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T
aylor Russell ’22 has watched many of her friends wrestle with serious mental health issues. One would send her texts in the middle of the night, confessing that she was about
to inflict self-harm again. Others have shared their battles with depression, suffered serious traumas and developed tics from their anxiety. A close family friend died by suicide. “College life can be stressful, especially right now,” says Russell, a psychology major and president of the student mental health group Active Minds. “We’re all under a lot of pressure to succeed, get good grades, be involved, make connections — everything. And that pressure isn’t just from other people. It’s also from ourselves.”
Seton Hall launches a University-wide initiative to raise awareness about mental health issues and suicide prevention. by Molly Petrilla
Alarm over college students’ mental health has mounted in the last decade as rates of anxiety, depression and death by suicide on campuses keep climbing. “Some definitely call it a crisis, an epidemic,” says Dianne Aguero-Trotter, the director of Seton Hall’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS). “I don’t know what term I would use, but we are clearly seeing numbers that have been rising — although the factors behind it are complex.” Seton Hall has been ramping up its support, with CAPS now offering more individual counseling, group therapy options and public programs than ever before. Three years ago, the University pledged to become a Stigma-Free Campus — referring to the stigma around mental health issues — through the Codey Fund for Mental Health. Now 2021 marks an important advance: a University-wide Great Minds Dare to Care initiative, propelled by $250,000 from the state’s Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services. at Seton Hall,” says Meredith Masin Blount, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness – New Jersey. “It is so important that an entire campus adopt an approach to mental health and mental illness awareness.” And as the data makes clear: this is the time for it.
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Photograph by Michael Paras
“I’m so excited and happy to hear about this program
