Volume 24 · Number 3 · Spring 2007
Most Vulnerable
One of the questions foremost in the minds of UC Davis mental health, health and other campus leaders is how to better reach out to students least likely to seek help for psychological or emotional distress: men.
Seventy percent of students who use the campus Counseling and Psychological Services are women, said CAPS Director Emil Rodolfa, up from a 60–40 ratio of female to male clients in 1988. “We need to figure out ways to help men come in when they’re feeling depressed,” Rodolfa said.
Of nine UC Davis student suicides reported from 2000–01 to 2005–06, most were men. They were also predominantly upper-division undergraduates and graduate students, calling attention to other student populations at risk.
A report submitted to UC regents last September noted the intense stress experience by many graduate and international students. Two months later, a male foreign graduate student took his own life.
Other student groups identified in the UC-wide report and by UC Davis officials as higher risk for mental-health concerns include minorities, gay students and veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. Students who served in the Iraq war may struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as psychological issues associated with adjusting to life with lost limbs and other injuries.
Phil Knox, interim director of advising services and coordinator for campus veterans, said he has referred three Gulf war veterans to CAPS during fall quarter. “One I walked over myself.”
Most are reluctant to talk about their war experiences, he said. “This is not a topic that most veterans share readily. They don’t go for help. They don’t talk about it because they’re not comfortable with it. But we have found that there are consequences. If they don’t deal with it, it impacts the rest of their lives.”
Knox said the campus is prepared to help with a variety of services and two psychologists who are Vietnam War veterans. “We have counselors here who do understand. What we try to tell [students] is that this is a safe place. And it’s not weakness to say, ‘I’m not sleeping well. Or when I have a lot of stress on me, I’m not performing as well as I think I should.’
“UC Davis cares about its campus and its whole community,” Knox said. “We just want to help. We don’t want to add any hurdles or obstacles for students. If students are having difficulties, they need to come see us.”