Mental health support for post-secondary students

[Admiral Beez]

Has the way universities are run changed? If it has, I get the impression that over time, these educational institutions have dumbed things down and made achieving academic success easier than in the past, if anything.

Or, did past generations just silently suck up and accept the difficulties of academic life, while the current young generations are more willing to speak out against them?

I think it’s the high schools that have become more generous with their top marks. My wife works in a high school and the number of honour roll students celebrated each year has grown to the point where over 25% of the kids in grade 12 academic stream are scholars. So these apparent geniuses get to first year university and realize that they can’t spell, can’t use grammar, can’t do mental math, can’t take criticism, nor operate independently of their parents. They’re doomed in university.

 

[lead82]

I firmly believe high school is a large part of the problem. Grades are not reflective of academic achievement but how much the teacher likes you or the pressure received from the parents. The school system is setup now where no one can fail - it helps boost the graduation rate.

On the flip side, it is a lot difficult to learn in today’s day and age as concentration has gone down to very low levels where kids can’t sit and read a novel or a text book. They skim read and don’t comprehend much beyond the surface. The amount of distractions and additions to screens has gotten worse. I worry about my young kids who are going to enter the school system and it will be very difficult to learn.

There does seem to be a problem of how to cope with life or the perceived difficulties. I find that often it comes from those with privilege who didn’t have to struggle in life and never got a change to live through it and overcome it. We have become so accustomed to conveniences that we forgot how difficult life was before.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Has the way universities are run changed? If it has, I get the impression that over time, these educational institutions have dumbed things down and made achieving academic success easier than in the past, if anything.

Or, did past generations just silently suck up and accept the difficulties of academic life, while the current young generations are more willing to speak out against them?

I think it might be the expectations attached to attending university - especially the more difficult programs to get into. The stakes are higher. Not knowing the individuals in question make it hard to apply general observations to these specific instances - though we know that family from some cultures put a huge amount of emphasis on education.

AoD

 

[Admiral Beez]

On the flip side, it is a lot difficult to learn in today’s day and age as concentration has gone down to very low levels where kids can’t sit and read a novel or a text book. They skim read and don’t comprehend much beyond the surface.

I found recently these was happening to me, that I couldn't read a book, didn't have the concentration or patience. I'm closing on 50 years old and always loved reading novels. To force my brain back to factory reset I put down the tablet, and on a recent cruise bought actual paper books. I've also been forcing myself to learn the piano using the https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/simply-piano-by-joytunes/id1019442026 to push my concentration up.

 

[Johnny Au]

I found recently these was happening to me, that I couldn't read a book, didn't have the concentration or patience. I'm closing on 50 years old and always loved reading novels. To force my brain back to factory reset I put down the tablet, and on a recent cruise bought actual paper books. I've also been forcing myself to learn the piano using the https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/simply-piano-by-joytunes/id1019442026 to push my concentration up.

...and one can doodle on tablets as well.

The upcoming MacOS Catalina (using the Sidecar feature) even allows one to use an iPad (the newer ones of course) as a graphics tablet akin to the Wacom Cintiq.

 

[rutabagaist]

There are 43,000 undergrads at U of T St. George. The rate of suicide in Canada for the 20-24 age group is 13 per 100,000 per year, 20.8 for males alone. It's fine to debate whether the University should do more, sure, but in the population the school serves and given that it is a very competitive environment the numbers are hardly out of line with what is to be expected. It is a tragedy, yes, but let's not forget that many northern indigenous communities have suicide rates an order of magnitude higher and for a demographic that is much younger - which I find to be much more shocking and sad.

 

[AlbertC]

U of T partners with CAMH to deliver mental health services after task force calls for change

Miriam Katawazi Multi-Platform Writer, CTV News Toronto
Published Thursday, January 16, 2020 1:58PM EST

U of T partners with CAMH to deliver mental health services after task force calls for change

The University of Toronto is partnering with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) to provide mental health support for students after a damning report called for major changes.

toronto.ctvnews.ca

 

[Admiral Beez]

U of T partners with CAMH to deliver mental health services after task force calls for change

Miriam Katawazi Multi-Platform Writer, CTV News Toronto
Published Thursday, January 16, 2020 1:58PM EST

U of T partners with CAMH to deliver mental health services after task force calls for change

The University of Toronto is partnering with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) to provide mental health support for students after a damning report called for major changes.

toronto.ctvnews.ca

I still believe the mental health challenges at universities can be dealt with at the front end. When you join the police or military for example, they do a skills assessment, same as universities do, but they also conduct a mental assessment to determine if you have the ability to handle the stress that comes with the role. U of T knows the level of hyper workload, performance demands, competitiveness and stress that its elite degrees call for. If the university conducted a psychological assessment in its admissions process they could cull many students at high risk of not making the cut and also of self harm. Not that the military or police are always successful, judging by the instances of PTSD, but I imagine those soldiers or police thus suffering were exposed to more than what‘s expected of any candidate.

 

[SunriseChampion]

U of T knows the level of hyper workload, performance demands, competitiveness and stress that its elite degrees call for. If the university conducted a psychological assessment in its admissions process they could cull many students at high risk of not making the cut and also of self harm.

That would do nothing to help anyone and is very indicative of the piss-poor attitude our society has about mental health.

When I was in university I had to self-prescribe street drugs to deal with my mental health issues because waiting for a psychiatrist can be up to three months and I didn't have money for regular visits to a psychologist.
Worked out for me very well indeed, but I shouldn't have been forced into having to rely on dodgy street MDMA and mushrooms from who knows where.

Screening at entry would have done nothing for me as it wasn't the schooling that caused my mental illness. I would have potentially been denied admission which would have been of absolute fuckal help to the state of my mental health at the time and I still would have had to self-prescribe out of desperation.

And I'm one of the lucky ones who responded very well to my self-treatment and didn't overdo it and also luckily scored clean meds.

We need to get real about mental health, our current approach is a sad joke.

 

[SunriseChampion]

It very important that someone think about the students' mental health. When I were a student we couldn't even dream about it

I don't know when you went to school but I went in 2003-2005 and I reckon little has changed except perhaps the introduction of character- and soul-destroying things such as safe spaces that don't do anything for anyone's mental health but only exacerbate the problem through the perpetuation of self-realised victimisation.

I mean, help still hasn't arrived for the youth but you can be patted on the head and told you're right to be down.