Tomorrow’s Going to Be Better: Why Canadian Students Are So Depressed and What Needs to Change to Make Campuses Happier
Many research papers deal with the “mental health crisis” at Canadian universities. However, between the lines of an overwhelming body of research, a vicious chain of emotional states can be spotted. This chain starts with feelings of sadness, loneliness, and helplessness – leading to depression and anxiety-related disorders that, in the worst case, can culminate in suicide. Dealing with this problem requires a deep understanding of several different factors, including students’ perspective of stressors and mental health (MH) services provided at the universities; the scope, accessibility, and standards of MH services provided by the universities; and the actual data that indicate the nature and structure of MH-related incidents that occur on campus – most of which are related and must be observed jointly in a cause-effect or consequence-method-of-prevention manner.
The key to making Canadian campuses a happier place is preventing sadness and loneliness by introducing changes in the delivery of MH services – changes derived from understanding the causal relationship between heartache, academic stress, depression, and students’ perception of mental health services offered by universities.
Almost nothing hurts like heartache. During adolescence, before a student gets a chance to be preoccupied with the worries and responsibilities of adult life, it is understandable that love and love-related problems can significantly preoccupy their mind and affect their emotional well-being. Many students leave their homes, towns, and even countries when they start attending undergraduate studies, thus leaving their partners, friends, and families behind. This distance between partners and loved ones can lead to relationship problems. As Porter found in her analysis of the nature of MH-related incidents reported on an Ontario-based campus, 13.5% of all events were triggered by a “Romantic Partner Conflict” (9) – that is 24% of all incidents with a known trigger.
Although romantic partner conflict was not the highest-ranking trigger, only academic stress at 13.8% caused more incidents than romantic partner conflict (Porter 9). It must also be acknowledged that there is not much the universities can do about romantic partner conflict except teach students how to deal with and manage their emotions. These findings mean that love-related problems are one of the leading causes of MH-related incidents reported on campuses and should be taken seriously. Although the data in Porter’s research does not indicate if the conflict between partners was physically or mentally abusive, feelings of sadness and loneliness that stem from romantic partner conflict and love-related problems, in general, are the first step in this vicious path that leads to depression.
Feelings of sadness and loneliness degrade students’ focus and motivation, which impacts student’s academic progress and success. Falling behind with their studies is causing stress and anxiety, which further impacts students’ ability to achieve academic success and pass courses. For many students, tuition fees are financed by their families, who themselves are not in great financial shape and who do expect their children to achieve certain levels of academic success. When the students fail to deliver on the expectations of their family, feelings of guilt add additional pressure and eventually lead the student to the breaking point at which severe anxiety and depression take control over the student’s mind. As Ogrodniczuk et al. found, “[…] academic work was by far the most frequently endorsed stressor, with nearly three-quarters of respondents (72.9%; n = 6,018/8,254) reporting their academic work to be ‘traumatic’ or ‘very difficult’ to handle” (4). Although other reasons can cause poor academic performance, such as substance abuse, none of them rank as high. This chain of events, due to the self-reinforcing nature of academic stress, causes even more stress and anxiety, putting the student’s psyche and coping mechanisms under immense pressure – bringing the student one step closer to depression or anxiety-related disorder diagnosis.
The longer the depression lasts, the firmer its hold over the student’s mind and soul as it slowly becomes a habit and a common way of being. Without family, friends, and money in a faraway city, country, or even a continent, it is easy to understand why students who end up in this situation feel hopeless and helpless. Moreover, it is pretty likely that in these dark moments, suicide ideation happens. In her research, Porter finds that “Students with documented disabilities were significantly more likely to have a current suicide plan […] and the means available to act on that plan […]” (10). Porter also brings forward a critical statistic showing that, on average, a Suicide Risk Assessment was conducted once every week (9-10). Of course, this chain of events and emotional states is only one of many roads leading to the bottom. There is very little the universities can do to prevent the separation of students from their loved ones, to improve the financial means of students and their families, or to make academic success easier to achieve. However, identifying individuals suffering from depression through clinical assessment is essential for universities in order to be aware of which individuals are at the highest risk. While it is crucial not to blame the universities for this state of affairs – they are still responsible for the well-being of students on their campuses.
Although it can not be said that the universities are not trying and working hard to provide mental health support to their students, changes and improvements are required. There is a divergence between the mental health services provided by the universities and the actual needs of the students. To make the much-needed changes, universities must understand how their students end up with diagnosed depression or anxiety-related disorders. Additionally, the students know they need help, and the universities should listen to what the students have to say – especially about what forms of MH services are most helpful and the most significant barriers to accessing MH services. When analyzing MH services offered by Canadian universities, Read et al. found that “None of the institutions appeared to follow all the principles of service delivery recommended for a high-quality YMH […]” (1), and this is just the first reason why making strategic changes and adjustments in mental health services is required. However, Nails et al. found that although Personality Intake Assessments (PIA) show a significant increase in anxiety and depression symptoms over the past thirty years, “Students […] are showing resilience and positive adjustment in the wake of a highly stressful experience” (1017) – which is an optimistic find. As for what students are saying about mental health services – when analyzing the qualitative data of their research, Moghimi et al. found that students expressed a need for more education on personal strategies and mental health (10) and that some of the leading barriers to accessing MH services are stigma, long wait times, insufficient resources, and cultural barriers (1). Moghimi et al. also found that the majority of students “[…] believed that digital mental health care delivery was good but not as good as in-person delivery […]” (6). To substantiate this, Read et al. found that only “[…] a relatively small proportion […] of institutions, […] indicated access to a psychiatrist on campus” (3) and that “Less than half of all institutions indicated that counselling was provided as multiple sessions with a maximum upper limit […]” (3). Since problems begin with students feeling sad and lonely, it seems that a proper first move by the universities would be to provide educational resources on emotion management and teach the students how to deal with anger, guilt, envy, and jealousy besides sadness—subsequently followed by removing the barriers which would enable and encourage more students to access MH services. Emphasizing discreet access might motivate the male population of students to access MH services and learn how to manage their emotions and mental health better. Finally, focusing more resources and ensuring that long-term support in the form of in-person sessions with a therapist is available to students would yield the best results for the students and allow the universities to establish a formal diagnosis where one is due.
Sadness and loneliness are the root of a great deal of students’ mental health problems. Focusing the majority of efforts on teaching the students how to manage their emotions appropriately and boosting social integration to prevent loneliness are the first steps in protecting the students from the onset of depression and anxiety-related disorders. Additionally, providing long-term on-campus, in-person therapy sessions combined with the universities’ ability to establish a formal diagnosis would lead to the identification of the most endangered individuals on campus – thus providing mental health support where it is needed the most.
Works Cited
Moghimi, Elnaz, et al. “Mental Health Challenges, Treatment Experiences, and Care Needs of Post-Secondary Students: A Cross-Sectional Mixed-Methods Study.” BMC Public Health, vol. 23, no. 1, Apr. 2023, p. 655. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.1186/s12889-023-15452-x.
Nails, Julianna G., et al. “A Crisis in College Student Mental Health? Self-Ratings of Psychopathology before and after the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Psychological Assessment, vol. 35, no. 11, Nov. 2023, pp. 1010–18. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.1037/pas0001241.
Ogrodniczuk, John S., et al. “Who Is Coming through the Door? A National Survey of Self‐reported Problems among Post‐secondary School Students Who Have Attended Campus Mental Health Services in Canada.” Counselling & Psychotherapy Research, vol. 21, no. 4, Dec. 2021, pp. 837–45. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.ezproxy.tru.ca/10.1002/capr.12439.
Porter, Shirley. “A Descriptive Study of Post-Secondary Student Mental Health Crises.” College Quarterly, vol. 21, no. 3, Jan. 2018. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1203541&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Read, Alana, et al. “A Descriptive Overview of Mental Health Services Offered in Post-Secondary Educational Institutions Across Canada.” Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. Revue Canadienne de Psychiatrie, vol. 68, no. 2, Feb. 2023, pp. 101–08. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1177/07067437221128168.