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why has student's mental health gotten worse?

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why has student's mental health gotten worse?

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Talkspace therapist Elizabeth Keohan, LCSW-C, LICSW, LCSW

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The Mental Health Crisis Amongst College Students — Talkspace | Talkspace

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Explore the growing mental health challenges faced by college students. Understand causes, impacts, and ways to support student well-being.

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More people in the U.S. are living with mental and emotional distress: In 2019, approximately 19.86% of U.S. adults experienced a mental health condition.

Possible reasons why mental health is getting worse include factors like social media use and isolation or loneliness. However, other factors like family history and experiences with other health conditions can play a role too. Here's what you need to know.

What Mental Health Conditions Are on the Rise?

There have been increased instances of mental health conditions, including:

Anxiety disorders

Depressive disorders

Obsessive-compulsive and related disorders

Sleep-wake disorders

Substance-related disorders

Risk Factors

Some factors can contribute to the development of mental health conditions, such as:

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)

Alcohol or drug use

Biological factors

Genetic factors, including family history

Brain-based chemical imbalances

Experiences from having medical conditions such as cancer or diabetes

Feelings of isolation and loneliness

Identity issues

Significant life changes, like becoming a parent or losing a job

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs)

Traumatic experiences

Women's health concerns, such as infertility, menopause, the postpartum period, and pregnancy

Other factors have also played a role in the increased occurrences of mental health conditions. Read on to learn more.

1. Social Media Use

It's estimated that 72% of Americans use social media. While social networking platforms have allowed many people to stay in touch with family and friends, research has shown some downsides to social media -especially regarding mental health.

Unhealthy behaviors associated with social media use include:

Comparing oneself excessively to others

Cyberbullying

Experiencing the fear of missing out (FOMO)

Many studies have linked social media use to poorer mental health outcomes-especially among younger people. A systematic review found that excessive time spent using social media was associated with anxiety, depression, negative body image, and psychological distress.

Research has shown that reducing social media use may have the opposite effect. One study found that college students who limited social media use for three weeks showed significantly reduced loneliness and depression compared to those with unlimited use.

Some forms of social media use-particularly Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube-were linked with higher levels of self-reported depressive symptoms, according to a study that surveyed over 5,000 individuals.

The pandemic brought rising numbers of people with mental health concerns.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, research suggested that the rate of serious psychological distress (SPD) among U.S. adults consistently ran between 3% and 4%-more than 8 million Americans. Globally, anxiety and depression increased by 25% during the first year of the pandemic.

In the U.S. alone, one in five adults reported that the pandemic significantly negatively impacted their mental health. Among them-and one of the top factors-was the social isolation people endured during the pandemic. Social isolation alone was found to have significant negative consequences on psychological well-being.

Being unable to work, lacking support from loved ones, and engaging socially less often were linked to social isolation. Other stressors during the pandemic included:

Death of a loved one

Fear of infection

Financial worries

3. Isolation and Loneliness

Isolation can also cause loneliness, related to various physical and mental conditions, including depression and anxiety.

The pandemic exacerbated isolation that a study reported was already increasing in the general population. That isolation was due to societal trends like decreased community involvement and fewer people getting married and having children.

Older adults are at increased risk for loneliness as they are more likely to face challenges such as:

Additionally, social isolation in older adults is linked to higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide.

While many studies and information are on older adults and loneliness, young adults can struggle with loneliness. One study stated that young adults ages 16 to 24 were the loneliest group in Western countries-even lonelier than older adults. This was the case before the pandemic, noted the researchers, who also linked the prevalence of loneliness in this group partly to social media use.

Immigrant and LGBTQ+ populations are also at higher risk of experiencing loneliness.

4. Lack of Access to Care

In addition to an increase in the need for psychiatric care with the rise in mental health conditions, getting that care can be difficult. Over half of individuals with a mental health condition do not receive treatment.

Approximately 11% of adults and youth with mental illness are uninsured. This data is despite people having more access to affordable healthcare via the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Over 25 million rural Americans live in areas with a shortage of mental health professionals. Even if they have the means to talk to a professional, one might not be available. In other words, people may have insurance that covers mental health services, but it cancels the insurance benefits if those services are unavailable.

Ways to Care for Your Mental Health

If you need help with your mental health, reaching out to a healthcare provider is a good place to start. They can give you information on resources in your area and provide a referral to a mental health professional if necessary. Additionally, there are self-care practices that may be beneficial for your mental health.

General Mental Health Resources

You can check out the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services mental health website for phone numbers and service locators for assistance directing you to the help you need. Further, you can call SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) to get referrals to:

Local treatment centers

Support groups

Other community-based organizations

Therapy Resources

Online therapy services, which are becoming increasingly common, are desirable if you need services at a reduced price or want a convenient way to receive care.

Keep in mind, however, that online services may not be the best option if you're dealing with a complex psychiatric disorder. You can still seek in-person therapy services from private providers or community clinics. Additionally, community clinics may offer mental health services on an income-based sliding fee scale if you don't have insurance.

There are several ways to find a culturally competent provider or one trained to serve your unique cultural needs. Health previously reported that digital mental health sites, such as Hurdle and Ayana Therapy, are aimed at diverse communities and offer a culturally responsive approach.

Some resources, like Mental Health America (MHA), also allow you to narrow your search for a therapist by applying specific characteristics, such as language and sexuality.

Looking for Support?

Self-Care Practices

Some mental health risk factors may be out of a person's control, like biological factors or family history. However, there are ways to ensure you care for yourself and improve your mental health. They include:

Developing coping skills and a sense of meaning and purpose in life

Doing relaxing activities

Eating healthy

Focusing on positivity

Getting regular exercise

Practicing gratitude

Prioritizing quality sleep

Setting goals and priorities for responsibilities

Staying hydrated

Staying socially connected with others

Caring for your mental health is as important as ever, especially with the many factors contributing to the rise in mental health conditions worldwide. That said, if you have any concerns about your mental health or well-being, don't hesitate to seek help. If you have difficulty finding the right resources, ask a trusted friend or family member to help you-the more support, the better.

A Quick Review

Mental health disorders have risen in the United States. The increase is due to the rise in social media, the COVID-19 pandemic, and societal trends that have resulted in smaller family units and less community involvement.

The mental health crisis, particularly acute for older people and the youngest adults, is compounded because people lack health insurance or access to a healthcare provider, depending on where they live. There are options if you need help with your mental health, from more affordable online services to community clinics to mental health websites that can direct you to more information.

Thanks for your feedback!

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4 Reasons for the Increase in Mental Health Conditions

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Lack of care access and COVID-19 are some factors in the rise of mental health disorders. Learn more about the rise and how to seek help.

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After the pandemic, students wouldn't socialize as much which caused them to feel alone and isolated from their peers, many students have reported to be sad and hopeless, after this pandemic.

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Many students bottle up their emotions which causes their mental health to get worse and causes them to have suicidal thoughts. About 80% of students don't get the help they need to get through this

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Many students also struggle from having past trauma, many students will hide this from their peers causing them to build up, much anxiety, and causing them to isolate everyone around them, including their close friends.

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Children and youth with mental health challenges sometimes experience difficulty at school for a variety of reasons. ACMH receives frequent calls from parents whose kids are struggling to be successful or sometimes not even being allowed to stay at school due to un-addressed mental health needs. Accessing the services that children and youth may need to help them better manage and support their mental health needs at school can be quite challenging. We hope this section will help.

Why Does Mental Health Matter in Schools?

Addressing mental health needs in school is critically important because 1 in 5 children and youth have a diagnosable emotional, behavioral or mental health disorder and 1 in 10 young people have a mental health challenge that is severe enough to impair how they function at home, school or in the community. ¹

Many estimates show that even though mental illness affects so many of our kids aged 6-17 at least one-half and many estimate as many as 80% of them do not receive the mental health care they need. ²

Being able to recognize and support kids mental health in schools matters because:

Mental health problems are common and often develop during childhood and adolescence

They are treatable!

Early detection and intervention strategies work. They can help improve resilience and the ability to succeed in school & life.

In addition, youth with emotional and behavioral disorders have the worst graduation rate of all students with disabilities. Nationally, only 40 percent of students with emotional, behavioral and mental health disorders graduate from high school, compared to the national average of 76 percent; 3 and, Over 50% of students with emotional and behavioral disabilities ages 14 and older, drop out of high school. This is the highest drop out rate of any disability group! 4

Obviously we have to do better! This section of the website will try to offer suggestions on how you might go about troubleshooting problems you may encounter when trying to access the support your child needs at school.

How Do Mental Health Disorders Affect Children and Youth at School?

Mental Health Disorders can affect classroom learning and social interactions, both of which are critical to the success of students. However, if appropriate services are put in place to support a young person's mental health needs we can often maximize success and minimize negative impacts for students.

One of the problems that families frequently run in to is getting the school to recognize the role of mental health disorders in relationship to the difficulty their child is having. Getting agreement to put strategies in place to address mental health issues and help the youth to better manage his or her mental health symptoms at school is sometimes equally as challenging.

Children's mental health can affect young people in a variety of ways to varying degrees in the school environment. One child's symptoms may be really hard to manage at school while another child with the same condition may not have much difficulty. In addition, like all of us, kids with mental health challenges have good days and bad, as well as, times periods when they are doing really well and times when their mental health symptoms become more difficult to manage.

When figuring out the types of supports and services to put in place, it is important to keep in mind that all kids are unique with differing needs and coping mechanisms. The mental health interventions that are chosen need to be based on the individual needs of each child and be able to flex in order to provide more or less support as needed.

Children with mental health needs often need a variety of types of supports in school for them to be successful. For example, a child with hyperactivity may benefit from working some activity into their daily classroom routine. A child with Oppositional Defiant Disorder might benefit from their teachers being trained to interact with them in a certain way. A young person who struggles with disorganization might be helped by being taught planning skills. Children who may become aggressive and those who get overly anxious may benefit from exploring what things lead up to those feelings and being taught strategies to recognize when it is happening and things to do to avoid the problem from escalating.

Sometimes meeting mental health needs in schools may require special instruction and/or practice. For example, if your child needs help for difficulties with social interactions or communication difficulties it may help to teach them new skills and have them practice using them by role-playing or trying them out in small groups.

It is also helpful to look at how mental health symptoms may affect a child in the classroom and the accommodations that may help. For example, children and youth with anxiety disorders may often struggle in school because they are so pre-occupied with their 'worries' that it makes it hard for them to pay attention. They may have physical complaints like stomach and headaches and may be frequently absent. They may also have trouble starting or completing their work because they are worried that it won't be right. Sometimes their fear of being embarrassed, or getting something wrong or their fear of having to interact with others may lead them to them to avoid group and social activities and perhaps school all-together.

Possible accommodations or strategies that may help include:

Allowing flexible deadlines or letting the student have an option to re-do work so they feel more confident turning it in.

Helping the teacher to recognize escalating anxiety in a child and equipping them with the tools to intervene and help the child to implement strategies that help manage their anxiety.

Pre-planning for group discussions to help reduce their anxiety about what they will share or say.

Make plan for what to do when they are unable to focus due to worries.

Allow for breaks or opportunities to de-stress.

You can download a list of accommodations that may help here: Accomodations & Instructional Strategies

How to Navigate Problems At School:

How you, as a parent, go about navigating problems at school for your child will depend on a variety of factors including the nature of the problem itself and whether or not your child needs or receives special services.

One strategy that is always helpful no matter how you attempt to solve problems is to work to build a strong working relationship with your child's school and the people in it. This can sometimes feel challenging at first, especially if you feel the school is not yet willing to do what you think your child needs to be successful. But try to keep in mind that you and the professionals at school really do have a common goal in mind and that is to help your child be successful at school. For more information about how to successfully advocate for your child's needs in school download a list of tips that may help you here: Parent Tipsheet Successful Advocacy at School

If you feel your child's mental health issues are making them unable to learn and progress at school they may qualify for special education or a supports from Section 504. For more information about the process of seeing if they are eligible for either of these programs click here to get an overview of process.

Whether or not your child receives special education services you can work with the school to try to get some supports in place to meet their needs.

If your child is having trouble in their classroom it might be best to first meet with the teacher and let them know your concerns. They may have some ideas and be willing to put some strategies in place to help your child.

If that doesn't resolve the problem you may also want to try to include other school staff such as the principle, social worker, etc. In addition, if your child receives private or public mental health services it may be helpful to ask your child's therapist to be a part of the meeting as well, as they may be able to provide some much needed insight about what might help your child.

Before any of these meetings take place it is always helpful to take the time to prepare by listing your concerns, including the things that you think your child is struggling with at school and the things you think will help them. It can also be helpful for you to think about the things that might make your child worse or aggravate their mental health condition.

When you meet and share your concerns, whether informally or in a formal meeting the professionals at your school will be able to offer suggestions about strategies they think may help. Again it can be helpful for you to review possible accommodations prior to the meeting with the school and select some to share that you think might be especially helpful for your child.

After the meeting with the school where you discussed your child's needs the school may want to do some classroom observations to better understand your child needs. Then you can work with the school to agree to put some strategies in place to help your child be more successful. It is important to keep in mind that the first try isn't always a success. You and the school may find out you need to go back to the drawing board and come up with new strategies.

If you are unable to get the school to put strategies in place or adjust them if they are not working, pleas feel free to call ACMH for help.

In addition to the suggestions above ACMH also has a pre-recorded webinar presentation: Meeting the Needs of Students With Mental Health Challenges in Schools located on the Michigan Alliance for Families (MAF) website that you can listen to by clicking here that may help you as you advocate for your child.

Michigan Alliance has several other videos on their site that may be helpful to you and they have Parent Mentors in each region of the state who can assist you to better understand the special education process and partner with your local school.

Behavioral Issues at School

For information about how to address behavioral issues at school and creating positive behavior support plans if you child receives special education services or has a 504 Plan click here to explore the Overview of the Special Education System.

If your child does not receive special education you can still work with the school to put a plan in place to address behavior issues.

Often if you can get the school to consider providing some of the accommodations or modifications discussed above to support your child when their mental health symptoms affect them at school this alone can help to reduce behavior problems.

Sometimes though some children and youth have ongoing behavioral challenges that may need additional support. You can work with the school to come up with a plan to support your child and teach them new skills in an effort to reduce behavior problems and help your child and the school cope with them when they do.

Plans should be focused on helping kids to recognize the things that can trigger behavioral issues and also teaching new behaviors and skills and allowing opportunities for the student to practice them.

Remember that your input can be critical when working to create a successful behavior plan for your child as you know your child best!

Suspension & Expulsion

If your child is being excluded from school by being sent home or suspended click here and scroll down to learn more about discipline issues at school including suspension & expulsion. If your child is eligible for special education and/or if your child's school is aware that he or she has a disability, there are limits to the school's ability to suspend or exclude your child from school for behavior related to your child's disability. For more information regarding school discipline, suspension, expulsion and safeguards for students with disabilities and those receiving special education, click here: http://www.michiganallianceforfamilies.org/education/discipline/.

Getting Formal Help to Resolve Disagreements with the School

When you are seeking special education services for your child or when the school is providing these services, sometimes problems or disagreements arise about what should be happening to support your child. When disagreements occur it is always best to try to resolve the problem by speaking with your school team and sharing your concerns. However if you are unable to work the issues out in this way, there are other formal and informal options for resolving disagreements including working your way up the 'chain of command' at your school, requesting mediation to resolve a problem and filing complaints.

For more information about dispute resolution options please visit:

Michigan Alliance for Families at:
http://www.michiganallianceforfamilies.org/education/disputes/
or,

Michigan Special Education Mediation Program at:

http://msemp.cenmi.org.

Final Thoughts:

If you find yourself struggling to help your child's school accommodate for your child's mental health needs please contact ACMH and a Family Resource Specialist will try to connect you to the information you need.

Endnotes:

¹Kessler, R. C., Berglund, P., Demler, O., et al. (2005). Life-time prevalence and age-of-onset distribution of DSM-IV disorders in the national co-morbidity survey replication. Archives of General Psychiatry 62, 593-602.

² Kataoka, S.; Zhang, L.; & Wells, K. (2002). Unmet need for mental health care among U.S. children: Variation by ethnicity and insurance status. American Journal of Psychiatry, 159(9), pp. 1548-1555.

³ U.S. Department of Education, Twenty-third annual report to Congress on the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Washington, D.C., 2001.

⁴ Data Resource Center for Child & Adolescent Health. (2005/2006). National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs. Portland, OR: The Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI). childhealthdata.org/browse/survey/results?q=1099&r=1

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Problems at School | Association for Children's Mental Health

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Learn how to navigate problems at school

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As students get into sports and have so much of their school work to worry about, they often lose themselves in their sports, which leads to being pre-occupied by other things more important than their mental health.

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Another reason many students have struggled in school is the poor quality of the classroom or their relationships with teachers and peers.

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A solution that could help these students improve their mental health is, having good relationships with teachers, checking in on students who seem off or need someone to talk to, and always checking grades to see if they're doing well academically.

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Having their friends reach out to their parents or teachers can help these students get through whatever they are going through. If their friends don't reach out at least having these students interact with others can help students not feel like they are going through something alone, having someone their could help them a lot more.

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Mental Health Problems in a School Setting in Children and Adolescents

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10–20% of children and adolescents have a mental health problem of some type. Manifestations such as attention deficits, cognitive disturbances, lack of motivation, and negative mood all adversely affect scholastic development. It is often unclear…