Addressing Student Mental Health by Addressing Loneliness

Title: Loneliness, Resilience, and Mental Health: A Call For Campus Action

Source: Active Minds, TimelyCare

Active Minds and TimelyCare, two leading organizations dedicated to raising public awareness of mental health issues, have issued a report summarizing findings from a survey they conducted about loneliness among college students.

Citing the COVID pandemic as well as the finding that 29 percent of college students report severe psychological distress as important factors, the report identifies the necessity for campuses to continue to expand mental health services.

The report also finds a correlation between loneliness and psychological distress and identifies LGBQ+ students as being particularly vulnerable to loneliness. 70 percent of LGBQ+ students surveyed identify as lonely, compared with 65 percent of students overall.

LGBTQ+ students are more likely to report caring about their friends’ mental health, while cisgender men are the least likely to say they concern themselves with their friends’ mental health. While two-thirds of students agree mental health is an important campus issue, just half believe that students on their campus work together to improve student mental health.

The report offers the following objectives and recommendations:

• Facilitate connection, especially for LGBTQ+ students, to address loneliness and by extension severe psychological distress.
• Understand students’ unique needs and identities when providing mental health services.
• Educate students on how to provide their friends and peers with support.
• Encourage student collaboration and engagement in future mental health initiatives.

To view the full report, click here.

—Diego Quintanar-Peña