Jul 5, 2017
Helicopter Moms aren't enough to shield college students from
adversity. Safe spaces just don't work. According to the Center for
Collegiate Mental Health at Penn State University, which gathers
data from 139 institutions, the number of students seeking help
jumped 50 percent between 2015 and 2016. Of those students who
sought help, 26 percent said they had intentionally hurt
themselves; 33.2 percent had considered suicide, numbers higher
than the previous year.
And according to the 2016 UCLA Higher Education Research Institute
survey of freshmen, nearly 12 percent say they are "frequently"
depressed.
More than 75 percent of all mental health conditions begin before
the age of 24, according to the National Alliance on Mental
Illness, which is why college is such a critical time.