Suicidal Students Devastated By Universities’ Responses To Crises: ‘I Reached Out For Help And Now I’m Suddenly Getting Blamed For It’
A series of legal challenges against universities' policies on students' mental health highlights the way the organizations struggle to respond to the young people in need. In other mental health news, conversion therapy is getting attention because of big-screen movies as states work to limit and ban the practice.
The New York Times:
Feeling Suicidal, Students Turned To Their College. They Were Told To Go Home.
When Harrison Fowler heard about the counseling center at Stanford, where he enrolled as a freshman last fall, he decided to finally do something about the angst he had been struggling with for a long time. The results were not what he had expected. Asked if he had ever considered suicide, he said yes. The center advised him to check himself into the hospital. From there, he was sent to a private outpatient treatment center, where he was prescribed an antidepressant that he said triggered horrible suicidal fantasies. It wasn’t long before he was back in the hospital, being urged to go home to Texas. (Hartocollis, 8/28)
CNN:
'Conversion Therapy' Hits The Big Screen While Laws Play Out In States
A therapist forbade 16-year-old Mathew Shurka from speaking to his mother and sisters for three years. The youngest child and only son in a tight-knit Long Island family, Shurka said that his mom wasn't physically or emotionally abusive. Instead, the therapist told the teen to give the women the silent treatment because it would help make him straight. "When I first came out to my dad when I was 16, I was looking for his acceptance and approval about being gay. He was loving in that moment and said he cared and he'd be there for me, but he thought it was a phase, and he wanted to get me help," said Shurka, now 30. "He didn't raise us religious or anything. He just didn't think I'd be successful if I was a gay man." (Christensen, 8/27)
And from the states —
Nashville Tennessean:
Clergy Not Prepared To Meet Congregations' Mental Health Needs
Religious people tend to turn to clergy for help and support in times of trouble. But when that trouble manifests as a mental health issue, odds are their pastor or rabbi is not well-equipped to respond effectively, said Jared Pingleton, a licensed clinical psychologist. ...Mental health and relational issues can be complicated, costly and labor intensive, Pingleton said. And clergy members do not have the training nor do they have the time to give these types of crises the attention they need, he said. (Meyer, 8/27)
Nashville Tennessean:
Who Is The Front Line Of Mental Health Care? Your Family Doctor
When a sick kid steps into the pediatrician’s office, it could be for just about anything: an ear infection, a twisted ankle or an upset stomach. And sometimes, behind all those outward symptoms, there is something deeper that needs attention. Pediatricians and family doctors have long served a crucial but largely undefined role in American mental health care, diagnosing and treating depression and anxiety in addition to everyday physical injuries and common diseases. (Kelman, 8/27)
Austin American-Statesman:
Austin School Board Votes To Keep Open 16 Campus Mental Health Centers
The Austin school board Monday night approved an agreement with Integral Care to keep 16 campus mental health centers open this school year. The campus centers were in jeopardy of closure after the school district in June approved a $7.1 million student health services plan with Seton Healthcare Family that discontinued funding for 16 of 40 campus-based mental health centers with an on-site therapist. (Taboada, 8/27)
