Laurier: Home for the Hardcore

With exams looming ominously, hanging like a black cloud over the essay-ridden heads of the Laurier student body, there’s another issue at hand: mental illness.

Mental illness, not simply depression, is a serious issue on campus. Prevalent, yet invisible, students are suffering in silence. One in ten Ontario students report experiencing three or more mental health issues, including depression and anxiety, according to the 2003 Mental Health and Well-Being of Ontario Students Report, published by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto.

One in ten: a large portion of Laurier students and this is only the reported number in 2003. Now that it’s 2011, and with the burdened economy, job prospects looking slim, and recent grads skimming by on part-time positions and unpaid internships, it’s easy to see where a lot of the grounds for illness come from. Many of us may never experience these issues, many may never see the inside of a psychiatric ward or rely on medication to feel ‘normal’, but it is the unfortunate truth for an increasing number of students.

Not all who suffer seek help, and those who do are facing barriers that are building instead of breaking down. Laurier’s Counselling Services experiences peak periods during exams---a statement that would discourage some from even trying to see help. Emergency room wait times, 6 hours at best, discourage people from supervised inpatient treatment. And of course, the stigma that still surrounds mental illness as something to ‘suck up’, something to ‘get over’ or those suffering as ‘crazies’ or ‘loonies’ in addition to the lack of services.

These words may come as a surprise. Counselling services has offered help to an immense amount of the population at one point or another, and continues to book up solid into the early summer. They offer a variety of options and referrals for everyone. Basically, they’re the pillar of strength that Laurier needs. But it’s not enough: the amount of counselling and on-campus inclusive services is not meeting the growing amount of students seeking help—and those who are not.

Laurier is becoming the home for the hardcore—students taking on full course-loads, jobs, financial troubles and the usual drama, along with mental illness it becomes a daily struggle to stay above water. The university needs to offer additional services, along with the great ones it does offer like PEER and Counselling services, in order to meet the growing demand of students seeking help, and try to reach out to those who do not. It doesn’t have to be like this: we don’t have to sit in the dark and pretend like everything is okay: because it’s not, and we deserve to feel cared for.