[First posted on July 2018, see updates below]<\/p>\n
If you follow us or Pieneers, you know our mission is to <\/span>inspire the college kids<\/span><\/a> to tackle a #ProWoSo. We have to admit, we face lot of challenges with this mission, as you can imagine, we are willing to face them and move forward as this is our mission! But, one of the challenges, that impacts big time and is not in our control is the mental health epidemic on campuses. <\/span><\/p>\n Estimates vary but from one of the massive study by a Columbia professor, from colleges across several countries, found that nearly <\/span>35% of freshmen struggle<\/span><\/a> with mental health. And slightly over 20% have major depressive disorder that lasts lifelong. According to <\/span>a PSU study,<\/span><\/a> 33.2% who seeked help, have considered suicide! These are huge numbers and are really scary for not only they rob the kids of their great time of their life and impact their future & societies around them. <\/span><\/p>\n With the stress of college, peer pressures and the stigma attached to mental health most of the students suffer alone and generally do not reach out to school\u2019s counselling centers. Unfortunately, even if all the kids reach out to counselling, most of the school\u2019s are not quite equipped to handle the epidemic. Given the nature of the problem, until our society accepts the mental health stigma free, we need an alternate solution. <\/span><\/p>\n Online technologies along with possibility of being anonymous, seems like a best fit to develop variety of creative solutions. A <\/span>kickstarter project aims<\/span><\/a> to build on an idea of a peer who is suffering (or recovered) can share their story and help a peer in need! This is a wonderful idea and we need more of these ideas. <\/span>Good luck to all the Pieneers!<\/span><\/p>\n As always, know of anyone or any startup working on this, please let me know, I will update this post.<\/span><\/p>\n Update (Oct 14, 2021)- Looks like the problem gets worse if you consider the students of color and who might be hesitant to get help from some white staff member. Another area of service where diversified staff is needed!<\/p>\n [Image Credit: Thanks to rawpixel via <\/span>Pixabay<\/span><\/a>]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"