<p>[Triage</a> System Helps Colleges Treat Mentally Ill Students : Shots - Health News : NPR](<a href=“Triage System Helps Colleges Treat Mentally Ill Students : Shots - Health News : NPR”>Triage System Helps Colleges Treat Mentally Ill Students : Shots - Health News : NPR)</p>
<p>Audio and transcript at the link. This was a nice report this morning on NPR about how UVa addresses mental health counseling for students.</p>
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<p>I’ll probably get slammed for this, but what the heck …</p>
<p>It didn’t do any good in regard to George Huguely.</p>
<p>From the article: "When she called the school’s counseling line …"</p>
<p>Therein lies the rub. It’s a lot easier when someone calls themselves. But where is the intervention when it needs to be initiated by school officials?</p>
<p>GolfFather, Not sure why you’d get slammed for your post, it’s an eminently fair comment. I don’t know any details not in news reports, but from the outside the Huguely matter sure looks like a major failure of UVA’s support system.</p>
<p>I’m cynical about reports like the one linked above – they tend to be uncritical puff pieces, based on a couple of interviews.</p>
<p>The vast majority of mental issues involve problems where a person is at risk to themselves, or at the risk of dropping out, and is not a risk to anyone else. A much smaller percentage involve risks to other persons. </p>
<p>I don’t know whether anyone reported Hugely as a threat to responsible authorities - I don’t think they did. I believe I read that the U. didn’t know about Hugely’s problems that occurred before he arrived at UVa. In situations in other schools and other communities, often there was a person who felt someone was a threat, but they did not report it.</p>
<p>Most peers don’t think their ill peers need treatment, and faculty only sees a tiny fraction of what students see. </p>
<p>I had severe depression with daily suicidal ideation for two years but only when it affected my lab participation did my lab professor intervene such that I was diagnosed. My friends who I complained to suggested “do cool activity X!” or “go running!” (I ended up running six miles regularly with my best friend) but they all only worked for a short while. </p>
<p>None of them suggested I go to CAPS or seek medication because medication seems like such an extreme step. For crazy people. Do you really feel that out of control?</p>
<p>After I got hospitalized twice and had to explain to people why I was sitting out the semester (I was still doing research and participating in student organizations), I told little hints and half-truths, and occasionally the whole truth. When I told the whole truth I found out that the amount of people affected by various conditions was greater than I thought. </p>
<p>I randomly bumped into a friend of a friend at Baja Bean. Now when I go to bars to karaoke I rarely talk to anyone other than the few friends I go with, but the one time I did I found out that this person had bipolar and hallucinated (heard voices telling him to kill himself) frequently, but refused to take medication (probably because of the side effects). Another time I opened up (rare) I found out that a popular and amiable student leader had been diagnosed with schizophrenia but she too refused to take medication (risperdal, which I was also taking). Another time I found a dormmate (well-known activist) had attempted suicide twice at our dorm and that’s why an ambulance had popped up mysteriously at the IRC, but it was also very hush hush.</p>
<p>I think most students don’t recognize how many of their peers require treatment. If someone is acting weird and out of sorts (for extended periods of time), they usually just leave them alone. This same probably applied to Huguely’s friends. It’s so awkward to intervene in someone’s life.</p>
<p>When people reveal their troubles, it can encourage other people to seek the treatment they need.</p>