Editorial

Pages1-3
Date16 March 2020
Published date16 March 2020
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/JPMH-03-2020-101
AuthorWoody Caan
Subject MatterHealth & social care,Mental health,Public mental health
Editorial
Woody Caan
The so-called Common Mental Illnesses of the wider population are also common
among students at university. In the UK, more and more young people are entering
higher education and within that age cohort are concerns that illness prevalence is
rising (Hayes, 2019) and that gaps in detection and treatment may result in more youth
suicides (WGPLUS, 2019). Students aiming to join health professions are also vulnerable
(Gishen, 2019). The logical solution is to establish pathways for mental health promotion,
early detection and treatmentin all providers of higher education sustained by appropriate
staff training and audit.The youth should be involved in training and audit,and in formulating
guidelines for adapting local educational practice (such as examinations) and options for
specialist referrals (such as trauma-focused services for illness related to childhood
maltreatment: Zelazny et al., 2019). However, such pathways were not developed in those
nine universities where I taught, although we did launch new counselling services in two
organisations, and mental health awareness may have improved among some university
health centres (which referred students to local mental health trusts or voluntary agencies).
Recently, a team from Canada, Australia and England has mapped out what responsive,
integrated mental health care mightlook like (Duffy et al., 2019). However, even in a medical
school, less than 20 per cent of studentsidentified with a mental disorder receive “minimally
adequate treatment”(Duffy et al., 2019).
In other words, the treatment gap is over 80 per cent of this young population.
The picture may be even worse for young people with severe mental illness. “The stigma
associated with schizophrenia is both real and extreme” (An anonymous student, 2019).
Universal, easy-to-access resources such as Every Mind Matters (Mahase, 2019) may help
some students, but those are unlikely to help young adults with major problems. Worldwide
experience with health promotion suggests a deep understanding of local settings, each
organization’s culture and assetsand the human capital available are all needed. For higher
education to improve students’ mentalhealth, it will need to draw on both generic resources
and detailed, localhealth intelligence.
At a time when the UK publichealth community is supposed to be thinking strategicallyabout
the prevention of problems, the ALSPAC longitudinal study has confirmed that adverse
childhood events before age 9 are a major risk for later self-harm (Russell et al, 2019).
However, the UK is not routinely planning trauma-focused and resilience-building pathways
for young people making their transition from school to university. A trauma such as sexual
assault around the time of that transition may disturb both mental and physical health for
years, but a pathwayto effective treatments can help a young person make “somany positive
changes” (Hope, 2019). Young peoplein local authority care (because of childhood abuse,
neglect or bereavement) may find the transition to university life especially hard. There may
be a need for extra support, such as mentoringand care management that continues, in the
absence of a supportive family. A larger population at risk are foreign students who may be
living away from home, ina baffling new culture, forthe first time. For these students, pastoral
and peer support may be valuable. However, adult students from all backgrounds may
resent helicopterparenting, if they feel constantly inspectedand judged!
DOI 10.1108/JPMH-03-2020-101 VOL. 19 NO. 1 2020, pp. 1-3, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1746-5729 jJOURNAL OF PUBLIC MENTAL HEALTH jPAGE 1

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