The Avenue Portfolio

As college students, we are constantly adapting to life on our own. Gone are the days of parents checking in, teachers reaching out, and seeing friends every day in the halls. Ironically, it seems like the only thing we all have in common is the fact that we’re alone. When it feels like no one cares, we’re willing to talk to anyone who will listen. These feelings of great loneliness can cause us to think irrationally and act on those sorrowful emotions — such as tearing up when a barista asks how our day is going, or sharing our life story with an elderly man on the T. As someone who has had more interactions like these than I’d like to admit, I can say that I often felt better after talking to someone else, even if I have no relationship with them. But when it comes to serious feelings of depression or anxiety, the person on the other side of the conversation is more than a friendly face. When another person’s mental health is on the line, their words hold enough power to turn someone’s mindset around — or send them spiralling. 
In recent years, a call for mental health facilities on college campuses has made its way across the nation. Here at Northeastern, strides are still being made to make mental health assistance more accessible to students. Most recently, The Office of Student Affairs introduced FIND@Northeastern, a cellular platform open 24 hours a day for students to call and speak to “mental health professionals.” FIND offers a solution to the often criticized, multi-week long waiting periods at University Health and Counseling Services (UHCS) by giving students someone to talk to whenever they may need it. As the service has been around for less than a month, few people know about it as a resource. I decided to talk to Fabienne Dessalines, the secretary for Behind the SMILE, a student organization here on campus that promotes mental health awareness to gather more information. 
Dessalines considers the service a great step in the right direction. In her three years at Northeastern, she has only seen mental health services on campus get better and FIND is no exception. Having just spoken to a FIND counselor the night before, Dessalines described the conversation as constructive, saying, “they gave actual solutions. [The counselor] told me to try lavender which I already use to help with anxiety. She also recommended weight, like weighted blankets, which I’ve really been wanting to try.” In an anxious moment, the supportive, calming voice on the other line helped to put Dessalines in a better state of mind. In times of crisis however, Dessalines recommends calling NUPD or visiting the emergency counselor at UHCS. 
So far FIND has proved itself to be a useful resource, filling some of the gaps missed by UHCS. Nevertheless, the identity of those on the other line still remains a relative mystery. I asked Dessalines if she knew the credentials of the woman she spoke to that night. Though she wasn’t sure of her exact degree of training, she guessed that the woman had taken a training course and received a license to be an over-the-phone counselor. If a situation were to escalate, these counselors would most likely transfer the call to an individual with more training or notify the police. Much like medical health professionals, there are different types of counselors and degrees of training. Though UHCS has trained physicians available to prescribe antibiotics, give vaccines, or renew prescriptions, the capabilities of their mental health counselors remains unclear. Depending on the circumstances, students may need a variety of help from therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, psycho-therapists and more. (Keep in mind that these different titles are not all equal. Though physicians can prescribe medicine for physical ailments, the counselors provided by UHCS are not psychiatrists and therefore cannot prescribe psychotropic drugs, like antidepressants or AD(H)D anti-anxiety medicines without the approval of an outside psychiatrist. 
To find out more about how this new service compares to those provided at UHCS, I spoke to Maria Breiner, FIND’s clinical liaison to Northeastern. Breiner gladly answered my questions about the service, mostly reaffirming the experience Dessalines shared with me. She did, however, clarify a point of confusion that both Dessalines and I had, explaining the FIND is not exclusively a Northeastern service. Northeastern students are provided the FIND hotline number, but the counselors fielding their calls are not located in Boston. They’re actually helping students across the country; essentially FIND is just as connected to Northeastern as any other hotline might be if it weren’t for Breiner bridging the gap between the two. Breiner also explained that each counselor had to undergo training and pass multiple tests, however, their training can range from classes on relationship counseling to psychology degrees. Without much consistency, it can be hard to measure the effectiveness of the person on the other end of the phone.
The training of the FIND and UHCS counselors are both unclear, but in terms of medical power, they are relatively similar. That is to say that the only difference between the two is the immediacy provided by FIND. Of course the resource is valuable, however there are still students left feeling alone. Though Dessalines had a pleasant experience with the counselor, she brought to my attention that some of her friends are unable to use FIND or UHCS because their phone anxiety prevents them from calling or making an appointment. Simple solutions like texting hotlines or UHCS appointment forms online could make these resources even more accessible. These tools would be yet another step in the right direction but are still not enough. If a counselor from FIND or UHCS is able to determine that a student would benefit from a specific medication, they can recommend local psychiatrists. However, there is no guarantee that a non-affiliated psychiatrist would accept Northeastern University Student Health Plan (NUSHP,) the insurance plan required for students without other healthcare providers. Even with independent insurance, it’s difficult to find any psychiatrist without expensive consultation appointments, (normally uncovered by any insurance plan.) It seems like any strides made towards improving mental health facilities won’t be enough to accommodate everyone.
Partnering with FIND has proven to be a valuable solution to long wait times at UHCS. It is not a solution, however, to the lack of trained psychiatrists available on campus. In the same way that diagnoses, prescriptions, and vaccines are provided by doctors on campus, the same treatment should be available for students suffering from mental illness. Dealing with loneliness on campus can be difficult enough and seeking help should not have to be. If mental health services at Northeastern continue in their upward trajectory, there is hope to one day provide adequate care for students campus wide. We’re just not there yet.