Mental Health and College Students: The Unspoken Words that Speak Volumes

Date

2021-12

Authors

Gomez, Alyssa

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Abstract

Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It also contributes to how we may feel, act, or think and plays an integral part in each stage of our life. Considering recent events, mental health among college and university students has continued to become a growing concern throughout our nation. However, due to the negative stigma associated with mental health, the topic is often ignored and/or not taken seriously. Consequently, not addressing these mental health issues may oftentimes result in students either dropping out, feeling left out, or prevent them from reaching their full academic potential. For this project, I chose to investigate this problem here closer to home. Unfortunately, many of these students impacted by this are members of historically underrepresented groups or part of marginalized communities. During this research, I discovered that there are areas in need of improvement. Not enough is being done to foster mental health consciousness or promote disability awareness. Using a multi-modal and multi-collaborative technique, I have been able to reach every aspect of the university and enlist the help of the community. As a result, I have created a proposal to be presented to the President, Provost, and other senior leaders of Texas State University highlighting my efforts throughout the Fall 2021 semester. I provide findings as well as possible visuals to be utilized and offer recommendations for enacting change in the culture and climate as it relates to student mental health.

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Keywords

mental health, stigma, problem, disability, safety, support, students, college, education, training, change, awareness, advocate, open-minded, conversation, culture, well-being, resources, funding, proposal, illustrations, Honors College

Citation

Gomez, A. (2021). Mental health and college students: the unspoken words that speak volumes (Unpublished thesis). Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.

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