**2. Literature review**

#### **2.1. Reasons for the increase in mental health difficulties among postsecondary students**

Postsecondary educational qualifications are fast becoming an essential requirement to gain employment in Canada, and an increasing number of students from all socioeconomic backgrounds are enrolling in postsecondary study. However, many students are ill prepared for the challenges involved in postsecondary study. Starting postsecondary study can be stressful for many students. They may face complex needs and experience many intersecting transitional stressors when moving from teenage to early adult developmental stages signified by the beginning of college life. These potential stressors may include but are not limited to identities shifting from teenagers to young adults, transitioning from a more structured high school learning environment to a less structured and often more demanding college learning environment. For some students moving away from home may demand more sophisticated skills and approaches including personal time and financial management, diverse relationship building skills, making long term life goals and career decisions [11, 12]. Stressors may also arise from pressures to succeed academically and the need to undertake employment to meet study costs and manage family responsibilities [3, 11, 13, 14]. Immigrant, indigenous, and international students from diverse cultural backgrounds can face additional pressures arising from limited racial diversity in predominantly white academic environments, discrimination, cultural isolation, acculturative stress, lack of access to same-ethnicity role models, and low educational expectations, all of which increase their risk of experiencing mental health disorders [15, 16]. Students who have come as refugees may have unrecognized preexisting vulnerabilities arising from war and pre-migration traumas, which can interact with environmental factors in postsecondary institutions and impact academic performance [2].

#### **2.2. Experiences and challenges of campus counselors**

the same survey undertaken in 2013. Specifically, 46.1% of students reported feeling so depressed that it was difficult to function, 65.4% of students reported experiencing overwhelming anxiety, 14.8% of students reported experiencing tremendous stress, 13.7% of students reported having seriously considered suicide, 2.2% of students reported a suicide attempt, and 9.3% of students reported having intentionally cut, burned, bruised, or otherwise injured themselves in the previous year [7]. The comparative figures for 2013 are 40.1, 57.9, 12.7, 10.9, 1.5, and 7.5%, respectively, in 2013 [8]. These figures highlight that the rates of depression, anxiety, stress, suicidal thoughts and attempts, and self-harming behaviors are trending up among the college students. The Ontario college students study reports that students diagnosed or treated by a professional for depression

and anxiety increased from 10 and 12.2% in 2013 to 14.7 and 18.4% in 2016, respectively.

**2.1. Reasons for the increase in mental health difficulties among postsecondary** 

Postsecondary educational qualifications are fast becoming an essential requirement to gain employment in Canada, and an increasing number of students from all socioeconomic backgrounds are enrolling in postsecondary study. However, many students are ill prepared for the challenges involved in postsecondary study. Starting postsecondary study can be stressful for many students. They may face complex needs and experience many intersecting transitional stressors when moving from teenage to early adult developmental stages signified by the beginning of college life. These potential stressors may include but are not limited to identities shifting from teenagers to young adults, transitioning from a more structured high school learning environment to a less structured and often more demanding college learning environment. For some students moving away from home may demand more sophisticated skills and approaches including personal time and financial management, diverse relationship building skills, making long term life goals and career decisions [11, 12]. Stressors may also arise from pressures to succeed academically and the need to undertake employment to meet study costs and manage family responsibilities [3, 11, 13, 14]. Immigrant, indigenous, and international students from diverse cultural backgrounds can face additional pressures arising from limited racial diversity in predominantly white academic environments, discrimination, cultural isolation, acculturative stress, lack of access to same-ethnicity role models, and low educational expectations, all of which increase their risk of experiencing mental health disorders [15, 16]. Students who have come as refugees may have unrecognized preexisting vulnerabilities arising

port in all aspects of their work.

**2. Literature review**

84 Health and Academic Achievement

**students**

With increasing numbers of students experiencing mental health disorders and the growing social acceptance of counseling as an intervention that can be helpful for people struggling with mental health as well as developmental and life issues, college counselors are experiencing a significant upsurge in the number of students who are seeking out campus counseling services [9, 10]. In this context, it is important to understand how campus counselors are responding and the challenges they are facing in providing best practice counseling and supCampus counselors are responsible for providing a range of services to students. These can include long- and short-term counseling, consultation with faculty and staff, providing academic support and career counseling, and working with interns in the crisis and emergency services [17–20]. The type and scope of services they provide depend on factors like the structure of the student affairs division of the institution, the type of institution (e.g., 2-year, 4-year), budget and resources, and staff size and training [18, 20]. Counselors at community and technical colleges generally have very broad responsibilities that may include admissions, academic advising and registration, testing, teaching, consultation with faculty, career coaching and counseling, crisis and intervention, psychoeducational programming, mental health evaluation, referrals for long-term services, and individual counseling [20–22]. By contrast, counselors at 4-year institutions can provide services that are more congruent with traditional mental health counseling. These can include counseling, consultation services to faculty and staff, workshops focused on prevention and remediation, and specialist services like couples counseling [23]. Research shows that students who receive counseling services are more likely to persist and graduate within 6 years than those who do not [24–28].

A review of research on the experiences of campus counselors shows that they are currently facing several challenges. First, there has been a significant increase in the number of students with mental health disorders seeking counseling services. Second, counselors are experiencing an increase in the severity of symptoms manifested by students [21, 29, 30]. Third, many campus counselors are feeling the pressure of a rapidly changing, culturally diverse, and nontraditional student population that includes older, part-time, and full-time working evening students and ethnic minorities. Traditional counseling models may not work well with these diverse student groups. Lastly, despite a significant increase in their workload, there has been no appreciable increase in the support services available from campus counseling centers [15], and counselors have "do more with less," a dynamic that can create significant challenges [31]. The situation is worse in community colleges [15]. As highlighted by Much et al., "over the years campus counseling services have become stretched because of diminishing financial resources, shifting accountabilities, and intensifying scrutiny on the part of governing boards, policy makers, and the public" [32].

#### **2.3. The current study**

Given the enormous challenges that campus counselors are facing, the aim of this study is to examine how they are dealing with these and the kinds of support they need. This study specifically focuses on the challenges faced by community college counselors. This is because community colleges are vastly underrepresented in much of the study on college student mental health [33–35]. Further, compared to universities, community colleges receive far less funding to provide counseling support services [22, 36, 37], despite evidence that community colleges have a greater proportion of students from lower socioeconomic and ethnic minority backgrounds [38, 39] who would benefit from having access to more psychological support services.

of the results included checking the comments of each participant counselor against those of others, debriefing after the interview, and including several direct quotes while discussing

Community College Counselors' Experiences and Challenges with Postsecondary Students…

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.75661

87

Among the seven community colleges that are represented in this study, only one is in a major capital city. This college was better resourced than the others in terms of the counseling supports that were available for students. Two of the colleges primarily served First Nations (indigenous) students and as highlighted by one of the counselors in this college: "…probably fifty percent of my clientele would be Aboriginals and that's because of the nature of some of the programming that we offer here. They are funded by the Saskatchewan government for Aboriginals …and lots of times they (students) are coming with lots of issues…". All the seven colleges offered upgrading programs, diplomas, and English as second language (ESL) programs. Two counselors were mainly engaged in providing academic and career support services for students. These included helping students to navigate through the process of accessing services, providing workshops on general issues like time management, and working with other departments to help students access various kinds of support that they were eligible for. The others performed multiple roles, like providing one-to-one counseling services, coordinating with external sources of support like mental health services, referring students to mental health and other specialist services in the community, monitoring general student issues, providing follow-up care for students who had ongoing difficulties related to mental health and academic study, and negotiating with faculty for accommodations for the students. Some counselors also provided training to faculty and college staff, on how to

identify mental health issues in students and provide appropriate support.

*it's a little different population than our ESL and our upgrading folks*

A large proportion of the caseload of the counselors comprised first-generation migrant and refugee students from the Middle East and Africa (particularly Sudan, Ghana, and Liberia), who had experienced persecution, trauma, and death of loved ones. Many of these students were in ESL and upgrading programs, and according to one counselor, about 50–60% of these students experienced more mental health difficulties than those in the direct career stream.

*there's a higher incidence of mental health issues in that (ESL and upgrading) group than the group who start directly into a career program…The folks in our career program often are…they may still have mental health issues but typically, either it's better managed or it's maybe not quite as severe….* 

Depression and anxiety were by far the most common mental health disorders experienced by 70–75% of the students who sought counseling. The symptoms that students often presented with, in the words of a counselor, were, "they're having trouble focusing in class, they are not sleeping very well and not eating very well, they're really stressed out and you'll see a lot of symptoms of distress, like tearfulness and sadness." Counselors reported that about 25–30% of their students were on antidepressant or antianxiety medications. The counselors were uncertain if these prescriptions were provided by a general practitioner and whether the students

the results of the study.

**4.1. Population served**

**4. Results**

*Research question*: What are the experiences and challenges faced by community college counselors with students experiencing mental health difficulties?
