A prevalent issue that should be looked at more closely in regards to public health is the issue of mental health. This especially applies to youth who suffer from depression, specifically high school and college students. While depression itself isn't something that organizations like the CDC can tackle directly, there can be methods by organizations to better deal with its physical. Meaning, while depression itself is a very difficult condition to treatment, resources should be available in institutions to better prevent situations of self harm and destructiveness. Depression has long term debilitating effects on a person's ability to properly interact with those around them, and it severely limits the academic potential of students. The National Institute of Mental Health reported a 30% rate of depression among 2 and 4 year college students. In an abstract from PubMed, a survey of 14,175 college students nationwide reported 17.3% for depression, 4.1% for panic disorder, 7.0% for generalized anxiety, 6.3% for suicidal ideation, and 15.3% for nonsuicidal self-injury. These surveys were administered in the years 2007 and 2009.
A possible problem definition using this information could go as follows:
Studies show an increased reportage of mental health issues among college students and adolescents.
The purpose of the paper would be to explain the "why" of this issue, and put forward ideas on how to tackle the public health. There are several factors that could contribute to the prevalence of poor mental health among college students. Certain aspects of social norms, race, and economic standing weigh heavily on college students, in an environment that demands success as a prerequisite. There is inherently a lot of stress, and this definitely takes its toll. It is in the best interests of universities to try and curb the rates of depression and other mental health issues that are becoming prevalent in schools. Depending on the rates of things like depression among students, prospective students could very likely try and find environments that they would find far more hospitable. If not for the welfare of the students, the loss of potential students would prompt universities to take action.
For some reason most of your blog is sensored, meaning I can't read it... But the topic of mental illnesses really doesn't get enough attention in society. When so many people have this disease, something needs to be done! Keep up the good work
ReplyDelete-Tommy
I really don't know why it looks like this... But the remainder of the blog can be read by highlighting the white text.
ReplyDeletehahaha... Top Secret!
ReplyDeleteI was able to read your blog in its entirety despite the edit above after highlighting it and copying it into word.
ReplyDeleteI think the topic you raise is an important one. Mental health in college students is relevant and something to be given more attention.
Lets work on your problem statement.
Your problem statement:
"Studies show an increased reportage of mental health issues among college students and adolescents. "
Its a good start.
1) You quoted some numbers in the paragraph prior to your problem statement in which you gave two rates of depression, one by The National Institute of Mental Health at 30% then "in an abstract from PubMed, a survey of 14,175 college students nationwide reported 17.3% for depression"
When your problem statement is about increasing rates/reportage of something, you may want to be prepared to show data showing an increase over time. The two data sources you quote do not relay this. While they show different rates of depression, we cannot compare the two. From the information you provided, we are not sure when the national Institute of mental Health found this rate. Was it before or after the quoted survey? That is, when did the Institute of mental health publish this information? Was this a nationwide rate like in the survey?
And the Institute had this data for 2 and 4 year college students but we don't know if the survey was among 2 year or 4 year college students or both.
2) If you are quoting an article from PubMed, be prepared to include the title of the article, author, year, journal it was published in, pages in the journal where the article can be found. These will go at the bottom of your blog for example.
Within the blog itself, you may state: 'a survey by xyz (author's name) done among college students in xyz (year of publication) showed..... and then reference the author's work at the end.
3) What question do you want to answer in your paper?
At the start of the blog, you zero in on depression. It gives the impression that your problem definition is going to be about depression but then as you go, you include other mental illnesses and then end up with a problem definition with mental health issues.
Do you want to focus on suicide, depression or mental illness as a whole?
4) You may want to narrow down your population. Adolescents and college students is still wide. As you move along in your paper, you may find some papers on adolescents and others on college students, others on both and it may be overwhelming to keep juggling all these different populations.
Make it simple. Choose one. Do you want to focus on adolescents or college students?
Some potential solutions:
1) If finding literature comparing rates in similar populations over time is proving unproductive, you may want to keep away from terms like "increasing reportage" and say something like: high prevalence, high risk or if you still like 'increasing', you may consider: increasing risk, increasing incidence....
Consider improving on any of the examples below or keep working on the one you have:
- High prevalence of mental illness among college students in the U.S...
- Increasing risk of suicide among adolescents....
- Increasing incidence of depression among college students....
- Percentage of U.S college students with mental illness has doubled/tripled/quadrupled between 20xx and 20xy
Go along these lines, play with it and remember that you can continue to change it as you go along until you submit your final paper. If you find that mental illness is too wide for you, you may end up picking one of the mental illnesses with more readily available information out there....
And it may help to select a specified time frame to help you narrow down your search even further