Friday, January 21, 2011

Regarding mental health in our universities

In light of the tragedies in Tuscon, I have been giving this idea some thought and thought it would be good to document it so that perhaps someone reading this might give it further consideration and perhaps see if this is somthing that might be needed in the future of our educational system. 
It would seem that the college and graduate school system might be a good place to discover any inherent mental health concerns and bring treatment to the student.  Sadly, there appears to be little that ensures that a student must get the therapy and assistance that is needed.  When a student drops out of school, he or she is essentially lost to the supervision and observation of others who may be able to steer him or her to a mental health care situation.  Perhaps an idea, though certainly a big brother type of scenario, might be to mandate that all students matriculating to higher education agree upon matriculation that they will comply with university mental health recommendations as a means of being accepted into their schools.  This way, noone would be lost to follow up and proper treatment can be administered.  I would think this could be university policy or even if need be, law enforced.  This only makes sense and would keep any serious situation from being lost to follow up until dare we say it becomes destructive to a higher proportion. 

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