Rise In The Number Of Students Seeking Mental Health Counseling in IITs

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IIT- Bombay, Student Welfare Center recently addressed the issue of an increase in the number of students seeking counseling. The number increased from 310 to 626 in 2021-22. SWC also stated that 210 of the 626 students who sought counseling were undergraduate students and 203 were Ph.D. students. 

IIT and Mental Health

According to an in-campus survey conducted by IIT Bombay's student magazine, Insight which was published on October 10, 2020. A total of 450 students from various disciplines responded to the survey out of which 72.6% of respondents agreed to have experienced mental health issues. The survey consisted of a variety of objective and subjective questions related to mental health like:

• Whether they had experienced negative emotions
• How long they had experienced such emotions
• Why do they experience such emotions 

Mental health issues were perceived as genuine psychological issues by 93% of survey respondents, and 83% thought they were common at IIT Bombay.

What is causing students to fall down this dark hole?

In 2019, IIT Kharagpur conducted a Mental Health Survey around campus to identify the causes of mental health problems.

• According to the survey, 65.3% of students believe that academic pressure and nearly 63.6% believed that career anxieties were among the top causes of mental health problems among students. 

Not being able to perform well academically and meet the expectations of family members can cause academic concerns in students and have a negative impact on their mental health.

• Loneliness is cited as the cause by 44.7% of students.

• Hina Anaredy, SWC IIT-Bombay, also stated that 48% of students who seek counseling are dealing majorly with emotional issues and around 20% of them are concerned about their academic performance. 

‘One cannot point out a specific reason for students having academic and emotional concerns because everyone has a different lifestyle, and sometimes things like these can't have just one reason as many times things are interconnected. As each student is unique, their perspectives and approaches to the same things will differ. What matters is that students seek assistance as soon as possible to recover faster’, says Hina Anaredy.

Why do students fear speaking up?

'Despite being a major issue, seeking professional help from mental health experts is still regarded as a sign of weakness and lack of confidence. It is one of the reasons students do not seek assistance, despite the fact that they can do so anonymously on campus,' says a mental health expert who worked at IIT Bombay.

The expert also discussed the institute's professional environment and how students are always encouraged to share their concerns. However, because many students come from smaller towns, they are still apprehensive about sharing their problems. While some are afraid of being judged and believe there is no need for outside intervention.

Approach to helping the students

IIT-Kanpur

TreadWill: It is an online tool developed by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur to assist students in dealing with mental health issues. The website uses online exercises, questionnaires, and games to help deal with stress, low mood, lethargy, and other depressive symptoms. The contents of TreadWill will help people suffering from depressive symptoms like stress, low energy, and other mental health-related problems’ says Nitin Gupta, an IIT Professor of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, 

IIT-Bombay

Student Wellness Center of IIT-Bombay: During the pandemic, the student welfare center worked hard to assist the 600 quarantined students on the campus and see if they needed any medical attention. Along with offering counseling services online to understand their concern, SWC has also launched a new platform. Through their new platform, they are working to provide knowledge about mental health and encouraging students to share their thoughts and concerns and not regard an important topic like this as taboo. SWC is also attempting to broaden the connection via its YouTube channel. The channel has over 1795 views, with content tailored to the issues faced by IIT Bombay students. You also be interested in reading:

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