In recent years, there has been increased attention on discrimination and its negative effects on well-being, including both physical and mental health. Students on university and college campuses are not immune from experiencing discrimination. According to data from the National College Health Assessment (NCHA), 7.9% of students experienced discrimination, and this rate is even higher in students who identify with minority identities.

2022 Annual Report

The Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH) is the largest practice-research- network of its kind in the world, focusing on the research of college student mental health. More details about CCMH history and our mission is described here in a prior blog. This particular blog zooms in to focus on the benefits of CCMH membership, as membership with CCMH gives a counseling center access to various tools and resources. Whether you are a current member, or someone interested in membership, this blog is designed to review each of the membership tools/benefits available and expand a bit to share how members use them in their centers.

This blog post is dedicated in loving memory of Nora Maginnis (1963 to 2022). Nora, who served as a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner at Penn State Counseling and Psychological Services, was a beloved colleague and trailblazer in providing affirming care for individuals who identify as transgender and non-binary. Nora, your tremendous work and impact will always be remembered.

CCMH Membership Growth

CCMH operates and exists thanks to our membership of over 750 colleges and universities! Since 2013, membership has grown substantially, which has allowed us to offer new tools and conduct more research that, in turn, supports college counseling centers and the clients served. All of our members contribute to research by providing center level characteristics and Clinical Load Index (CLI) information. This vital data contribution from members supported the development of the Clinical Load Index (CLI) and three years of subsequent national CLI distributions.

This blog is a summary of a CCMH peer-reviewed study that examined predictors of suicide behavior amongst student clients who received services at counseling centers nationally.

This blog is a summary of a CCMH peer-reviewed study that examined the utilization rates, presenting concerns, and treatment outcomes of varsity athletes who seek services at college counseling centers.

This blog highlights findings from an exploratory study currently in preparation that seeks to characterize student clients who report paid employment compared to those who don’t.

CCMH is celebrating Pride Month by taking a closer look at the population of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Queer, Questioning, and other (LGBQQ+) student clients with diverse sexual identities who received care at university and college counseling centers (UCCs).

This blog is a summary of a CCMH study on the effectiveness of treatment in college counseling centers published in 2019.

The April 2022 CCMH blog post has been guest authored by Jonathan C. Cox and E. Shannon Neeley-Tass at Brigham Young University, Provo, UT.  Dr. Cox and Dr. Tass have graciously written April's post to share their findings for Autism Acceptance Month.  CCMH is incredibly grateful to Dr. Cox and Dr. Neeley-Tass for conducting this important research, using the CCMH dataset, and for share their findings with the CCMH community.

In February 2021, CCMH released a 5-part blog series that examined the initial impacts of COVID-19 on college students seeking treatment for mental health concerns. In Blog 2 of 5, CCMH compared student distress levels before and after the onset of COVID-19 using data from Fall 2019 and Fall 2020.  This blog expands on those analyses and explores the following questions using updated data from Fall 2021.

The recent racial uprisings in the U.S., coupled with the Covid-19 pandemic, have given renewed attention to the daily manifestations of racism and racial inequities that operate in American society. Race, which is a human invention lacking a valid biological basis, has very real consequences for people from historically racially marginalized groups. Public perceptions of the presence and importance of racism suggest that racism is wide-spread and affects people of color disproportionately, particularly Black people (Pew Research Center, 2016). Indeed, recent data from the FBI found that in 2020, Black people accounted for approximately one third of people targeted by hate-based crimes due to their race (FBI, n.d.). Anti-Black racism, which describes the historical dehumanization of Black bodies, is particularly pernicious and has been shown to make Black people acutely susceptible to the harmful impacts of racism, particularly on mental health.

The CCMH 2021 Annual Report describes 153,233 unique college students, nationally and internationally, seeking mental health treatment; 4,043 clinicians; and more than 1,135,520 appointments from the 2020-2021 academic year. This is the 13th year the report has been produced. 

This blog is a summary of a CCMH study on presenting concerns in counseling centers published in 2017.

This blog is a summary of a sleep research article recently accepted for publication that used CCMH data.

 Alignment (n) - the proper positioning or state of adjustment of parts (as of a mechanical or electronic device) in relation to each other.

The Center for Collegiate Mental Health, a practice research network of over 650 university and college counseling centers, has produced many publications looking at mental health distress and treatment outcomes for different populations and demographic groups seeking services at counseling centers. One of the populations that has been frequently studied is LGBTQ+ students. In this blog, we summarize our findings related to this population with hopes that it will be helpful to clinicians working with college students.

People are often curious about how the mental health concerns of students seeking treatment at college counseling centers differ by demographic and identity characteristics. In this blog, the Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH) examines that question using data from the self-reported client demographics items in the Standardized Data Set (SDS) and the Clinician Index of Client Concerns (CLICC), a checklist of possible presenting problems that is completed by the clinician after evaluating a student who is seeking mental health services. When completing the CLICC, the clinician can check all relevant concerns from a list of more than 50 problem areas. There is often an assumption that certain demographic identity groups disproportionately experience higher rates of all mental health concerns across the board. In reality, the picture is much more nuanced. This blog examines the differences in rate of clinician assessed presenting concerns across the following demographic characteristics:

Professionally Growing up in CCMH: An Insider’s Perspective

CCMH now comprises over 625 counseling centers, and continues to grow and adapt every year to new challenges and demands by using clinically relevant research. The data gathered are immense in scope and impact, and we are also constantly trying to create practical and actionable meaning to change the field of counseling. A natural question might be: who is the “we” in CCMH, and how do “we” actually “complete” projects with the data collected?