In the wake the massacre at Virginia Tech and the recent shooting at Delaware State University, student mental health is becoming increasingly important to colleges and universities nationwide.
If the walls of Cicely Evans’ office could talk, they would tell of the mental health ailments facing Black college students, including domestic violence, depression, anxiety, stress, unresolved issues of homosexuality and thoughts of suicide.
“The hardest part is getting students through the door,” said Evans, a licensed professional counselor at Southern University at Baton Rouge. “Many are afraid of the stigma attached to mental health treatment. Students do not want to be labeled as crazy or weak.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the suicide rate for Black Americans of all ages was 5.25 per 100,000, nearly half of the overall U.S rate of 10.75 per 100,000 between 2000 and 2004. Black males from ages 20 to 24 had the highest rates of suicide in the Black population, averaging 18.18 per 100,000.
Counselors, therapists, researchers and educators from across the country converged in Baltimore for Morgan State University’s Fourth Annual Counseling Center Conference. The three-day event which began Nov. 1 sought to address how to better serve the mental health needs of students attending historically Black colleges and universities.
While many Blacks remain skeptical of psychological treatment, opting for a more spiritual approach to mental wellness, studies show that they are more likely to experience a mental disorder than Whites and less likely to seek treatment.
“The rates of depression and anxiety among African-Americans are similar to those in the general population. Black and Hispanic women are actually more likely to experience severe psychological distress than White women,” said Dr. Annelle Primm, director of minority and national affairs at the American Psychiatric Association and associate professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
