Why did I start alleviatedmind.com?
This blog exists to help young people, especially college students, deal with the forces that effect one's mental health. Transitioning out of high school can be scary, daunting and intimidating. Kids are forced to immediately start their future. Adults expect their children to know exactly what career they want to study and pursue for the remainder of their lives straight out of high school....I want to know why?
My blog exists to support young people through the challenging times of entering adulthood and finding oneself and one's motivation. College can be a mental shock to some people and coping with the challenges of college life is hard.
There is a huge demand for more mental health treatment for college students. Our society needs to wake up and learn to accept ongoing mental health treatment for individuals and realize it is necessary for some people.. This mental health article about treatment available for mental health students sheds light on what is currently happening among our college students.
Source: Insidehighered,com
photo credit: mentalhelp.net
The key takeaway I got from this article was there is less availability for long term mental health treatment and a growing accessibility of urgent/emergency 24/7 responses for mental health crisis victims.
My thing is, why are we waiting until people reach such a critical low and emergency mental health situation? All long you could have been treating this patient ongoing so they did not reach this breaking point? It seems the mental health care system has it backwards. They wait until people reach their breaking point, instead of providing ongoing mental health management to prevent reaching the breaking point.
The article discusses waiting lists that exist at colleges and universities across the country. These waiting lists consist of students who are seeking ongoing and regular mental health sessions, however the college does not have the staff to help all of the students....so they wait.
Do these students have time to wait? If they wait to long...then they may reach their breaking point and end up at the new 24/7 emergency crisis center available to students. But why let it get to that point? Why aren't college's providing their students with the ongoing treatment they need?
College is stressful and students face anxiety and depressions regularly. Add in the whole social party aspect of college with drugs and alcohol and that is a deadly mixture. If students need help it only makes senses for their college's to help them....but it seems America's college's and universities have their priorities set differently.
My blog exists to help students who can't get the help they need, to inspire people and remind them they are magnificent.