How one mental health advocate is tackling mental health access on her campus
HANNAH BERRETT DISCUSSES OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT AT HER UNIVERSITY AND PAVING THE PATH TOWARD A BRIGHTER FUTURE
By Kristina Benoist
When it comes to mental health support on college campuses, there are so many significant barriers that prevent students from actually accessing the help they need. We sat down with Hannah Berrett, a remarkable mental health advocate, to discuss the obstacles she’s encountered on her university’s campus and the steps she is taking to dismantle them.
Hannah is proof that we all have incredible power to make a change, even with the barriers that exist. She shares her personal journey, sheds light on the challenges faced by students seeking support on her campus, and shares her strategies for fostering a more inclusive and supportive campus environment moving forward.
IDONTMIND (IDM): How are you today? How’s your mental health?
Hannah Berrett (HB): I'm doing great. The sun is shining. School is over. It's great!
IDM: If you don't mind sharing, I'd love to hear a little about your mental health journey.
HB: Yeah. So the summer before my sophomore year of high school I started having panic attacks. At the time, I didn't know they were panic attacks, but I just felt really sick all the time. I was missing a ton of school. And then eventually my mom was like, 'You might have anxiety. I think that maybe we should go see someone.' And my very perfectionist, very independent self, did not like that whatsoever. I thought, 'No, I'm fine. I have things under control.' And eventually, it got so bad that my mom said, 'You don't have a choice. We're going to therapy.' The first few months I went, I was really embarrassed. I had a really hard time going and I didn't show up with a good attitude.
I didn't want to try to get help. It was really hard. But it eventually got to a point where I was so desperate for help. I felt like I was completely out of control. I felt super overwhelmed by everyday scenarios, and then I realized I needed to take this seriously. I got a new therapist, which really helped. I connected more with them. Wow, the appreciation I have for that woman — she is amazing. But one of the biggest things that she did for me is that she gave me a catchphrase. We made up a catchphrase together that would help me through my anxiety attacks. It was 'Just do it', like the Nike slogan. And it was so simple. But that really helped me. If I was ever freaking out, I'd think 'Okay, just do it.' Eventually, it will be over in 10 minutes or it will be over in an hour. I’m a very factional person, so that really helped me a lot.
IDM: So tell me a little bit about your research.
HB: I'm at the University of Utah in the Honors College. In the Honors College, they offer these research labs called Praxis Labs. Basically, it's super enticing for students because it knocks out all of your elective credits. But I took this one specifically because the title was called Out of Isolation. And I knew that we would be looking at how mental health changed over the course of the pandemic and also how mental health perceptions affect students and their ability to access the resources available to them on campus. In the fall I started working with a team of 11 students, including myself and our leading professor, Dr. Vo.
We started our class and you have all these honor students in a room and we all kind of wanted to jump in. When you're in a Praxis Lab, you present your research findings to the University of Utah at the end of the year. And Dr. Vo was like, 'Okay, let's look at the root problems.' So we started looking at a lot of the problems on campus and we began noticing that students were complaining about wait times for accessing a counselor or a therapist on campus.
We knew that was a huge concern. We knew that it was also a really big concern that people will spread certain things that aren't necessarily true about the counseling center at the University of Utah. We also did a lot of research outside of just our campus. For people aged 10 to 34, suicide is the second leading cause of death. Basically, we did all of this research and we spent an entire semester just researching these issues. But during the spring semester, we ended up deciding that we were going to survey students.
IDM: What were some of the questions from the survey?
HB: We asked about their mental health on a scale of one to 10 every day. We asked about how their perceptions played into accessing mental health resources on campus. And then one of our main goals was asking students if they'd be willing to increase the student wellness fee. Basically, the student wellness fee right now at the University of Utah is $15. And it goes into helping pay for a therapist on campus and it gives the Disability Center a chance to help students who need testing accommodations and stuff like that. So $15 from every student each semester. And we wanted to ask students if they would be willing to contribute $5 more a semester.
IDM: Did that seem like something students would be open to?
HB: We found statistically significant results that students would be willing to pay. And that's really great! We're actually working with the student government right now. We have a sponsorship for the fall to hopefully get a bill passed, so the fee will increase and that money can go toward the Disability Center and the Counseling Center in places where it's really needed. That'll help make the wait list time shorter to help just give more resources to students on campus.
IDM: Was there anything that surprised you as you were looking at the data?
HB: It was really interesting because, in our survey, we also asked a qualitative question, just kind of leaving it open-ended for people to tell us about their experiences with the University of Utah Counseling Center. And we were really surprised with the amount of responses we got. And there were a lot of mentions about the counseling center, just ghosting people. Like they would finally get to a point where they could meet with a therapist and then the therapist would ghost them.
There were also some instances where therapists would say something inappropriate to the student. And so that was really hard to read. People were talking about how they were coming to the counseling center and they were feeling suicidal, they were feeling really anxious, really depressed, and there just wasn't anyone that could help them or they would turn them away. And as a student and just as a human being, that broke my heart. Like reading those responses, I just really felt how drastically something needs to change. I can't believe that this is happening. You have students coming to the school who need help and we're not helping them. And I understand that this isn't coming from an individual person. It's not one person's fault. It's the whole system. And so that's something that I'm super passionate about working on. I want to figure out how we can implement things that can change the system to make it better for students who need help. There are many changes happening within the University of Utah Counseling Center to prevent these negative instances from happening, but there is still a lot of work to do.
IDM: So what do you think is the biggest challenge we need to overcome, and big universities in general, need to overcome when it comes to mental health?
HB: I honestly think just the lack of education and the lack of awareness. When we were doing our research and we put out the survey, we went and tabled to advertise it. And a lot of people had no idea that they even had therapy available to them. A lot of people had no idea that we had a counseling center. We also have therapists for specific departments. I know the science department has a therapist. I know that first-generation students have a therapist that's designated for them. The LGBTQ+ students have a designated therapist. And a lot of people just aren't aware of this.
I think that it'd be really beneficial to add a course that is very short and just explains what the University of Utah Counseling Center is and gives a list of the resources that are available to students. We should know the number of therapy sessions we’re given and how long they are. We should know that there are also single-care sessions that are available in the case of an emergency.
IDM: What’s one thing that gives you hope about mental health?
HB: At times it became really overwhelming to look at all the issues that students are struggling with. And we also personally know people who are struggling with these things. It was great to be in a community where everyone was so supportive. And we really took the time to cultivate compassion within ourselves too. I think the thing that gives me the most hope is just the people I work with and the generation I'm in. We are very, very passionate about mental health and advocating for mental health and advocating for people who need help with their mental health. And I seriously worked with the best team this year.
I think that honestly students and my generation specifically, are really going to make the push to get these resources more available to people and to educate people on mental health. And that just makes me so excited.
IDM: So what’s next for you in your research? What are the next steps for you?
HB: So I'll technically be a senior next year at the University of Utah. And I'll be working on an honors thesis, which is basically a research project that I mostly have full control of with the help of some professors. And I'm going to be working with some focus groups of high school students and college students. And I'm testing how social identity plays into perceptions of mental health. I'm also looking into this idea called normative social influence and informational social influence. So basically the need people have to be liked when they're in a group setting and their need to be right in a group setting. It's really interesting and that's what I'm doing my research on — students in group settings and how peers influence their perceptions of mental health.
I'm also running for Miss Wasatch County, which is super overwhelming and new to me and something way out of my comfort zone. But it's been really great because it's given me the opportunity to research more about mental health and more about my community service initiative, which is to educate students and people on mental wellness resources and mental wellness, just in general. So I'm really excited and looking forward to that!
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You can follow more of Hannah’s research and work moving forward here.