Depression increases among college students

Pitt’s Counseling Center becomes more popular post-Labor Day as classes pick up and the work… Pitt’s Counseling Center becomes more popular post-Labor Day as classes pick up and the work piles on for students according to local psychologists and the University.

The University offers information sessions, runs campaigns and promotes awareness of the counseling and student services offered at Pitt in light of an increase in depression at universities across the country in the past few years.

“There’s been a recognition across the nation that we’re increasingly seeing depression on college campuses,” Ellen Frank, a Pitt psychology and psychiatry professor, said. About 1,100 college students commit suicide each year.

The University of California, Los Angeles, released an annual study in January that reported a record drop in emotional-health levels of first-year college students.

In 2010, 51.9 percent of students reported that their emotional health was “above average,” compared to 55.3 percent in 2009 and 63.6 percent in 1985, the first year of the study.

Frank said the increase in cases of depression might stem from less of a stigma surrounding depression or professionals becoming more skilled at recognizing the disorder.

“It might be adapting to dormitory living or group living … leaving the structure life of the family for the unstructured life on the college campus,” Frank said of the possible causes of depression.

Shawn Brooks, associate dean of students and director of Student Life, said Pitt offered extended orientation sessions to first-year students at the start of the year at which resident assistants spoke to their floors about issues related to academic, financial, physical and emotional wellness..

“What we are essentially trying to convey to our students is that it is everyone’s responsibility to look out for all members of the Pitt community,” he said in an email.

Brooks said that historically the Counseling Center, located in the William Pitt Union, is very busy at the start of every academic year because of students dealing with homesickness and transition problems.

New director of the Counseling Center Tevya Zukor, said in an email that students in an emergency situation can meet with a counselor immediately and bypass the wait that he said is normally about one week to ten days for a scheduled appointment.

“… but we are in the process of implementing a new appointment system so that students can be seen for the first time within two or three days,” he said adding that the Center also finds themselves very busy in October and November as well.

Zukor said that to cover the busiest times of the year, four part-time staff members were hired to assist the ten full-time counseling staff made up of psychologists, social workers and counselors. The Center also has two psychiatrists, two Post-docs and three interns working there.

These peak times were echoed by Antonia Macpherson, a psychiatrist and executive director of LEAD, a Pittsburgh organization that focuses on promoting education and awareness of depression on college campuses.

Macpherson said that the nonprofit started talks about setting up a depression-awareness program with Pitt in 2008.

“It’s now evolved into ‘Talk About It,’” Macpherson said. “LEAD was very supportive and still is of the campaign.”

Senior psychology majors Jessica Stillman and Allison Domalski are co-chairs of “Talk About It: Give Depression a Voice,” along with junior Nikki Surmacy.

Stillman said the goal of the year-round awareness campaign is to fight the stigma often associated with depression so that students seek the help they need. The initiative’s members do this by getting the word out about the signs of depression and ways the Counseling Center can help.

Signs of depression include withdrawal from society, a loss of interest in things or a period of sadness that lasts for more than six months.

Student representatives table in Towers Lobby every Monday, offering information on Pitt’s Counseling Center to those passing by and distributing hundreds of T-shirts to get out the Counseling Center’s information.

Another depression program that could be coming to Pitt is the LEAD-developed SCoRE curriculum. Macpherson said SCoRE teaches college-aged students how to be resilient when faced with stress.

The curriculum’s different stages teach students self-care, how to identify a support system, the ins and outs of resilience and how to manage stress reactions.

“You hear everyone running around a college campus saying, ‘I’m so stressed, I’m so stressed,’” Macpherson said, noting that a person needs to draw the line for himself between the realm of daily-hassle stress and disabling stress.

The curriculum has already been implemented in some way — whether as a mandatory or optional course — at Chatham, Robert Morris, Carnegie Mellon and Carlow universities.

Pitt spokesman Shawn Ahearn said the University is currently considering options for how to implement the program.

“Right now, it’s premature to discuss how Pitt may choose to incorporate the SCoRE curriculum,” he said in an email.

Brooks said students that feel they might be depressed or know someone who is depressed should talk to their RA or seek counseling support.

“It can be a disabling illness,” Macpherson said. “But it does not have to remain a disabling illness. It’s important to recognize those symptoms and get help.”