Ava Wilhelm, Nancy Garcia, Dajhumbay Russell, Daniel Bergmann, Rony Gimenez

Lit Review
The article featured on the Best Colleges website entitled Top Mental Health Challenges
Facing Students is an informative resource because the website addresses college students and
relays facts that can help them make important decisions regarding their college career. This
article is similar to a guide that identifies the common mental disorders so that others may
possibly refer to the information to see if they experience some of the symptoms of mental health
disorders. It also includes a survey conducted by the National Alliance on Mental Illness that
includes information showcasing that students feel like they need help, but do not know where to
look. The article written by Allie Grasgreen on the Inside Higher Ed website titled Colleges
don't always help with mental health issues, student survey shows includes a lot of statistics
also taken from a survey released from the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The information
shows the perspective of college students and their feelings toward how those affected by a
mental disorder can find help on campus. This article relates perfectly to the topic because the
statistics show that there needs for improvement when it comes to increasing awareness and
promotion of seeking counseling. Both articles provide useful evidence to support our proposal
that there is a need for better awareness and accommodations when it comes to counseling for
mental health on college campuses.
The American Psychological Association posted a cover story titled Students Under
Pressure by Amy Novotney in 2015. This article includes a wealth of information that includes
college students growing need for mental health counseling. Within this article are detailed
graphs that show how students experience pressure by their surroundings and if they feel like

they know how to access the help they need. This post is a great indication that there is a big
issue taking place on most college campuses concerning receiving counseling.
The article Todays College Students and Their Mental Health Needs Are Requiring a
Change in the Way College Campuses Address Mental Health Issues provides research that was
conducted for the purpose of determining whether or not todays college students look or seek
for counselling services. This article discusses the mental health and wellness and illness
amongst college students. The resources in this article are critical towards our topic because it
provides insight on what might be the cause of mental health issues in college institutions and
can help broaden the study for mental illness issues in a campus and how to go about providing
the help necessary towards students that might need it. In the event that this article does not
provide enough information about why college students are seeking counseling.
The article Why do Postsecondary Students Seek Counseling?study was performed on
Canadian college students on seeking counseling and reporting and figuring out the severity of
their issues during the school year. The study conducted by Sharon Cairns, a professor at the
University of Calgary in Canada, helped counselors find that the most frequent issues affecting
college students were relationship concerns, anxiety and depression. The resources in both
articles help solidify our topic because they concern issues that cause college students to seek
counseling and examines how the increasing number of college students can seek the proper
services they need. Overall, this article can provide information as to why students seek
counseling, but what else can students do to to improve the mental health issues they might be
having? In the next article, there is evidence on things students can do to help themselves.
The article The Mental Health Needs of Todays College Students: Challenges and
Recommendations

Furthermore, a better way to find out how we can meet the needs of students is to deal
with specific types of students in unique ways. The primary reason for this next study, were
using (Health Promotion in Schools of Music: Initial Recommendations for Schools of Music)
was to discuss and produce new ideas on how to promote all types of health among music
students; one of them being mental health. In the article they highlight some key points to getting
students to be healthier. Along with that they proposed a few methods of action for promotion,
such as: 1. Adopt a Health Promotion Framework. And 2. Assist Students through Active
Engagement with Health Care Resources. This article will help in bringing up ideas for
promoting mental health at NIU. This will be a great stepping stone for our main goal. However
we cannot move any further until we know some of the reasons why certain students would or
would not go to counseling services.

In this article, Social/Emotional Problems of University Music Students Seeking

Assistance at a Student Counseling Center

it explains a recent study done to find the reasons that music students actually go to counseling.
It was also helpful for finding the most common problems that music students seeking
counseling usually have. By each problem you can find a certain percentage of how many
students struggle with the same issue. It was interesting to find that most of the issues that each
student deals with are related to performance driven anxiety. This article gave a lot of good
information based on surveys and statistics.The main reason for this preliminary study was to
help find ways to eliminate the growing need for counseling among college music students if at
all possible. We hope that someday we will be able to solve some of the issues of performance
anxiety without the need of psychological help. On the other hand, to be honest, this big change
will not happen overnight, so in the meantime we should promote the use of mental health

services, and that is why we chose this next article. The purpose of using this article (Medical
Problems of Performing Artists 17.1 (2002): 22+. Academic OneFile. Web. 10 Mar. 2016. ) was
to find out some of the differences or similarities amongst all types of college students and their
attitudes towards health in general. Some of the things they found were similarities between the
music students and the psychology students perspective on personal health. Another thing they
discovered was about half of the music students actually went to see professional help. Overall
this article will help with looking at the perspectives of different types of students on physical
and mental health. We will be able to use this information to come up with ways to counter
negative stigmas and boost the positives notions that students have about counseling through
promotion. To get more info on the topic of students attitudes towards counseling,they sought
out answers from college students regarding what their views were on their own impact of
health.
Spahn, Claudia, Bernhard Richter, and Ina Zschocke. "Health attitudes, preventive behavior, and
playing-related health problems among music students." Medical Problems of Performing Artists

17.1 (2002): 22+. Academic OneFile. Web. 10 Mar. 2016.

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/18/

-Dans Sources. Sorry Ive been in a bit of a overload this week. These are some articles that I
found applicable.
Stone, Gerald L., Kristin M. Vespia, and Jason E. Kanz. "How Good is Mental Health Care on College
Campuses?" Journal of Counseling Psychology 47.4 (2000): 498-510. ProQuest. Web. 10 Mar.
2016.
Article speaks on the current effectiveness of mental health care on campuses.

Hefner, Jennifer, and Daniel Eisenberg. "Social Support and Mental Health among College Students."
American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 79.4 (2009): 491-9.ProQuest. Web. 10 Mar. 2016.
The article discusses the correlations between demographics and their social support, and links quality
of social support to mental health issues.

Mowbray, Carol T., et al. "Campus Mental Health Services: Recommendations for Change." American
Journal of Orthopsychiatry 76.2 (2006): 226-37. ProQuest.Web. 10 Mar. 2016.
Article discusses issues with current mental health services on college campuses, and what needs to
change and what issues there might be with changing them.