Lifetime and 12-month treatment for mental disorders and suicidal thoughts and behaviors among first year college students.

OBJECTIVES: Mental disorders and suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STB) are common and burdensome among college students. Although available evidence suggests that only a small proportion of the students with these conditions receive treatment, broad-based data on patterns of treatment are lacking. The aim of this study is to examine the receipt of mental health treatment among college students cross-nationally. METHODS: Web-based self-report surveys were obtained from 13,984 first year students from 19 colleges in eight countries across the world as part of the World Health Organization's World Mental Health-International College Student Initiative. The survey assessed lifetime and 12-month common mental disorders/STB and treatment of these conditions. RESULTS: Lifetime and 12-month treatment rates were very low, with estimates of 25.3-36.3% for mental disorders and 29.5-36.1% for STB. Treatment was positively associated with STB severity. However, even among severe cases, lifetime and 12-month treatment rates were never higher than 60.0% and 45.1%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: High unmet need for treatment of mental disorders and STB exists among college students. In order to resolve the problem of high unmet need, a reallocation of resources may focus on innovative, low-threshold, inexpensive, and scalable interventions.

Financial Sector Workers' Experiences of Managing Suicidal Clients.

BACKGROUND: Financial sector workers interface with indebted clients, who may be distressed and have heightened vulnerability to suicidality. AIM(S): This study examined the experiences of 10 Irish financial sector workers who had experiences of encountering distressed clients who discuss suicide. METHOD: Semistructured interviews (open-ended questions) were used. RESULTS: Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) identified four themes, namely: (1) avoidance versus confrontation of reality (management of the debt); (2) role conflict (recovering the debt vs. supporting the client); (3) emotional impact and distancing from clients (coping with concerns for client welfare); (4) desire for support (practical and emotional training and support needs). LIMITATIONS: The frequency with which such clients were encountered was not assessed. CONCLUSION: These themes demonstrate the need to provide support to this group, and also the difficulties in providing training to manage suicidal clients in a context where the staff member's goal is to recover debt.