Across North America, conversations about student stress and mental illness have moved from the campus margins to the mainstream. So what accounts for the growing angst among students? And what role, if any, should universities play in the burgeoning field of building student resilience and combating mental illness?
Western News drew in three leading experts for a conversation about what’s going on and why universities spend a growing share of time and budgets on student mental wellness: Education professor Colin King, Director, Western’s Child and Youth Clinic; Jennie Massey, Associate Vice-President (Student Experience); and Kathy Dance, director of Psychological Services at the Student Development Centre.
Index to podcast:
02:20 – Student stress: what has changed
04:50 – Perception and reality in campus mental health
06:54 – Dealing with waiting lists
12:19 – Student life as pressure cooker
14:50 – Child/teen/young-adult brain development
16:30 – The role of universities in mental health
21:00 – Developing students who have ‘grit’
25:37 – Where we go from here
30:47 – How to find help
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