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| Trauma, culture shock, social isolation, anxiety and procrastination are some of the problems for which students seek help. |
Next week marks Mental Illness Awareness Week in Canada, an event designed in part to draw attention to the stigma often surrounding mental illness.聽The university environment isn鈥檛 exempt from this bias.
鈥淭he stigma is lessening but still there,鈥� says Victor Day, director of Dalhousie Counselling and Psychological Services.聽 鈥淥ur clients are concerned with confidentiality.鈥澛�
Dr. Day says while some use the term "mental illness," Counselling Services prefers 鈥減sychological problems.鈥澛犫�淚t鈥檚 a matter of degree,鈥� he says.聽鈥淪tudents may be anxious or depressed to a moderate degree without having an illness.鈥澛犅�
A popular misconception is that visits to Counselling Services spike during exam periods.聽Dr. Day says exam anxiety accounts for less than 10 per cent of visits.聽The stream of students seeking help (more than 1,500 in 2008) remains fairly steady through the year.聽鈥淭here is usually a combination of academic and personal stressors that have been going on for awhile.鈥澛燭raumatic events such as a sexual assault or family death may also lead students to seek help.聽
Culture shock and social isolation are areas of concern for visiting international students whose 鈥減erformance pressures鈥� can be exacerbated by second language difficulties and negativity around seeking treatment.聽Says Dr. Day: 鈥淪ome students come from cultures where there is traditionally more stigma associated with seeking help for psychological problems.鈥澛犅犅�
Some things are looking up.聽Dr. Day has seen a long-term trend across North America in which more students are seeking help than they were a generation ago.聽He also notes that there are people with diagnosed mental illnesses coming to university who might not have done so in the past.聽Dr. Day sees this as the result of early intervention鈥攏otably, increased support services for adolescents with mental illness.聽聽
The recent story of alcohol poisoning among students during a party at Acadia University raises the question of substance abuse on Dal campus.聽鈥淣ot a large portion of our work is related to drug or alcohol abuse,鈥� says Dr. Day.聽What happened at Acadia, he says, 鈥渋s not terribly unusual.聽A lot of students get intoxicated a lot. It鈥檚 not necessarily indicative of an alcohol abuse problem.鈥澛燙ounselling Services sometimes sees 鈥渢he effects of irresponsible drinking鈥� in clients seeking psychological help after experiencing a sexual assault or acquiring a sexually transmitted disease where alcohol was involved.聽
Counselling Services tries to develop programming based on client needs. While most students prefer one-on-one counselling, there are a number of group workshops targeting commonly identified problem areas such as managing anxiety, eating disorders, the experience of grief and loss and procrastination.聽The latter item might cause an eyebrow to rise.聽 Procrastination as a psychological problem?聽
Dr. Day聽 says procrastination is 鈥渁n almost universal phenomenon among students.鈥澛營n a survey conducted among service users, one quarter of self-identified procrastinators said their habit 鈥渃auses significant problems鈥� in their lives.聽
鈥淧rocrastination is a behavioural effect with many different causes,鈥� he notes, citing performance anxiety, depression, career indecision and anger about academic pressures as among potential contributors to the problem.聽聽聽聽
For those not comfortable with coming into the Counselling Services office for help, an online self-help program will be introduced within the next few weeks. 鈥淔eeling Better鈥� will target those experiencing mild to moderate anxiety or depression.聽 The service is based on a pilot project launched last year. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an idea whose time has come,鈥� says Dr. Day, who sees this self-educational program as having 鈥渢he same benefits and limitations as self-help books鈥�.聽聽The human touch is still important, however. 鈥淢ost people still want to talk to a human being,鈥� he says.聽
Mental Illness Awareness Week runs from October 4 to 10, 2009.