Post-secondary students dealing with anxiety, stress and suicidal thoughts: report
Posted Jun 17, 2013 1:33 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A new health study is shedding the light on alarming rates of anxiety, stress and suicidal thoughts among post-secondary students.
Nearly 90 per cent of students said that they felt overwhelmed by their work, over 50 per cent said they felt hopeless and 63 per cent said they felt very lonely, according to the Canadian Organization of University and College Health.
One of the presenters of the study, Mount Royal University’s Director of Wellness Services Kandi McElary, said hopefully with the massive data released, they will eventually see the numbers go down.
“Can we be working with students to give them some tools around resiliency and coping that will actually, maybe ward off or help them perhaps prevent a more serious mental illness situation,” she said.
Almost 10 per cent of students said they considered committing suicide and 1.3 per cent actually attempted to take their own lives.
The study surveyed more than 30,000 students at 34 colleges and universities nationwide.
McElary added another major finding was how many students opt not to drink on campus.
During a presentation in Montreal Monday, McElary said when she revealed to one student that around 25 per cent of students decide not to consume alcohol on campus, that came as a shock.
“She said, if I had heard in my first year at university that I’m amongst many other students, that would’ve saved me a whole bunch of anxiety,” she said.
