Drugs and alcohol are considered to be a normal part of college life, and as such are very easily found. Often the drugs will help them feel more confident and have a different perception of how others view them.43 College culture presents a new environment to many new freshmen, as many are living on their own for the first time and are possibly exposed to drugs more often than they would have been before. These drugs are needed and recommended for those that struggle with anxiety or panic attacks and are prescribed these medications by their doctor.38 However, this use becomes drug misuse when the medication is not used as directed by a physician or if it is used by someone other than who they wrote the prescription for. Alcohol numbed the feelings and made the flashbacks go away.”26 However, though alcohol has numbing properties that temporarily halt symptoms of PTSD and other mental illness, the substance wears off and the individual must re-medicate to find the same relief.27 With time, this constant self-medication can lead to addiction.
6. Data Analysis
As schools provide more opportunities for conducting intervention programs, it is essential that intervention programs can be incorporated within school curriculum programs. From this perspective, schools and environmental contexts may play an important role in the prevention of substance use. Previous research has reported that school may play an important role in the prevention of substance use, given that the initiation of substance use occurs typically during early adolescence and may predispose people to substance use later in life. However, the most significant difference of our program compared with other international approaches is that we conducted our study with adolescent students with academic trajectories of failure in school. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the Reasoning and Rehabilitation program V2 on the reduction of substance use in adolescent students at risk of academic failure in Spain. Inclusion criteria for the students were (1) being part of an alternative education provision (2) regular attendance in the classroom (at least 80% of sessions of the program) and (3) being able to read and complete the questionnaires on their own.
Gender and School Year Differences in Frequency, Consequences, Concerns, and Interest
Telehealth may on the one hand broaden access to services but can also pose equity concerns if all students do not have equal access to reliable broadband services. If an institution relies on community-based treatment options to help meet its students’ demand for services, it should promote mechanisms to match students to community resources and enable them to use those resources easily, rather than leave students on their own to find and access community resources. The problem of insufficient capacity is particularly acute at the nation’s community colleges, where counselor to student ratios are nearly half those of baccalaureate degree-granting colleges. This program “bridges the gap between a psychiatric hospital and multiple campus settings in an attempt to address the specific needs of college student-patients across levels of psychiatric care and diagnostic areas/programs,” (Pinder-Amaker and Bell, 2012, p. 174). Institutions of higher education often suffer from the same problem, lacking a sufficient number of mental health professionals to care for their student population. This survey, which does not include community colleges and is not representative of the entire scope of this report, does reflect the reality that even in a global pandemic, 63 percent of the leaders surveyed recognized the need for resources; however, they did not necessarily have the means to increase clinical support.
There has been speculation in the past that perhaps many of these students would use drugs whether or not they were in Greek life and that perhaps they have a predisposition to drugs; however, researchers found that students who left a sorority or fraternity during their college career showed a decrease in substance use the following year.50 Most students do not even have to look—2 in 3 students will have been offered prescription drugs by their senior year of college.44 Out of students that had not used marijuana before college, a study found that 74% of them were offered marijuana while at school, and 54% ended up using marijuana. When researching students across the nation, the data showed that around 7% of students were using study drugs to help them focus and stay awake.31 In comparison, it is estimated that only 5% of college students have been diagnosed with ADHD.32 Additionally, many college students take these drugs due to the therapeutic effects of increasing focusing and concentration, hoping that they will be able to Hispanic and Latino Student Mental Health Guide focus better as they study and take tests. These prevention strategies, when implemented effectively, contribute to a healthier and more supportive campus community. By implementing various strategies, colleges and universities can effectively combat substance abuse and promote overall well-being.
- Although previous surveys have indicated high rates of illicit and prescription drug misuse among college students, few have assessed negative consequences, personal concerns, or interest in interventions for drug use.
- Marijuana—A drug that is often used for medical purposes and is now legal in a number of states.
- Without a waiver, FERPA precludes colleges and universities from sharing academic records except in limited circumstances, such as when there is an urgent need to protect the health and safety of a student or another person on campus.
- Students may experiment with substances as a means of socializing, coping with stress, or seeking new experiences.
- This training, which might be deliverable through a web-based program (Ahmad et al., 2020), could also inform students as to what they should do when experiencing a mental health or substance use problem.
For example, it is well documented that women and faculty of color bear a disproportionate burden of providing mentoring and student support, which extends to supporting student mental health. To involve faculty more directly in efforts to address student mental health, faculty will require adequate support, including training, from the institution. The National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD) has issued a guide for staff and administrators that offers advice on recognizing signs and effectively engaging and accommodating students with mental health problems (Jones, Bower, Furuzawa, 2016a). Closer to home, the University of Texas at Austin’s unique Wellbeing in Learning Environments program “helps faculty make small shifts in teaching that could make a major difference in students’ mental health and wellbeing” (University of Texas at Austin, 2019). Peer-to-peer initiatives are powerful not only in building a support system, but also at a more fundamental level, raising students’ knowledge and awareness of these issues and how they play out within their own campus communities (Sontag-Padilla et al., 2018a).
Education and Awareness Programs
If this use becomes regular and inhibits normal life activities, this misuse can become abuse.7 Alcohol Poisoning—Occurs when the blood alcohol content gets to a very high level and the body is no longer able to process all the toxins in alcohol.3 Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy—An alcohol-induced heart disease that prevents the heart’s ability to pump the needed blood to the rest of the body, which can be damaging to other organs.2
