Access to mental health care and the amount of people who are taking advantage of its access has increased significantly, but one of the biggest barriers to accessing mental healthcare is the cost. That is why it is imperative that colleges across the U.S. have mental health resources available to students for free.
Students pay thousands upon thousands of dollars in tuition and should have access to
resources that are included in that. When talking about mental health, having comprehensive resources that cover most mental health problems is a must. As college students, we are tasked with going to classes, working, balancing our social lives, and having to think about our future careers.
That is a lot to balance as a young adult which becomes very overwhelming and stress-inducing.
Our campus has great mental health resources, but I believe that students do not take advantage of them. Lasell’s Counseling Center offers counseling for a wide range of mental health issues from stress/anxiety management to substance abuse issues. I went to the counseling center my freshman year for stress and anxiety and it helped me so much. The stress of navigating college, missing my family, and other academic pressures made me realize that I could not handle it all by myself. I spoke to the counseling center and found a counselor who was able to help me destress and manage my time properly. I believe that it is so important to seek help when you do not know how to handle a situation, and the counseling center helped me navigate my stress.
Although I have only used the counseling center for stress and time management, I know many other people who have used it for their mental health care. Knowing Lasell has an array of mental health services available to students is great, but I really hope that other institutions start to implement more mental health resources like Lasell’s on their campuses.