USUSA moves to declare a mental health crisis in Utah
During its meeting on Tuesday, the Utah State University Student Association Executive Council introduced a new legislation to declare a state of crisis at Utah State University.
The legislation, more formally known as ASB 2017-01, declares that USU students are experiencing a huge increase in poor mental health and there aren’t enough resources to help everyone.
In a study done in 2015 by the American College Health Association it was found that 14% of students had seriously considered suicide in the past two weeks.
The Utah Department of Health reported in 2015 that Utah has the highest suicide rate in the United States and over 100 students enrolled in Utah higher education institutions in the 2014-2015 school year attempted to take their own lives.
At Utah State University it takes, on average, four to six weeks for a student to receive proper treatment from university-sponsored mental health services once it is requested. According to Matthew Clewett, student advocate vice president and one of the authors of the bill, that wait is too long.
“When there is a wait time of four to six weeks for a student of depression to initially see a councilor that’s a serious issue … four to six weeks is four to six weeks far too long,” Clewett said.
With this bill Clewett hopes to bring more awareness to the issue of mental health, cut down the wait time for services like Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), encourage students to utilize the mental health services more and to drop the suicide rate at USU.
“Everyone here at Utah State is affected by mental health issues whether that be through themselves or through their friends and family,” Clewett said .
Student body president, Ashley Waddoups, is in support of this bill but hopes to raise awareness for this issue beyond the university level.
“It’s not just a higher education problem. People come from high school really hurting inside and so as a state we all need to start working on it … it’s all so much bigger than all of us,” Waddoups said.
Despite her dedication to make a change, Waddoups is concerned that there isn’t enough dialogue about the issue of mental health to make a change in state government.
“If we try to ram something through when there hasn’t been enough dialogue and concern about it on the hill then it’s just going to flop,” Waddoups said.
Even with her doubts Waddoups has high hopes that the succeeding members of USUSA will be able to make the bigger changes that USU needs to combat this metal health crisis.
“We want to increase the dialogue on mental health so our predecessors can come forward and start asking for actual dollars to go toward our students … I want to look back and see Utah State having more councilors, greater facilities and other big things we will need long time funding for,” Waddoups said.
Clewett reported in the meeting uesday night that he has received no negative feedback from USU staff and faculty members about the bill and Waddoups reported that President Albrecht is currently in support of the bill.
The meeting to vote on whether or not to pass the ASB 2017-01 will be held in the Senate Chamber Room, which is located on the third floor of the Taggart Student Center at 6 p.m. on September 6th. Students are encouraged to attend.
@HowardShanie
— shaniehoward214@gmail.com