By Daniel Stoller
Jordan Choy was a sophomore transfer student in her first semester at Northeastern last fall. She’d been seeing a therapist to handle depression at home in New York since April 2007, but when she started school, her depression worsened, and she wondered about medication.
After one therapy appointment at University Health Care Services (UHCS), Choy was prescribed Zoloft and Adavan for anxiety and depression.
These pharmaceuticals “didn’t mix well” and she began having suicidal thoughts, she said. A frantic phone call to UCHS later, she went in for an emergency appointment that resulted in her being perscribed a new prescription. She was referred to an off-campus therapist, but “never felt a real connection with the person I was seeing,” Choy said.
Halfway through her first semester, still feeling very depressed, she decided she needed time off from school so she unenrolled.
“One of the reasons I left Northeastern was because I was going through the worst part of my depression and I knew that if I didn’t find a good doctor and get things taken care of, I would’ve just gone downhill,” Choy said.
She added that one frustrating thing about UHCS was that every appointment was with a new therapist who only knew her “through my chart, and assumed they knew me because of that.”
A recent survey by the American College Counseling Association found that 7.5 percent of those treated by their college health center will “have impairment so severe they are unable to remain in school or can only do so with on-going psychological/psychiatric care.”
Robert Gallagher, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, was the researcher tasked with heading the study. In an article he wrote to announce the results of the study, he singled out the rise in depression rates as most concerning.
“This is an issue of importance for counseling centers across the country,” Gallagher wrote. “This trend is not only a concern for counseling centers but the vast majority of directors believe that these troubled students are of growing concern to college administrators across the county.” Gallagher warned that these increases in psychological problems could affect colleges negatively.
“Colleges and universities are facing a growing problem that, if unchecked, could impact significantly on college life. Mental health problems can adversely affect academic achievement, classroom management and student retention,” he said. The study, a national survey of college health center directors, also found that depression is on the rise among college students. The data shows that 94.5 percent of schools with more than 15,000 undergraduates that were included in the survey responded “yes” when asked if they’ve seen an increase in students with “serious psychological problems.”
Only 41.5 percent of college health centers could treat those students “within the time limits and available treatment modalities existing at [the school’s health] center.”
At Northeastern, a variety of programs exist to help students deal with depression and other mental illnesses.
Spiritual Life, the on-campus, interfaith spirituality and religion center, offers “both direct and indirect services for students who may be dealing with depression,” said Shelli Jankowski-Smith, director of Spiritual Life. “We have eight chaplains here . They have discussions if students are feeling overwhelmed, or feeling that they’re having a crisis of faith, or a crisis relating to their view of the world.”
Indirect services include weekly meditation sittings and yoga classes.
“These kinds of practices that are spiritual [and] centering can be very helpful at times for people who are going through depression,” Jankowski-Smith said. She stressed that none of the services the center provides are clinical, and that if referrals for therapy are necessary, the center can provide them.
The We Care program, run in conjunction with the Office of Student Affairs, also helps to provide a support net for students dealing with issues ranging from depression to a broken leg, and everywhere in between, said Amal Shumal, who organizes the cross-departmental program. Shumal thinks of We Care as the school “taking the further step for our students.”
Working as a liaison, the We Care team is composed of a representative from Public Safety, the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution, UHCS, housing and Spiritual Life. In cases of depression, the program “point[s] students toward health services.”
According to the UHCS website, however, only short-term therapy is offered. And while referrals for long-term therapy are given, there is no guarantee the student will contact another therapist.
A description of the services and charges for therapy under the school’s insurance program shows that each visit costs the client $15, and only covers 24 visits per year for in-network therapists.
