“Colleges Must Invest More in Mental Health” by President Nick Ladany (Inside Higher Ed)

A Band-Aid approach won’t work, Nick Ladany writes.

Nick Ladany September 28, 2022

Higher education is failing students with mental health needs.

Demands for mental health resources were already climbing before the COVID-19 pandemic, and students now are reporting heightened stress, anxiety and depression as a result of the health crisis and the isolation, grief and economic uncertainty that it has caused. Eating disorders and disordered eating, already most common among young adults, remain an issue for college students, and a 2020 survey by the Centers for Disease Control showed that about 25 percent of adults between the ages of 18 and 24 had seriously considered suicide.

Even as leaders in higher education acknowledge the mounting mental health issues among students and allocate more resources to student well-being, colleges and universities don’t have an effective model for …