Despite the alarming rise in depression and suicide, not nearly enough people are getting the help that they truly need. About one in five adults in the United States experience some sort of mental illness in a given year, The National Alliance on Mental Illness reported from the National Institute of Mental Health. 

In 2017, suicide was the second leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 10 and 34, NIMH also stated. Access to care and the stigma surrounding mental health are just some of the barriers standing in the way of young adults who are seeking treatment for their problems. 

Baruch College is more than capable of addressing both of these concerns and should make mental health a main priority, since most students do not. 

Baruch could do this by making it some sort of special requirement for students.

Baruch offers these typically expensive therapy sessions for free. If having an initial consultation was part of the registration process for an incoming student the same way that seeing an academic advisor is, then students would understand the many benefits of this service in their first year and continue to visit throughout the following stressful years of college.

Many Americans are suffering from a mental condition and only 41% of them are receiving treatment, NIMH reported. One way of reducing the stigma and raising awareness would be to make it mandatory for students to fill out a survey about their mental well-being the same way that they evaluate their classes and teachers at the end of a semester. 

The Counseling Center at Baruch offers a broad array of services and specialists that can fit each students’ preferences and needs. Services such as individual counseling, group therapy, psychiatric evaluation, substance abuse prevention and emergency crisis consultations are available for free to all Baruch students. 

Each student looking for help may require different types of help, but Baruch’s Counseling Center offers way more services than a typical private office does and if they can’t help a student directly, then referrals are always something a student can rely on. 

Baruch and its students should make mental health a priority considering the  substantial rise in mental illness over the past decade. While it might not be entirely possible for Baruch to mandate individual consultations to each of its students, they can promote the counseling center. 

These sorts of services can be pricey per session and yet many students don’t know that they have them available for free right across the street.