How College Health Centers Help Students Succeed

For many years college and universities believed that their only responsibility in students health is setting up a clinic to treat the injured and the sick students. Driven by a better understanding of the impact of health on learning colleges are providing much more. The demand for health centers in college is now greater and complex than before. Below is college health centers help students succeed.

Managing Serious Chronic Conditions

Many students come to college with many health needs. Many students are facing mental health challenges. In every four students, one is taking psychotropic drugs. These drugs enable them to come to college as they can’t function well enough without them. Other students need help in managing serious conditions like addiction, ADHD, physical disabilities, eating disorders, asthma and autism-spectrum disorder. To manage these conditions students need to get assistance and guidance on how to from health professionals.

Support

College health centers help prevent suicide and drug abuse. They support students that are affected by sexual violence, harassments, and discriminations. When not well addressed a student can end up in drug abuse and committing suicide to solve their problems. They train faculty, staff, and students how to appropriately handle students who have been affected by sexual assault, discriminations, and harassment. They don’t wait for the students to come to them instead they outreach to sexual assault prevention, suicide prevention, reducing stigma and other mental issues. College health centers also offer mental health screening days, material for parents, stress reduction programs, and educational programs.

Mitigation of Global Pandemics

College health centers handle global pandemics such as H1N1 especially in colleges with international students. They also offer a long distance safety, medical and physiological counseling to students studying off campus. They have also taken responsibilities local health departments can’t solely do such as investigating the outbreak of infectious diseases and vaccination campaigns.

Promoting Healthy Habits

Many students are learning how to manage their own health without parental oversight. They form habits that affect their well being and learning. It is the role of college health centers to fight the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs as well as promoting the need for good nutrition, exercise and having enough sleep.

College Health Plans

Privacy matters a lot. Many students delay or go without proper treatment only because they don’t want their families to know about their mental health, sexual health, and substance abuse. A student can apply for student health insurance to make sure no one gets access to his or her health paperwork without permission. This makes a student free to seek any medical attention at his or her without the fear that parents will get to know what he or she is doing. Without guaranteed confidentiality, many students fear seeking treatment for sexually transmitted diseases.

College health centers provide students with affordable and accessible health care, relevant health education and other services that are offered by health centers. College health centers not only makes students succeed in college but also in the long term makes them healthier adults.

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