Counseling and psychiatric services at Midwest universities are buckling under the increased demand from students — many of whom are entering schools with more serious illnesses than ever seen before.
Tag: mental health
Posted inCampus Mental Health, Education, Health & Welfare
Gaps persist in campus mental health services
A decade ago, Thomas Murphy was a college dropout who used alcohol and drugs to deal with undiagnosed depression. Therapy made the difference for him. But he can’t receive it at school. When he re-enrolled at UW-Madison and went to the counseling center, he walked out with no appointment and a list of referrals.
Murphy’s story underscores a national dilemma: a surge in students seeking intensive counseling and psychiatric care, which college mental health centers often lack resources to provide.
Posted inEducation, Health & Welfare
Campus mental health: Connect, learn, find help
Resources and links to crisis lines, campus organizations and off-campus organizations for those who need help.
Posted inEducation, Health & Welfare
UW-Milwaukee strives to improve mental health care
Five years ago, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee had the worst mental health care of any four-year UW institution, by some measures. But the university has worked to improve it.
Posted inEducation, Health & Welfare
At UW-Stout, ‘obsessive’ data crunching to save — and improve — lives
The University of Wisconsin-Stout had a problem, counseling director John Achter told the student association last year. Twenty-two percent more students were seeking counseling services than ever before, forcing patients to wait up to 26 days to be seen.
Presented with those numbers, the association designated enough money for Achter to hire a new counselor. But some UW counseling centers don’t track even basic information on patients.
Posted inGovernment, Justice & Safety
Minor offenders, major consequences
Wisconsin is one of 13 states that automatically place 17-year-olds in the adult criminal justice system. In the past few years, nearly one-third of states have passed laws to keep more young offenders in the juvenile justice system. But not Wisconsin.
Posted inGovernment, Health & Welfare
Wisconsin’s mental health system braces for major cuts under Walker
In interviews with mental health advocates and county and state officials, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism found that Wisconsin’s public mental health system — once viewed as a national model — has become fragmented and underfunded. And many experts fear that as Gov. Scott Walker moves to close the state’s budget deficit, the mental health system will be weakened even further.
Posted inHealth & Welfare
A Tribal Tragedy: High Native American suicide rates persist
Fifteen years after Schuyler Webster took his own life at age 14, his mother still sees him everywhere.
Posted inHealth & Welfare
Wisconsin suicide toll rises, exceeds rates of neighboring states
Experts say Wisconsin’s high suicide rate, relative to those of neighboring states, could be linked to a high rate of binge drinking, easy access to firearms and lack of available mental health care, especially in rural areas.
Posted inEducation, Health & Welfare, Justice & Safety
Investigators head off threats from 125 troubled people at UW-Madison
Officials at the University of Wisconsin-Madison say they defused threats from 125 troubled students, employees and area residents under a little-known program launched two years ago in response to deadly tragedies on college campuses in Virginia and Illinois.
But the program didn’t identify at least three individuals before they caused problems at Wisconsin’s flagship campus, including threats against a campus leader, a bomb threat and a murder near campus.