Hello. My research is on the effects of limited access policies on student access to and utilization of mental health resources in a university setting. My name is M achievement and I had the help of that guilty supervisor, Dr. Cheryl lattice. This is a sociological research project that investigates the responsibility as society should feel towards us individuals with regards to matters of personal care and specifically mental healthcare. For the purpose of this RE, society is interpreted as a college community. So there's research asserts the responsibility of colleges and universities to provide mental health counseling to students. And we've found that students need to access mental health counseling is greater than what US M has so far been able to provide. I leaned on the sociological brilliance of C Wright Mills, who coined the sociological imagination. That which compels individuals to look at society from the outside, to understand how the actions of individuals affect others. And at the same time to understand how a society is joint. History affects its contemporary citizens. The sociological imagination is the idea that what I do affects everybody around me. I also looked at Burger and McMinn social construction of reality at which reminds us that the reality of everyday life presents itself as an intersubjective world that we share with others and that we cannot exist in everyday life without continually interacting and communicating with others. A healthy individual creates a healthy society. Emil Durkheim defined solidarity as the extent to which an individual is bound to and banned by the group. And it's this sense of solidarity that I'm calling on when I say that a community has a responsibility to its various. We also must remember that social arrangements are man-made. The unifying takeaway from these sociologists is that one of the most important and impactful parts of existing in society is that we are doing it with other people. In looking at the existing literature, I read The Center for collegiate Mental Health 2018 Annual Report, which showed that in the past eight years, the proportion of students attending mental health counseling increased from 46% to 54.4%. So now representing more than half of students, the proportion of students taking medication for mental health concerns increased from 31.3% to 34.3%. And this was a sample size around 41 thousand individuals. And 1502 of those students reported that the reason they stop utilizing services was because there's actually limit had been reached. 1502 represents 3.6% of their sample. And we recognize that that's a relatively small number. But sociology forces us to remember that those people are people who are deserving of care. Eisenberg and colleagues in 2011, I found that most lifetime mental disorders have first onset by the typical college age of 18 to 24 years. And early treatment has the potential to significantly improve long-term diagnoses. This was reaffirmed by Duffy in 2018, who said the untreated or inadequately treated mental illness is associated with progression to more complex disorders, school dropout, addiction, and self-harm Further research by people and colleagues in 2018 ask students with mental illness to identify core services and strategies for supporting educational goals. This is what they came up with. Access to specialists, meaning access to mental health counselors on campus. Emphasis on wellness as opposed to grades or attendance, providing organizational skill support, and facilitating accommodations. And is important to note that several students at you at Sam had confided that the accommodations given to them through the Disability Services Center are not enforced. And that could be the right to a note-taker extensions on assignments, the right to get up and walk around a little bit, et cetera. Along with reviewing the existing literature, data for this project was collected through three methods. One was an anonymous online survey of the student body using Snap survey. The survey went out to everybody at us. I'm, and I got a response rate of 437 qualitative interviews with students. But I must note that this part of my research was dramatically reduced to, due to the Kobe 19 outbreak. And I was unfortunately only able to interview to students before learning went digital and qualitative interviews with university mental health professionals. The University of Southern Maine acknowledges the importance of offering mental health care for university students. And counseling staff are passionate about providing the best care they can with the resources they have. This data comes from their appointments statistics from the 20182019 school year. Uhc S has 5.5 full time equivalent counselors for a student body of 8 thousand on three campuses. We recognize that resources here or the problem UHC S recognizes that resources are the problem. 5.5 full-time counselors for 8 thousand students is inadequate. Students are allowed 12 mental health counseling appointments per academic year, which is roughly 30 weeks. And during the 20182019 square UHC S held 3,226 appointments for 618 clients, averaging 5.2 to a pliant appointments per client. And although the average student utilize 5.2 to counseling sessions, the numbers break down to reveal that of the 618 students who utilize services AT, for clients, or 13.6% attended between 112 and more than 21 appointments in an interview with the director of UHC? Yes. She informed me that students in crisis might continue to attend counseling until they are ready to move on to the community. So that could account for some of this disparity. And these statistics show that USCS knows that a sizable number of students need more than 12 sessions and will stretch their resources to support these students. But it does pose the question of how many students are turned away? Who would have benefited from more sessions, or how many self removed because they believe their needs would not be accommodated. This is data collected from the survey that I sent out to the student body. Of my 437 respondents, 33.6% have utilized mental health counseling services at USCS. One interviewee said, if I didn't end up going to counseling, I probably would have dropped out my freshman year. And I've heard that mentality echoed by several students with mental illness. 54% of respondents claimed that poor mental health or mental illness has impacted their grades. 26% of respondents reported needing to take one or more semester away from college as a resort of poor mental health or mental illness. In 22% of respondents reported using at least nine of their sessions in surveying and talking to students. I've identified some barriers to accessing mental health care. We've already said One at the university level, its resources, us, I'm just does not have enough counselors to support the students that need counseling. Eisenberg and colleagues found that the use of mental health services is higher. And smaller schools noting that this may be related to a higher availability of resources. This implies that if there are enough counselors for the students, the students will utilize those resources. Another barrier was transportation, or the majority of students live on campus and rely on public transportation. Eisenberg and colleagues found that students living in campus housing were more likely to use psychotherapy, the most common source of therapy in the sample, which could imply the importance of proximity to receiving services. Or third barrier is finances. This chart comes from the survey that I sent out to the student body. As we can see, the majority of students who responded 40% could only afford to spend 0 to $15 per mental health appointment. And only 9% of students could afford to spend more than $75 on mental health counseling. Research around the community has revealed that the majority of counselors in Portland started at a sliding scale of 80 to $200 per session, regardless of insurance. And so we can see that that is out of budget for the vast majority of students who responded to the survey. I proposed some possible solutions to help make counseling more accessible to students on campus. After a student has reached their 12th session limit, the student may be able to pay a small copay in order to continue seeing their counselor. The table on the previous slide shows that most students can pay 0 to $15 per session that could contribute to the counseling budget and the ability to hire more counselors. There should be a sliding scale. Students who cannot pay should not be turned away, and students who can afford to pay more and should be encouraged to do so. I propose that we allow students 12 sessions per semester instead of per academic year. This is still fewer sections then there are weeks in a semester. But it does give the students the freedom to see their counselor at least every other week, as students have already paid for their counseling sessions with their tuition. The survey, using the research, proposed the idea of donating anew sessions to students who need more than 12.6. 93% of respondents showed a willingness and desire to donate their sessions. Mental illness is a very personal thing, and it's vital to remember that not all students are average. While students needing more than 12 sessions, that might be the minority, there are valued members of the university community and are deserving of care. Accessible mental health care is a vital service that the university has a responsibility to provide. If you're interested in doing further research on this topic. These are the sources that I used in this research would not have been possible without the unending support of family, friends, and loved ones who put up with me when I was super annoying. And of course, Dr. Cheryl laze, without whom this literally would not have happened. Thanks.