental healthcare of students.
Our capstone is working to make the often invisible truth about mental health visible to the student body. By exposing these invisibilities, we hope to break down the stereotypes, misconceptions, and stigma that prevent students from reaching out for help. We want to build a climate on college campuses that facilitates more understanding, open and compassionate discourse regarding mental health.
A large part of the problem stems from the fact that individuals with psychiatric disorders experience “feelings of social isolation and loneliness [that] predominant in individuals with mental health concerns” (Manikonda & De Choudhury). We hope our expo would help bring a sense of community to those that feel alone in their mental/emotional struggles.
The truth is that, “[in] 2015, approximately 21 million students were enrolled in colleges and universities in the United States (7). That same year, 26% of students seen at college counseling centers stated that they were currently taking psychiatric medications, compared with 9% in 1994 and 20% in 2003,” (Downs, Tracy, Schneiber, and Swerdlow). With these numbers on a consistent rise, it would be detrimental to the student body for the current attitude towards mental health to stay the same. Students are oftentimes too scared to ask for the accommodations they require for maximum academic success. The existing stigma is enough to keep students at bay of help-seeking intentions. Even students who are eligible, “to receive accommodations [experience] many barriers… In one study, 56% of participants reported feeling embarrassed about disclosing their condition to faculty; 56% reported a fear of being stigmatized by faculty. Other concerns included a lack of cooperation from faculty (42% of participants) and a fear of being stigmatized by peers (41% of participants),” (Woodhead, Chin-Newman, Spink, Hoang, & Smith).
Overall, students are not as alone as their minds may be tricking them to feel. We want to use this capstone to prove this to them and to properly equip students, faculty, and members of the administration with the knowledge and tools to create a more equitable discourse on the topic of mental health.