| ashu |
Posted
on 14-Jan-02 06:18 AM
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/13/edlife/13MENT.html?pagewanted=print
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Will repost this later in the depression usergroup as well.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
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Extracts:
Martin E. P. Seligman, a widely published author and research psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, tries to prevent depression in freshmen by teaching those at greatest risk how to defend themselves against pessimistic thoughts. A modern-day proponent of old-fashioned optimism, he offers training sessions for 8 to 10 students aimed at disputing negative thinking.
The idea is to catch yourself in self-defeating thoughts like, ''This is going really badly, I've really lost my touch,'' Dr. Seligman says, and then to build up a mental argument for why that isn't so.
For the last 11 years, in a program replicated elsewhere, he has been sending a questionnaire about pessimism and optimism to all students admitted to the University of Pennsylvania. Those who rank among the most pessimistic (viewed as more susceptible to depression) are urged to participate in the workshops.
Researchers at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor also hope to catch depression early through detection and intervention. A new Comprehensive Depression Center, announced in November, will study the illness in the general population but will also treat students as part of the university's mental health system, according to John F. Greden, its director and chairman of the department of psychiatry.
''These disorders are treatable,'' he says. ''The progression is generally preventable.'' Eventually, the program is supposed to be consolidated within a proposed $32 million building.
M.I.T., criticized for having the highest student suicide rate in the country, similarly announced plans in the fall for a major overhaul of its mental health services. Changes include extended appointment hours, 100 percent insurance coverage for off-campus services, and an education and outreach program aimed at making students more comfortable seeking help.
In its mental health task force report in November, M.I.T. showed a 50 percent increase in the use of its mental health services between 1995 and 2000. It also showed an increase of about 69 percent in student psychiatric hospitalizations, ''reflecting a growing number of students with serious mental health conditions.''
Columbia, meanwhile, just began a survey of the class of 2005, an effort to provide better services by tracking 200 freshmen through the current academic year and possibly until they graduate. Though not the first of its kind, the $100,000-a-year study claims to be the deepest. Participants log on to a confidential Web site once a week, respond to a checklist of questions about personal events, and then write briefly about the highs and lows of the past few days.
''There is growing concern on campuses about student mental health,'' says George A. Bonanno, the psychologist at Teachers College at Columbia who is directing the study. He expects the responses to shed new light on students' inner lives and explain why some cope better than others do, how those at risk might be better identified, and what experiences are the hardest.
Even before its new research project was conceived last spring, Columbia was steadily expanding its counseling center and a network of related services, adding staff almost annually for the last several years. The counseling center employs the equivalent of 20 full-time psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers, the backbone of a mental health system described by the counseling center's director, Richard Eichler, as ''an unusually well-funded and extensive service.''
That service includes individual and couples counseling, and daily walk-in sessions for those in urgent need. ''If you say you need to be seen, you'll be seen,'' Dr. Eichler says.
The students' yearly health plan covers the costs of mental health services, including off-campus referrals. The center also sponsors support groups for minority students, students in bereavement, those who procrastinate and those who are coming out as gays and lesbians, among others.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/13/edlife/13MENT.html?pagewanted=print
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