Tip 4: Urge your child to seek community, counseling and care
While 50% of college students with a mental health condition do not seek care (similar to the ratio in the overall adult population), one encouraging trend is that more students are seeking care.
Of course, this means many campus health centers, pastors, and counselors are struggling to keep up with demand. (This is the main reason we’re in the middle of a major initiative called The Church Cares. The project is designed to build up and train an army of lay helpers in the church who can help fill in this gap. Please read more about that here, as well as how Jeff and I are pursuing research-based solutions here.)
One of the best solutions for our kids is to encourage them to not “go it alone.” Let’s normalize talking with a pastor, lay counselor, or a Christian licensed mental health practitioner who will support their faith. And since having healthy, supportive friendships is one of the most protective factors for health, let’s strongly encourage our kids to seek healthy community.
At the end of the day, especially as people of faith, we must pray that our college kids will be connected to exactly the right people and that, in the process, their health and faith will be strengthened now and for years to come.
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