2008 Woodie Awards
Students seeking mental health help
Depression is No. 1 issue, counselors say
By Michael Murphy
- Students are receiving better counseling for mental health
- Wisconsin has one of the top programs in the country
- Some organizations are trying to help people not receiving enough care
- Active Minds is trying to raise awarness on all campuses around North America
Rising numbers of students seeking mental health counseling throughout the country are leading colleges to adapt to meet the growing need.
Michael Zebrowski, director of the Marquette Counseling Center, feels Marquette is doing a very good job of meeting students' needs.
"We have comprehensive mental health services here on campus as well as prevention services to help educate students,"
Zebrowski said. "All students can come for mental health programming whenever they need."
According to Zebrowski, the average student who seeks counseling comes in for an average of five or six sessions, but sometimes the issues lay beyond the Counseling Center's bounds.
"Some students have specific disorders," Zebrowski said. "In that case we refer them somewhere else to better meet their needs."
Zebrowski, who has been at the school for 15 years, has seen a definite change in counseling needs for students.
"There has definitely been an increase in students and the severity and complexity is growing," said Zebrowski. "We see about 1,000 students a year and about 43 percent say counseling has helped them stay at Marquette."
While Zebrowski thinks Marquette has the best private school counseling in Wisconsin, Robert McGrath, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison counseling center, said he thinks UW-Madison has one of the top counseling centers in the country.
"We are certainly one of the best in the country," McGrath said. "We have psychiatrists, social workers and psychiatric nurses. We have 30 counselors and 44,000 students, which is a very reasonable number."
McGrath, like Zebrowski, agrees that there is a growing need for student mental health counseling.
Published: 10/2/08 Section: News
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