Today’s Staff Editorial
Mental health has been at the forefront of both local and national political discourse recently — an aberration of sorts, considering how the topic is typically viewed. Within families and across relationships, depression, anxiety, personality disorders and other mental health concerns are more often ignored than confronted in a meaningful manner. The potential dangers surrounding mental illnesses make accessible treatment a route of counterproductive convenience — a path doomed to fail, and one the federal government appears all too intent on pursuing.
In the midst of sequester cuts that have jeopardized thousands of jobs and countless essential government functions, mental health services are yet another casualty in the bureaucratic shuffle. If the federal government allows the current cuts to persist, mental health programs may face budget slashes as high as 9 percent in the coming months. For the 373,000 mentally ill Americans who would have critical help stripped away if such draconian cuts were to play out, political realities do little to assuage the nightmarish effect fewer services could have on their lives.
This university understands all too well that while mental health services usually fail to garner much attention or financial support, unaddressed mental illnesses can lead to terrifying tragedies. In February, when university graduate student Dayvon Maurice Green killed himself after shooting two of his roommates — killing one and injuring the other — the tragedy shocked the campus. Green’s history of mental illness only compounded an unsettling reality on this campus: Mental health services are increasingly lacking.
Recently the opinion section has hosted the “mental health series,” which has offered numerous perspectives on the state of mental health services on this campus — few of which painted a glowing portrait. By most accounts, the Counseling Center staff struggles to accommodate the increased demand. This editorial board itself has written a number of different perspectives on the matter lately. Many students in precarious situations face monthlong waits before they receive the care they desperately need.
This editorial board would like to commend the efforts of the Student Government Association in forcing this issue to the forefront of students’ minds through its Get Help UMD campaign, which allowed students to share their experiences with mental health services on this campus. However, students’ frustrating experiences aren’t necessarily a reflection of any ineptitude or carelessness on the part of the Counseling Center itself, which has done a commendable job, given its constraints.
Rather, what we’ve experienced on this campus parallels a national trend of severely inadequate mental health services. In a 2012 national survey by the American College Counseling Association, 88 percent of counseling centers reported difficulties in handling the volume of students, as the growing prevalence of “serious psychological problems” among students has “posed staffing problems.”
Yet the magnitude of this failing system extends well beyond college campuses. Over the past three years alone, states have cut mental health budgets by a combined $4 billion — the largest cuts these programs have seen since the 1970s, according to Mental Health America. So while we need adequate mental health services more than ever, the federal government is on the verge of undermining the lives of the millions of Americans affected — both directly and indirectly — by mental illnesses.
Sequestration is affecting government agencies across the board; many face equally devastating cuts. Nevertheless, economics cannot be seen as an excuse to ignore the crucial nature of mental health services. Across the country and on our own campus, we cannot lose sight of the need to confront mental illnesses in a sustained and meaningful manner. This issue needs to stay in the spotlight for as long as it takes to secure proper access to help for those in need. Because when tragedies do strike, we are already stuck with enough “what-ifs” as is — wondering “what if there were more mental health services” shouldn’t be added to the list.
