Gauging Effectiveness and Presence of Mental Health

Service Programs on Chico State’s Campus

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Methods 1

Survey Analysis 1

Professor Interviews 4

In Person Student Interviews 5

Challenges 5

Literature Review 6

Discussion 8

Conclusion 8

References 9

Introduction

For this research project, I worked with two on-campus mental health resources,
UMatter and the Health and Wellness Center. As stated in UMatter’s website, I am
hoping this research aids in an “increase[d] awareness about how mental health and
mental illness impacts our students, decrease the stigma that prevents students
from accessing help, [and] increase bystander intervention if students, staff, or
faculty see a student in distress”.
The problem I strive to address is gauging the success and potential benefits
UMatter and the Health and Wellness Center have. Through this research, I conducted
surveys and interviews in an effort to learn more about Chico State’s student body
population, in regards to mental health. The data that was collected will hopefully
assist the coordinators of UMatter Outreach and the Health and Wellness Center
determine how effective their classroom presentations and tabling activities are
throughout the semester.
Methods
In order to gather the information found in this report, I used multiple methods of
data collection. My main source of data came from the online survey. My survey was
sent out to CSUC students via email, BlackBoard Learn, and Facebook pages composed
of CSUC students. It consisted of 16 questions and one additional space to add and
submit any information, opinions, and ideas the respondent felt was relevant. I
decided to utilize an online survey to reduce any face-to-face discomfort when
talking about mental health and to potentially reach more participants. I also used
in-person interviews to expand understanding of the mental health in CSUC students,
as well as of flaws within CSUC’s faculty training and the opinions of the
professionals on campus. My in person interviews were significantly shorter than
the online survey, and more casual. I was also able to talk to several students
passing though campus and ask them brief questions, as well as sit down with
professors on campus and obtain useful information. I received consent from the two
professors to use their names in this research and paper.

Survey Analysis

Because most of the identifying questions (age, ethnicity, first generation, having
a job, year in school) were split fairly consistently, they did not necessarily
benefit the research, but it helped me better understand who I was reaching within
the campus community (Figure 1). I do recognize that a majority of respondents for
the survey alone were female. Considering I reached over two-thousand students
through email and social media, the response rate was very low, but that was also
to be expected. "High survey response rates are increasingly rare" (Eisenberg et
al. 2009: 526). The nonresponse rate could be from disinterest, lack of time,
sensitivity to the subject, or simply that the emails and posts went unnoticed.
Based on the knowledge that I received responses from mainly female students and
the low response rate, I recognize the survey results are in no way a
representative of sample of all Chico State students.

Figure 1
Characteristics of Respondents
________________

Characteristics Percentage
Characteristics Percentage
________________

Age
Black/African American 4
18-19 25
Asian/Asian American 2.4
20-21 41.9
Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific
22-23 23.4
Islander 1.6
 24+ 9.7
Hispanic/Latino 30.6
1st year undergraduate 9.7 Indian
.8
2nd year undergraduate 25 White
48.4
3rd year undergraduate 24.2 Multiple
ethnicities 12.1
4th year undergraduate 30.6 Full-time
student 99.2
Graduate student .8
First generation student 50
Female 77.4
Non- first generation student 50
Male 21
Job while enrolled in school

Yes 57.3

No 42.7
________________

*Categories may not all sum to 100% because of unclear or missing data.

I began to ask questions about students' knowledge of UMatter as multiple choice

questions, but then moved towards more free response questions about how the
students were perceiving mental health on the school campus. 72 of 124 students
that responded had at least heard of UMatter and of the 72, 18 had actually used
resources. An additional 3 students had used resources, but had not heard of
UMatter.
Out of the 49 students (approximately 40% of respondents) who had not heard of
UMatter or its resources, I was able to separate the data and see what year the
students were. The following represents the trends found that correlated between
year at Chico State and knowledge of UMatter. 33% of first year respondents had not
heard of UMatter and its programs. 50% of "4th years or longer" respondents had
also not heard of UMatter. Between 2nd and 3rd year respondents, 31% had not heard
of UMatter. Between students first and last year at Chico State, I would expect
that within 4 years or beyond, at one point or another they would hear
about UMatter or its programs. The 50% of 4th years and longer was surprising, but
they also could have forgotten about what they once learned as a new student or
they may not recognize UMatter programs as being affiliated with the organization.
Regardless, these students’ answers generally followed that they had not seen
anyone from UMatter on campus and they had not seen a presentation even as a 4th or
5th year student.
Each of the write in response questions about students' mental health gave me a
better understanding on their perceived ideas around mental health. All of the
results showed me one thing, everyone deals with stress, anxiety and other mental
health issues differently. Trends found while asking about how students identify
symptoms in themselves and others include being withdrawn, changes in normal
attitudes, behaviors and activities and participating in self-destructive behaviors
often. Many students responded that they try to pay attention to their friends when
they are acting out of character, but some recognize that not everyone shows
“typical” character changes which makes identifying problems much harder. For
people that are not open about their struggles (and really all others), it is
absolutely necessary to have an open, welcoming and understanding environment so
that the stigma attached to mental health issues does not affect their ability to
seek help.
One question I decided would not give beneficial information was "If you have sat
through a UMatter presentation or talked with representatives tabling on campus,
how did it affect you?". Looking at the responses, it seems like my answer choices
combined with the write in answers did not convey what I was actually looking for
within the question. Although 81.4% said they have not seen or talked to anyone
about resources, it was unclear on how students perceived this question compared to
what I had originally meant. Combined with the write in results, it seems this
question was unclear and therefore unable to give me accurate results as hoped.

The last part of the survey that I found most beneficial was asking what resources
students believed would best benefit themselves and others in regards to stress and
anxiety. The responses covered many programs and activities, but there were a few
answers that were noticeably more consistent. The most recurring responses were
counseling, having someone to talk to in general, having more education on campus
regarding mental health and better promotion of services that Chico State already
has to offer. Figure 2 will show the most common responses from students.

Figure 2
Resources That Would Benefit Students
________________

Responses Rate Responses

Rate
________________

Counseling 23 Zen Den

7
Counseling with peers & Gym & exercise
hobbies 7
students their age 4 More
helpful/understanding
Off Campus Counseling 2
professors 5
Having someone to talk to in Emotional
support animals &
general (family, friends) 12
therapy dogs 9
Better education of mental health
& promotion of services 16
________________

*Chart is not inclusive of all results

Out of all free response questions, students mainly communicated that even
if campus cannot not produce new resources for students, providing more awareness
of mental health and making it a more common topic of conversation and less taboo
would serve students better. Many stated that if Chico State can not provide other
programs and services for mental health issues they believe the university should
try harder to promote their already existing programs. Some students said this
could be from mandatory education like CADEC and Title 9 programs while others said
more on campus activities sponsored by UMatter would help students. Although many
of these students’ knowledge and perception of mental health were very different,
they all identified that for the amount of students Chico State serves (over
17,000), outreach and education will helps students who are in need of a helping
hand.

Professor Interviews

In holding interviews with professors, the same themes come up again and again.
Most important to this being that UMatter does not do enough in terms of contacting
professors and asking them for class time to educate students on mental health
awareness, and that the school needs to do more in terms of educating professors,
because unless people are specifically familiar with mental health disorders, as
both professors were thankfully, they wouldn't be able to diagnose just base off
the minimal training they receive as an educator.
When budget cuts came up in both interviews, both professionals agreed that budget
cuts will always be present, and to say there isn't enough money to go around is
one of the reasons why mental health is put on a bottom rung. Professor 1 admitted
that they actually worked as part of administrative board for a university in
Florida, and that they know the inner workings of a school better than anyone; they
went on to say that they know how funding is allocated and the thought process
behind those decisions. Schools make funding a priority for departments that they
deem as fit or worthy of money.
Another important bit of information I learned was that these two
professors actually went out of their way to look after their students when
releasing the school doesn't do a good enough job. The difference between the two
interviewees, was the difference in effort made by both professionals because one
had a much larger class size than the other, and couldn't get as much one to one as
the professional with the smaller class size. Professor 1 helps their class by
taking the time to make and distribute fliers that have all the on-campus services
they’ve found through research, Professor 2 through establishing a personal
connection with their students and having the time and resources to look after her
students on an individual basis.
Finally, both professionals recognise that the larger problem lies in the
stigma that mental health has in public opinion, as well as the pressures higher
education institutions place on students that are besides the pressures they might
be facing in their personal lives. In order to get rid of this stigma and those
pressures, the entire higher education institution system has to be remodeled and
since that is not a possibility, the best effort that can and should be made is
through problems like UMatter and other efforts imposed by the school.

“There is not enough flexibility...you HAVE to follow this “get you out in 4 years”
mentality...and there's no balance.”
-Professor 2

“...in saying that you’re here for students, [Chico State] actually has to be there
for them.”
-Professor 1
In Person Student Interviews

While conducting the survey I began to realize a disparity in responses

which was evident from my gender question. When I asked participants “What gender
do you prefer to identify with?”, 77.4% of participants stated that they identified
as female, while 21% of participants identified as male. Due to this dramatic
imbalance, I chose to conduct on campus student interviews in an effort to obtain
more opinions from individuals who identify as male. Because students on campus are
often rushing to and from class, I chose to keep the in person student interviews
short. After asking students some basic information, like age, class standing, and
gender preference, I continued with questions targeted toward the project and
UMatter.
I conducted 21 in person interviews, with 15 participants identifying as male, and
6 participants identifying as female. Out of the 15 males who participated, only 4
have heard about UMatter. On the other hand, out of the 6 females who participated,
4 have heard about UMatter and 3 of those respondents had used services provided by
UMatter, like the Zen Den or counseling. 17 out of the 21 total participants stated
that they had not used resources provided by UMatter. However, 8 out of the 21
participants stated that they have heard of UMatter.
Because many participants were not familiar with UMatter and the resources they
offer, most of the insightful data came from students expressing opinions and
concerns when it comes to mental health. A common theme from interviewing students
was that they understand that mental health is a growing concern here on campus,
and they do want help. When I asked students to rate the importance of mental
health and wellness on a scale from 1-10 (1 being “not important”, and 10 being
“very important”), all participants gave a score of 7 or higher. This suggests that
students do recognize the importance of mental health and wellness, but it may not
be a top priority.
As students got older, or their class standing increased, they were more likely to
state that they have heard about UMatter and/or used resources provided by UMatter.
Out of the 4 first year students that participated, only 1 had heard about UMatter.
This participant started that he believes he only knows about UMatter because he is
very active on campus and involved in several clubs and organizations. Which is
very telling when compared to the fact all 4 of the fourth/fifth year students had
heard about UMatter.This suggests that UMatter is reaching students, but at various
rates during one’s time here at Chico State.

Challenges

A lot of the challenges I went through involved communication with people I was
going to interview. In terms of the interviews, I didn’t receive a lot of support
from the people I had contacted and they were for the most part unreluctant to
speak to us. This falls back ultimately on me because the idea was suggested too
late in the semester and unfortunately took place during the end of semester crunch
for us as students and professors with a heavy workload. Other challenges included
time management; it is so hard to be a student and find time for research,
interpretation, analysis, and coding, as well as making an active effort to receive
more males responding to the survey. It was very female heavy. While ultimately it
worked out, it added stress and work to have to go back and forth, make
adjustments, add new survey questions, and go outside of my area to interview
professors. Another challenge that I faced was the difficulty of conducting in
person student interviews on campus. Many students did not have the time to talk,
or they simply did not want to participate.
Ultimately this research will hopefully still give UMatter insight into their
programs and presence on campus. Although I could not do an extensive research
study for them, I was able to obtain student feedback despite getting a late start
and have low response rates.

Literature Review

Mental health services can provide students with a sense of well-being and keep
them on track to be successful, but having quality and efficient services can be
very difficult. Meeting students’ demand for mental health services is becoming
more of a task due to economic and social factors. Hunt, Watkins and Eisenberg
(2012), note that funding is not based on specific resources alone, but the need
for resources, which changes over time, depending on crises, data, activism and
leadership. Within the interviews conducted, it is explained that administrators
seem to be more inclined to finance these types of resources if they feel it will
truly benefit their campus (Hunt et al. 2012, 852). It is emphasized that
improvement to resources and their funding are mainly topics of change only when
there is strong advocacy from students and parents, which generally tends to be
after a tragedy occurs and affects a large amount of a student population. Martha
Kitzrow (2003, 167) addresses that students already come to campus with a wide
variety of psychological disorders, including self-injury incidents, learning
disabilities, eating disorders, and sexual assault concerns. Kitzrow suggests that
budget increases, as seen at Harvard and MIT after tragedy struck some of their own
students, would definitely help administrators and counseling centers have better
resources available, but she also says that centers can and should be “innovative
in their strategies to meet the... needs of students” (Kitzrow 2003, 174). To
manage caseloads better, some strategies are to limit session times, assign follow-
up group counseling, to be realistic in the campus’s capabilities and to refer more
serious cases to off-campus resources. Both of these articles support that there is
an imminent and growing need for more accessible and better quality services on
college campuses.
There are many factors that can influence one’s mental health. Lifestyle habits of
college level students has been shown to impact their mental health. An increase in
binge drinking was associated with an increase in depression and depressive
thoughts, as well as an increase in impulsivity (Dvorak et al. 2013). Both binge
drinking and impulsive behaviors find themselves on many college campus, including
Chico State. Alcohol, drug use, and impulsive behaviors are all positively related
to suicide (Dvorak et al. 2013). Another factor that has been noted to impact
mental health is one’s stress level and threshold. College students view these
stress levels, and sometimes correlate them with their lifestyle habits and
behaviors (Mason et. al. 2014). For many college students, stress is something that
they must deal with constantly. Social media can even be a factor in an
individual’s mental health. Alcohol, drug use, and social media use can drive a
person to develop depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues (Mason et al.
2014). With social media always at our fingertips, easy access to alcohol, and
young people’s impulsivity; one’s mental health can be easily impacted and
influenced.
Mental health is largely studied in targeted groups to gain knowledge of the needs
of each specific group. One targeted group is the LGBTQ community and how these
students use mental health services being a minority. They are in a systematic
structure that largely makes it difficult for them to reach out for help because of
their minority status (Dunbar et al. 2017, 295). College students have higher rates
of depression and suicide which have been a result of drug and alcohol use (Dvorak
et al. 2013), which is commonly observed at Chico State at any given time. The high
stress levels that college students endure is not something they are able to ignore
(Karatekin 2018). With higher tuition resulting in more student loans, the data
that is collected among those students shows that those students are negatively
affected especially with their psychological needs (Walsemann et al. 2015, 86). A
group of people that have also been largely affected by mental health issues are
first generation college students. The psychological stress factors add on to the
coping of being lost in a new world of university life (Wiles and Moore 2016).
Being able to grasp the difference between everyday stress and components of mental
health conditions may affect people’s abilities to help themselves and others. It
is concluded that many students attribute symptoms of normal stress to anxiety and
depression. Furthermore, it is discussed that many views and assumptions regarding
mental illness and mental health resources are also likely based off of
misunderstandings communicated by media and other sources (Cheng et al. 2018, 71).
It is suggested that in the future, college campus counselors have stronger
outreach programs for education and not just centers for help (Cheng et al. 2018,
71). Outreach programs could broaden their online campaigns and resources since
students are on the internet in high volumes.
Where college students obtain mental health information is just as important as the
treatment they receive. Several lifelong mental disorders are first apparent by the
time a person is 24 years of age (Hunt and Eisenberg 2010). Because of this,
college level years for many young adults are vital in the understanding of one’s
mental health (Hunt and Eisenberg 2010). However, there is a large need for the
number of mental health cases on college campuses to be addressed (Kadison and
DiGeronimo 2004). Mental health services need to be more available for students in
order for them to ease the suffering of their psychological stresses. A national
survey concluded that more than 50 percent of college students felt depressed
during the academic year and it was difficult for the to focus on their studies.
The impact of having more access to services would be a great deal help for those
brave enough to seek help (Kadison and DiGeronimo 2004). An increase in
accessibility for mental health information and help would be beneficial.

Discussion

Based on my research results, I can agree that there are inconsistencies

within the services CSUC provides for students as well as the services CSUC
provides faculty and staff. The central finding of this project, was the lack of
outreach mental health services have to all students, and especially target groups
such as first generation or minority, approximately 47% of all students surveyed
and interviewed have never heard of UMatter or any other mental health service on
campus.

Conclusion

I suggest that UMatter tailor their presentations to students that aren’t

being reached, such as minority and first generation students, as well as have the
school educate faculty and staff on how to identify mental health illness signals.
I also suggest that campus administrative staff do more in enforcing mental health
services as mandatory or highly suggested, as there are too many aspects of UMatter
that fall through that aren’t caught by the university.
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