Discover 2 opportunities in depression

Even before COVID-19, students across the world face a mental health crisis of unprecedented proportions. Columnist James Matthew Alston investigated the phenomenon, looking particularly at university responses - his conclusions made for tough reading. Many institutions are overwhelmed, their mental health services ill-equipped to cope with the growing demand. Consequently, students are often left untreated in precarious states of mental health – an unsustainable situation that, as the statistics show, can end tragically.

In recent years, an epidemic has enveloped university campuses across the world - and it's not the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Compared to any other generation of college students in history, current students experience more mental health issues than ever before. Some reports suggest that 35% of freshers in American universities experience anxiety disorders - and this percentage is compounded by the fact that, terrifyingly, nearly 10% of students have considered suicide in the previous twelve months. Since the 1950s, rates of suicides on American campuses have tripled, and it’s now the second most common cause of death among students. In the United Kingdom alone, a student commits suicide every four days.