ON THE FRONT LINES OF STUDENT CRISIS: Urban Community College Professors' Experiences and Perceived Role in Handling Students in Distress

Headnote

Objective: Interfacing with a diverse student population with numerous and complex health needs, college professors may have students who share distressing personal information that may not only affect academic performance but require action by the professor. This study aimed to identify professors' experiences with such students, their perceived role in handling nonacademic problems, awareness of college procedures and resources related to student mental health, and recommendations for supporting faculty in this area. Participants included 21 full-time faculty members from various departments at a community college in New York City. Methods: Full-time faculty participated in focus groups held during spring 2010. Results: Professors were confronted with and felt ill-equipped to handle numerous serious student issues. Conclusions: Ongoing training for faculty and college personnel is needed to strengthen skills and knowledge of mental health resources to assist students in distress and create a broader web of support beyond the counseling center.

ON THE FRONT LINES OF STUDENT CRISIS: URBAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE PROFESSORS' EXPERIENCES AND PERCEIVED ROLE IN HANDLING STUDENTS IN DISTRESS

Recent studies have indicated a decline in the mental health of college students and highlight the prevalence and severity of the problems that students face (American College Health Association [ACHA], 2011b; Center for Colle- giate Mental Health [CCMH], 2011; Guthman, Iocin, & Konstas, 2010; Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA [HERI], 2010). Surveying over 200,000 first-year college stu- dents, a 2010 UCLA study found that students' perceptions of their emotional health hit an all- time low, the lowest it has been in 25 years. Female students reported significant distress with 39% feeling "frequently overwhelmed" (HERI, 2010).

Looking more specifically at students seek- ing college counseling services, a retrospective review of over 3,200 student mental health records covering 12 years revealed that 96% of those students had at least one diagnosable mental disorder with no significant difference in age or class (Guthman et al., 2010). Guth- man et al. (2010) noted that more students are entering college with preexisting mental health problems, a possible indicator of the increase in more severe cases of depression in college.

Students continued to report significant lev- els of distress in the 2011 Center for Collegiate Mental Health study which analyzed data from more than 70,000 students at 97 university and...