Let’s talk about mental health
Photo from the Berkeley Science Review
If you listen to the radio or watch local TV with any regularity, then you know that last month (Jan 25) was Bell’s Let’s Talk day; a fundraising and awareness campaign that uses social media to raise money for mental health research. And if you’re like most of us, you’ve let the ads come and go, and you may not have thought about mental health since. But the reality is mental illness is still here, especially in grad school, and it’s an issue we need to talk about.
The University of California Berkley conducted a survey of their graduate students and found that mental wellness issues are alarmingly pervasive in academia. On their campus, more than half of graduate students reported issues with depression and anxiety! That’s close to 10 times higher than the national average for the US, and things don’t look much different here in Canada.
Why are grad students at risk? (more…)