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Beam's Blog of Writing and Other Things.

Scientific and Technical Writing, and Books on Depression.

Rating: 2 votes, 4.00 average.
7 Comments
by
RadiantBeam
, February 15th, 2012 at 09:34 PM (2625 Views)
So I've been going to school now for like, three years and only just registered into my school library system to check out some books from a campus library. And if my parents could actually see what I was checking out, I'm pretty sure they'd flip, since all of my books are about depression and treating depression.

It's my writing project for my scientific and technical writing course, actually; the main project of the class is to come up with a problem, a way to solve it, and a proposal to the person in question (in this case, the patron) to get funding for the idea and explain how it would work. My idea is basically, we have little to no advertisement or focus on the campus counseling services, and we should probably fix that.

The books themselves don't really help with my proposal, but they do give me an idea of what factors can cause depression in college students, different forms of treatment for depression, and other such things. Not much, but a starting point.

I'm hoping to pull this off. The issue is pretty personal for me; I've been severely depressed before, even suicidal, and I was one of those who was hit especially hard by Taylor Clementi's suicide, even if I didn't know him personally. So I'm doing this to try and get a good grade, but if at the end of the semester I'm able to actually propose this, or at least catch someone's eye with it and help a little bit, it would be damn near perfect.
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Comments

  1. Sei's Avatar
    This is somewhat relevant to me. Maybe you could touch on students entering and transitioning into college? I think that would be good too.

    And I hope you're feeling better. We wouldn't want ya leaving us. :P
  2. RadiantBeam's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Sei
    This is somewhat relevant to me. Maybe you could touch on students entering and transitioning into college? I think that would be good too.

    And I hope you're feeling better. We wouldn't want ya leaving us. :P
    I'll probably mention it, yeah. Especially since from what I've read, that seems to be the big one for college students; the sudden transition from home life to school life.

    And heh, thank you, I feel fine now. Eighteen was a shitty year for me.
  3. Seika's Avatar
    Hm. Dunno how much it helps, but I found Wadham to be very good about this sort of thing. Possibly because they know that we're entering a high-stress environment, and that the ... eccentric sort of people who end up here are quite likely to have issues.

    As to why I thought they were good:

    1) Half or greater of all our Freshers' Week 'official' engagements were meeting with people who would tell us that they could be contacted if we felt we were having trouble. That added up to a good number of people. And, as much as we grumbled about how repetitive it got, I'm sure it reinforced the impression that we really did have a big support network. Imprinting the idea that there are people who are concerned about you is a good first measure.

    2) In addition, those people ranged widely. Authoritative figures (the Warden of the College), academic figures (tutors), fellow students, health professionals and so on. It seemed like if you felt you couldn't go to someone for a particular reason (say, your tutor, because you didn't want them to know about how much of a struggle you were finding work), you'd be able to find someone that you could go to.

    3) It wasn't even that they got as early as Fresher's Week - as soon as I got to my room to unpack on the first day, there was a little notice (in coloured, friendly letters) saying that X, Y and Z were my student supporters - people who had some training (mostly drawn from the psychology courses and given some extra experience in preparation for the role) to help us settle in and to deal with problems we were having thereafter.
  4. Moczo's Avatar
    ...

    *hug*

    I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you when you were at your lowest. I really am.

    Good luck on your project. Hopefully, it will help some poor, lost kid who needs it. Lord knows there's plenty who could use the helping hand.
  5. RadiantBeam's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Seika
    Hm. Dunno how much it helps, but I found Wadham to be very good about this sort of thing. Possibly because they know that we're entering a high-stress environment, and that the ... eccentric sort of people who end up here are quite likely to have issues.

    As to why I thought they were good:

    1) Half or greater of all our Freshers' Week 'official' engagements were meeting with people who would tell us that they could be contacted if we felt we were having trouble. That added up to a good number of people. And, as much as we grumbled about how repetitive it got, I'm sure it reinforced the impression that we really did have a big support network. Imprinting the idea that there are people who are concerned about you is a good first measure.

    2) In addition, those people ranged widely. Authoritative figures (the Warden of the College), academic figures (tutors), fellow students, health professionals and so on. It seemed like if you felt you couldn't go to someone for a particular reason (say, your tutor, because you didn't want them to know about how much of a struggle you were finding work), you'd be able to find someone that you could go to.

    3) It wasn't even that they got as early as Fresher's Week - as soon as I got to my room to unpack on the first day, there was a little notice (in coloured, friendly letters) saying that X, Y and Z were my student supporters - people who had some training (mostly drawn from the psychology courses and given some extra experience in preparation for the role) to help us settle in and to deal with problems we were having thereafter.
    Better than anything my school ever offered, that's for sure. The only time the counseling services were really heavily advertised was about a month or so after Clementi's suicide, and then they just faded back into the background again and were forgotten.
  6. Aiden's Avatar
    That's the major tragedy about stuff like this, or at least one of them: there is help available! You aren't alone. But a lot of people don't know, because it isn't advertised. And if you're in a university setting, it's even easier ... if you know you can get involved in it.

    Anyway, if you need help finding articles or anything on depression from the psychological side of things, here's a useful database that I was introduced to in my Research Methods class: http://www.apa.org/pubs/databases/psycinfo/index.aspx
  7. Seika's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Radiantbeam
    Better than anything my school ever offered, that's for sure. The only time the counseling services were really heavily advertised was about a month or so after Clementi's suicide, and then they just faded back into the background again and were forgotten.
    Quite disgraceful. Anyway, let's hope that everyone's experiences can help you improve that situation.