05-05-2025
An Expert's Take On The Crisis Narrative Within College Mental Health
Photo of Ben Locke, used with permission
Ben Locke
As described in a 2025 report on the president of the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors argued that schools need to be proactive while addressing mental health concerns but also avoid an outdated crisis narrative. I'm on the executive board for the AUCCCD and know that many have described college mental health as being in a crisis. In 2023, the National Education Association even released a report entitled, 'The Mental Health Crisis on College Campuses.' However, a 2024 report by The Chronicle of Higher Education highlighted how the crisis narrative is mainly a fear-based approach that could discourage help-seeking. According to this report, statistics regarding mental health concerns are alarming, but caution should be given before using the term crisis.
Dr. Ben Locke is a well-known psychologist with over 20 years of experience in college mental health. His research includes exploring the clinical operations of campus counseling centers, and he currently serves as the Chief Clinical Officer for Togetherall, a global service that provides online peer support. According to Locke, the crisis narrative in college mental health adds pressure to the entire campus. He stated, 'Faculty and staff feel like they're not qualified to help due to the narrative that you need to be a mental health professional to provide support to a student, parents are more worried, and counselors are under increasing pressure to do more and more.'
Locke described the crisis narrative as a dominate cultural ideology that evolved over the last 20 years. According to the psychologist, this narrative argues that mental health across the globe is in a crisis. Thus, the crisis narrative extends beyond higher education. Locke argued that the dominate narrative of a worldwide mental health crisis creates a self-reinforcing feedback loop. He said, 'The more people hear about the crisis, the more they feel like they're in a crisis.'
Locke didn't deny the rise in mental health concerns. He stated, 'The narrative doesn't question whether or not people are struggling… it reflected an initial desire to provide enough resources to meet the increasing demand.' According to Locke, schools vary in the range of available mental health resources, but the crisis narrative tends to result in schools displaying increased reactivity to negative events that are part of the normative human experiences. This increased reactivity is often expanding clinical services but without questioning if this truly meets the needs of students and without implementing a strategic mental health plan.
According to Locke, 'The crisis narrative is made up a collection of ingredients, but these ingredients are not examined but just widely accepted.' Examples of these ingredients include well-intended advocates for mental health. According to the psychologist, it's tempting for advocates to use the crisis narrative to argue for more resources. Another ingredient is the rise of industries related to mental health research and surveys. Locke pointed out that many of these industries are motivated to show that there are escalating needs in order to avoid their product becoming obsolete.
Locke also cited the evolution of media as an ingredient. He argued that the pay per click nature of many outlets often results in surveys with a low response rate being applied to the whole population with attention-grabbing headlines. Locke further argued that many in the mental health field have pathologized normative human experience. According to the psychologist, many popular screening and assessment tools include normal human distress, which often results in the misperception that every person in distress needs a mental health professional.
According to Locke, the first step in addressing the crisis narrative is determining if a school has enough clinical resources on campus. Locke authored a 2021 report for the Center of Collegiate Mental Health, which discussed an Alignment Model and using a Clinical Load Index to guide counseling center staffing. The psychologist also argued that schools need to provide education on combating the crisis narrative. He stated, 'Schools must accept the premise that human experience involves ups and downs, gains and losses, change and stressors, and that most students will have these experiences.' The psychologists advocated that schools take a population approach to mental health and offer a diverse range of mental health resources, including peer support.
Locke said the focus of providing peer support on a global scale is what drew him to work with Togetherall. According to the psychologist, Togetherall combines the therapeutic element of peer support, the ethical principles of clinical work, and the shared lived experience of like-minded peers. Students who utilize Togetherall can join a global community but also have the option of joining a subcommunity of college and university students. All content is monitored by a clinical team. According to Locke, 92% of college students who utilize Togetherall report that they're not using any other support services on campus. Locke argued that this highlights how clinical interventions will never reach most of the campus population in distress. However, as Locke stated, 'Counseling centers would never claim that they can meet with every student in distress.' This sentiment captures the key of combating the crisis narrative, which is viewing mental health as a community issue and not just a concern for clinicians.
