Lieutenant governor leads roundtable at Purdue on student mental health challenges

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — As mental health issues continue to affect a significant number of college students across the nation, Purdue University on Wednesday (Oct. 30) hosted the Indiana Mental Health Roundtable (IMHR), a discussion to bring attention to this pressing challenge and connect college students with the proper resources.

Indiana Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, who cochairs the roundtable, is a leading advocate for improving mental health services in the state. In those efforts, Crouch has shared her personal, family connection with the illness.

“It’s a staggering figure — 1 in 5 Hoosiers struggles with a mental health challenge,” said Crouch, Indiana’s secretary of agriculture and rural development. “The Indiana Mental Health Roundtable and the Gov. Eric Holcomb administration recognize the crisis and are committed to raising awareness about mental health issues, removing the stigma and providing affordable resources.”

The event featured experts, campus leaders and student representatives with the goal of fostering a dialogue around mental health awareness and shifting the paradigm of what mental health care on campus looks like.

The campus community is supported by Purdue’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), which offers a broad range of programs and professional services to students. CAPS’ mission is to help students address challenges before they develop into serious problems.

“We’re thrilled to partner with IMHR to raise awareness of mental health issues among college students who are recognizing their own struggles,” said Chris Hanes, senior director of CAPS. “As an organization, we are continuously exploring new flexible and accessible approaches to care for students in distress and rethinking how to respond when a mental health crisis occurs.”

A spring 2024 survey by the American College Health Association found 35% of respondents experienced and were diagnosed with anxiety, while almost 27% experienced depression. The survey covered almost 80,000 undergraduate students at 154 schools.

“The growing number of students facing mental health issues on college campuses reflects broader societal pressures, where the constant push for success and the stigma surrounding mental health create challenges for many individuals,” said Dr. Jerome Adams, executive director of Purdue’s Center for Community Health Enhancement and Learning and a member of the IMHR committee. “An increasingly competitive academic landscape, lack of adequate access to mental health resources, along with persistent stigma surrounding mental health, can make it difficult for students to get the help they need.” 

Adams, who served as the U.S. surgeon general from 2017-21, emphasized the importance of addressing these challenges and providing support for students to cope with the unique pressures and mental health issues they face on college campuses.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research institution demonstrating excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top four in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, including nearly 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 13 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap — including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the Mitch Daniels School of Business, Purdue Computes and the One Health initiative — at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.