Comment

Why does a College need a Psychiatrist ?

It is generally appreciated amongst the staff and senior students of the University, that a proportion of the student population is inevitably, emotionally unwell. Putting it more succinctly, a University Health Service physician says: "In the average college population, roughly one out of ten students will encounter emotional distrubance serious enough to give him symptoms or to disturb the efficiency of his life."^* This may appear an extremely high figure to some people — it becomes rather frightening, when one realises that at Victoria alone there may be, at a conservative estimate, some 400 such students. Frightening that is, not in the sense that these students happen to be rubbing shoulders with us, but in terms of, the care being taken to see that these folk overcome their difficulties. For to this problem, we must realise, the University is doing very little.

Naturally estimates vary, as does the nature of the University social setting. A university composed wholly of residential students and one in which half the students are part-time, could be expected to have two differing standards of social tensions and morale. Similarly, a Western American University could be markedly different from a New Zealand University in terms of the above. What may be seen as common to all universities is the incidence of emotionally disturbed students. Students are as susceptible to the laws of nature as is every man in the street. Thus the university students' neuroses are basically like anyone else's; as are his psychoses, depressions and suicides.

What distinguishes the student from the non-student are the precipitating causes of such disorders, which are often "the special circumstances of the university environment." It is thus thought that any attempt at combating students' emotional problems should be made within the confines of the university itself. A Health Service associated with the university could properly deal with such problems, offer the facilities and therapeutic treatment needed. The problem "must be tackled on the campus."

American universities, have for some years now, been employing staff to cope with the unbalanced student. The Health Service of Harvard, for instance, employs psychiatrists, clinical psychologists and others, as well as medical specialists to help solve the difficulties of students—which include annually, many hundreds of referals, as well as twenty or thirty students who "develop emotional disturbances of such an intense and alarming nature that prompt, definite action by a psychiatrist on their behalf is essential to prevent grave, perhaps calamitous, situations or even death."

It would not be out of order to equate the problems of Harvard students with Victoria students. Victoria has its emotionally unbalanced students; its students suffering from psychosis and depression, its suicides and its apathetics. All universities have them. What may be difficult to understand, is the fact that there exists at no University in this country, any sort of Health Service, to which students may be referred (in the counselling sense). There are of course, the odd psychologist and faculty members willing to offer advice; but nowhere is there any trained personnel, whose exclusive job it is, to counsel disturbed students. And we have something like 18,000 students in New Zealand.

As it is, disturbed students have a wide but unqualified choice of help. They can "snap out of it"; seek the advice of their friends, or of a faculty member; go to an outside specialist. None of these choices is adequate. What is needed is a separate Health Service incorporating medical specialists, psychiatrists and psychologists. It is a matter of supreme importance, that whereas amongst our student population we have every year, potential suicides and psychotics, there is no way of keeping track of such persons, or of helping them. It is the vital need of any university, and one which Victoria must immediately acquire—a Health Service to help the emotionally disturbed student.

—M.J.W.