Almost every day a new study on the mental health of college students appears. Citing some measure of sadness, anxiety, feelings of exhaustion, or use of unhealthy coping skills, these studies say the same thing: college students struggle.
Understanding of student mental health issues was growing before the pandemic hit, and the stigma around these issues was slowly unraveling. The pandemic, and the profound way it has affected young people, has brought the issue to the center of the public conversation, and now to Washington.
President Joe Biden recently asked colleges to use federal Covid relief funds for add student mental health supportand at the end of June, the House of Representatives approved two bills related to the mental health of university students.
Rep. Susan Wild, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, who sponsored a bill that proposes better mental health services and suicide prevention programs on campus, said the unprecedented challenges students have faced in recent years are contributing to the strain on mental health and that the bill is necessary to combat the long-term effects.
The invoice encourages colleges to work with community organizations to develop mental health support systems for students, as well as comprehensive campus plans that could include everything from campaigns to ensure students understand available resources to trainings for health professionals on campus to understand the warning signs of serious mental health problems, to other safety measures on campus. The bill does not propose any funding; it works more like a call to action.
It was approved in the Chamber with 405 representatives voting in favor and 16 against.
“I think there’s a lot of commitment to address this issue on both sides of the aisle,” said Manuela McDonough, director of government affairs and advocacy at the Jed Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for mental health care for youth, who has worked with Wild on the bill. “People are aware that our youth are struggling and are struggling more now as we are dealing with the pandemic and the consequences of the pandemic.”
Although he received overwhelming support in the House, Wild’s bill is not currently scheduled to be taken up in the Senate. McDonough said bipartisan support is important, so they are working to find Senate sponsors from each party and hope to introduce a version of the bill in the Senate before the end of the year.
The House also recently approved an invoice that would require the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services to assist campuses with drug and alcohol abuse prevention and recovery programs, and would establish a five-year grant program to fund the programs. It passed the House, 371-49, but has not yet been scheduled to be heard in the Senate.
In the future, it is also possible that legislation could move forward by being written into a larger bill or folded into a larger package of bills. The Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions of the Senate has noted that he is working on a package of bills related to mental health and substance abuse, but the bills have yet to be introduced. And in March, the Senate Finance Committee published a report on mental health and substance usewhich separates children, adolescents and young people as one of the five areas of focus for future legislation.
The report highlights disparities based on race, ethnicity, sexuality and geographic location that the committee says lead to disparities in mental health and substance use outcomes. A policy project published by the committee aims to reduce barriers to mental health care for youth on Medicaid.
Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who chairs the Finance Committee, wrote that the goal is for “All Americans to be able to access the mental health and substance use disorder care they and their loved ones need when they need it.” ”.
This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, an independent nonprofit news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.