The National Alliance for Mental Illness reports that mental health issues are prevalent on college campuses, and are coming up with a plan to spread mental health education.

According to NAMI’s statistics, one in four young adults between the ages of 18 to 24 have a diagnosable mental illness and more than 25 percent of college students have been diagnosed or treated by a professional for a mental health condition within the past year.

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On Nov. 7, NAMI started offering college students, faculty, and coaches a free toolkit that will provide resources for mental health education and awareness. The toolkit provides instructional materials such as video clips of students talking about mental health issues and a template to list local campus mental health resources.

The toolkit is based on a survey report NAMI published last year. The survey’s results called attention to a need for better education about mental health issues, and increased access to mental health care on college campuses.

Sarah Kertz, assistant psychology professor, said the NAMI toolkit is a great initiative and has a lot of useful information, but only if it is utilized.

“That information has to be disseminated and shared for it to ultimately be helpful and that’s a role that everyone can take on, as a friend, teacher, co-worker, classmate, team mate, and so on,” Kertz said.

Kelsey Schuler, a junior from Shorewood studying psychology, is the president of registered student organization Active Minds. She said the RSO is dedicated to decreasing the stigma associated with mental illness and increasing awareness about symptoms and treatment options, she said she thinks mental illnesses appear more in people in their twenties, but thinks it is more due to development instead of environment.

Schuler said lack of education about mental illnesses inhibits people who need help.

“I think it has a huge stigma in college because people don’t want to be labeled as the crazy or depressed person who just can’t function in certain situation,” Schuler said. “It’s really hard for some people to come forward about their issues or to seek help.”

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According to NAMI statistics, 40 percent of students with diagnosable mental health conditions did not seek help and 57 percent of them did not request accommodations from their school.

Kertz said education could help people suffering in the long run.

“One thing that can really make a difference is early intervention and getting treatment early,” Kertz said.

The Journal of the American Medical Association Network, an international peer-reviewed journal, has done a study that concluded psychiatric disorders, particularly alcohol use disorders, are common in the college-aged population. The study also stated that overall, fewer than 25 percent of those with a mental disorder sought treatment in the year prior to the survey.

Jordan Smith, a freshman from Oswego studying electrical engineering, said he is not surprised about the study and thinks college contributes to the mental health issues often seen in young adults.

“In combination with drug and alcohol use being common, and the pressure school puts on students, I’m sure college life attributes to mental health issues,” Smith said.

Cardinal said she is not surprised by the study, because the high school environment does not take mental health issues seriously.

“It shows up here because when they’re in high school their issues are dismissed,” Cardinal said. “College gives them the resources.”

Kertz said college is not necessarily a trigger for mental health problems.

“One thing I want to point out is that while the rates of mental illness in college students is high, it’s actually not higher than the rates found in similar aged peers who aren’t attending college,” Kertz said. “So there is nothing about college itself that is related to more symptoms.”

Kertz said the higher rates for mental illnesses in young adults, have more to do with the changes and challenges that are typical of the age, and not whether or not a person is enrolled in college.

“That’s not to say that college isn’t stressful, but it’s not more likely to result in symptoms,” Kertz said.

While NAMI is trying to raise mental health awareness on college campuses nationally, Active Minds is trying to raise awareness on SIU’s campus.

“We try to reassure people that have different thoughts or feelings about mental health and encourage them to seek help,” Schuler said.

Schuler said Active Minds put messages around campus that promote body acceptance and a healthy attitude toward mental health.

Another thing Schuler said Active Minds did was put out 1,100 chalk handprints around campus to represent the 1,100 students that commit suicide on college campuses in a year.

“We try to help the Counseling Center and tell students that there is a place they can go here on campus,” Schuler said.

Schuler said she thinks the toolkit will be helpful, because not all majors take classes that educate them on mental health issues.

“I know in my psychology classes we go over a lot of that information that would probably be in the toolkit, but I’m not sure they go over that in non-psychology courses,” Shuler said. “It’s good to be familiar with mental health issues even if you don’t have them so you can work with the people who do have them and recognize the symptoms so you can help them get help.”

The NAMI toolkit is available online at name.org/namioncampus.

Elizabeth Zinchuk can be reached at 

[email protected] 

or 536-3311 ext 254.