Mental health discussion with Bethel clinical psychologist
Bethel University’s Psychological Sciences Department chair and associate professor of psychology discusses the state of mental health in today’s student culture.
Dr. Angela Sabates is Bethel University’s Psychological Sciences Department Chair and an associate professor of psychology. She has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Northwestern University and has been at Bethel since 2003, so she’s seen changes in the psychology of Bethel students for more than 20 years.
Q: Why is there a shortage of mental health services?
A: There are various things that come into play. One of them is there just aren’t enough mental health counselors — period. This is still the case even though every year colleges graduate a number of masters’ level counselors. We still don’t have enough.
In addition to that, there is a difficulty with the legislature of getting enough money for people of lower socioeconomic status who qualify for public aid. There are often wealthy people who can pay [for mental health services] are on the waiting list for months. Individuals who can’t pay are on even longer, more than six months. By the time something opens up, a good number of those people have not already received the help they need. But what happens when you have such a lag time, those individuals who should be getting outpatient counseling, end up in emergency rooms. Emergency rooms — talk about places not equipped to help. Often what they’ll do is just kind of restrain the person for a while.
What’s happening in Minnesota is very much like what’s happening in many other states. First of al, the United States, which is supposed to be so advanced with our medical system, just doesn’t quite catch up. There is still a lot of misunderstanding about mental illness and a lot of stigma. Insurance companies, for example, often do not have what’s called parity, where they cover medical issues equally or on par with mental health issues.
Q: Have mental health biases changed over time?
A: Yes and no. One common myth, for example, is that schizophrenia is untreatable and that people with schizophrenia are scary and violent where in fact, statistically, they’re more likely to be a victim than a perpetrator. So some of it has to do with how the news covers things. The only thing that is newsworthy is the person with schizophrenia where they had a delusion where they thought Satan was pressuring them to throw that person onto the rails. That’s all you hear. You don’t hear about the other millions of people with schizophrenia who are just trying to live life.
There are some changes. The high profile people, including Prince William and Harry who spoke about how England is trying to do more public education about mental illness. To have royalty speak and say how they have struggled with sadness and depression since their mother’s death, and didn’t feel the freedom to say it, and they were also appealing to young men, especially disinclined to get help.
Look at all the public information [about mental health] with respect to medical illnesses like how to prevent cancer, or heart disease — the leading cause of death in the U.S. So for as much progress as we’ve made, we have so much to go and it’s slow going even in a nation like ours.
Q: Do today’s students experience more mental health issues than older generations?
A: It’s a very difficult [question] to answer. Back in the day, as they say, a lot of people didn’t come forward for help. So it’s not possible to know exactly if there’s an actual significance or increase, or have there been difficulties at all along where these things were not detected?
For example, men who are depressed will not often look depressed. They will look angry, irritable, short fused, workaholics, or turn to addictions. So, it’s extremely dangerous because by the time they’re diagnosed, they may have either committed suicide or they are so depressed. So there’s not enough training even in the mental health field to recognize some of these things that go hidden.
Q: Are there stigmas among Christian communities regarding mental health?
A: For example, I asked my class, “Do you think that many churches and Christian communities perceive anorexia as somehow less sinful than addiction?” And the answer is often, “Yes.” Isn’t that interesting? Like how do we come to that conclusion? As a student mentioned, if Christian communities are serious about working towards improving mental health, then some of those stigmas of addiction, so that somebody could actually confess, need to be removed, right?
In Christian communities, there are some of those stigmas which have changed a lot since I used to be in clinical practice. It used to be that churches were very opposed [to counseling services], and many of them now even have counseling centers within the church, or encourage their members to get counseling.
Q: The United States has the highest suicide rate compared to 10 other nations that are similar. Why?
A: Maybe some of it may be the frenetic pace in which we live, where it’s exhausting. And we consider the frenetic pace as a sign that you must be really important. That’s hugely problematic and very anxiety provoking.
When immigrants come to the U.S., within like a span of a decade, they have a much higher rate of mental illness and eating disorders. So, I suggest to students, if you’re living mindfully and intentionally, this means you’re going to have to make some changes in your life which are countercultural. Some of which include the bombardment of social media which is wonderful and has a great ability to connect to people, but constant attention to that flooding of information and distractions is so bad for yourself, because your brain doesn’t rest. It’s not at peace.
[For more about Sabates, check out this Bethel Clarion story. To read about two Bethel athletes’ struggles with body image, read this piece.]
