title: Striving to help college students with mental health issues.
abstract: Mental health problems in the college population appear to be increasing in number and severity. University counseling services are limited in the number of counselors they can hire to meet the increasing demands. In addition, it is believed that many students do not actually seek much-needed counseling services due to lack of knowledge about mental health problems or services, stigma, or denial of the severity of the problem. Left unrecognized and untreated, mental health problems may lead to students dropping out or failing out of college, attempting or committing suicide, or engaging in other risky, dangerous behaviors that may result in serious injury, disability, or death. Mental health nursing faculty can help address this problem on college campuses by offering courses on mental health issues and skills, becoming involved with NAMI-on-Campus groups, and seeking grant opportunities that can be used to help develop and enhance services for the college community. Information about how to establish a NAMI-on-Campus group can be obtained by accessing http://www.namioncampus.org or http://www.nami.org.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Bloomsburg, PA 17815, USA. lcook@bloomu.edu
authors.forename: Linda J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Cook
mesh_terms: D003255:Consumer Organizations / Q000458:organization & administration; D003376:Counseling / Q000458:organization & administration; D005181:Faculty, Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006379:Helping Behavior; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D010344:Patient Advocacy; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011568:Psychiatric Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012944:Social Support; D013333:Student Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014495:Universities