{"id":470429,"date":"2026-05-06T01:18:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T01:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/470429\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T01:18:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T01:18:27","slug":"mental-health-maze-on-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/470429\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental Health Maze on Campus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colleges and universities nationwide have expanded mental health services in response to rising student demand. But as offerings grow, a new study<\/a> from the Ruderman Family Foundation<\/a> finds their increasing scope and the shifting language used to describe them are making it harder for students to understand and navigate the available support.<\/p>\n

The study, conducted in partnership with the Public Good Projects<\/a>, draws on a review of 50 institutional websites, national survey data and interviews with 15 senior practitioners at institutions including Pennsylvania State<\/a> and Ohio State<\/a> Universities.<\/p>\n

Nearly all reporting institutions offer a comprehensive wellness program, making counseling, referral and well-being services available to students. More than 90\u00a0percent also report training clinicians to work with a range of student populations, including racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ students, neurodivergent students, and those with substance use concerns.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the share of institutions reporting peer-to-peer support programs increased from 63\u00a0percent in 2024 to 73\u00a0percent in 2025\u2014a 10-point jump in a single year. But the study finds that students often do not consider peer programs mental health resources and continue to associate support primarily with individual therapy, overlooking the broader ecosystem of care<\/a> available to them.<\/p>\n

Hanna Shaul Bar Nissim, deputy director at the Ruderman Family Foundation, said that while it\u2019s good news that colleges are expanding and diversifying mental health services, students are not always able to recognize or connect with the language used to describe them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a growth in awareness, we\u2019re seeing a growth in funding, we\u2019re seeing shifts in policies within universities, but we\u2019re not seeing much utilization by students,\u201d Bar Nissim said.<\/p>\n

Bar Nissim pointed to a range of ways services are made visible to students, from website and social media promotion to outreach during admissions and midterms. But the issue transcends communication channels.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven the words \u2018mental health\u2019 are used less and less, and we\u2019re hearing more on wellness, well-being and overall experience,\u201d she said. \u201cYou see new roles within universities\u2014well-being officers, wellness centers, wellness [vice presidents]\u2014these are emerging over the last five to 10 years and becoming more embedded in senior administration, but that doesn\u2019t always resonate with students.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they have anxiety or stress or other mental health conditions, they don\u2019t always associate mental health services and wellness services as one,\u201d she added. \u201cSo yoga or faith-based groups\u2014which can serve as gateways to mental health services\u2014are not always identified as part of that system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Counseling gaps:<\/strong> The study found that the average wait time to see a counselor at the colleges covered was 4.2 days\u2014but at some institutions, students waited up to 24 days. Those delays are driving greater reliance on telehealth and community partnerships; 96\u00a0percent of institutions referred students to off-campus counseling.<\/p>\n

That shift introduces new challenges, the report notes, including the need to clearly distinguish campus-based services from contracted care. It also limits institutions\u2019 ability to monitor the quality and continuity of treatment off campus.<\/p>\n

Bar Nissim said that even when institutions have strong leadership and dedicated funding, they are often unable to scale services quickly enough, making telehealth and off-campus support a faster alternative.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not so much a funding issue\u2014because there is funding at the federal, state and private levels\u2014but a communication and stigma issue,\u201d Bar Nissim said. \u201cThere are many groups and subgroups operating with different models. But there is a broader shift and growing acknowledgment among university leadership of the need to support a healthier student experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making services clearer:<\/strong> To help institutions improve student uptake, the study introduces a conceptual framework for categorizing campus mental health and well-being supports, mapping service types, navigation pathways, staffing roles, physical locations and institutional policies into a single model.<\/p>\n

Bar Nissim said the framework is intended to help students more easily identify available support while allowing institutions to benchmark services and identify gaps.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeing universities shift budgets and create new senior administrative roles focused on wellness and mental health\u2014positions with real authority,\u201d Bar Nissim said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just titles; it\u2019s people with the expertise to lead strategic change across campuses. This shift in mindset is taking hold, but it takes time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get more content like this directly to your inbox. Subscribe here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colleges and universities nationwide have expanded mental health services in response to rising student demand. But as offerings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[276],"tags":[296,2597,18,3124,135,30828,19,17,227,167,502,5],"class_list":{"0":"post-470429","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-career","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-events","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-higher","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-jobs","17":"tag-mental-health","18":"tag-mentalhealth","19":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116525000803911819","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}