Tackling mental health

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- As student anxiety skyrockets, campus ministries are trying to help by not only offering the comforts of faith and community, but also creating collaborations with mental health professionals.

On Ivy League campuses, large public institutions and faith-based colleges, chaplains and psychologists are teaming up, informed by abundant research showing religion and spirituality can ease mental distress by providing group support and boosting personal resilience.

"We're good partners, and routinely refer back and forth," said Calvin Chin, Princeton University's director of counseling and psychological services, which a third of students use. "We're really thinking holistically about how to support a student, what they need to lead successful and satisfying lives."

On a spring Saturday afternoon close to finals week, Sadaf Shier, the Muslim chaplain at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, oversaw a celebration for the end of Ramadan where students of all faiths, or none, did stress-reducing activities like flowerpot painting and henna

hand decorating.

Shier and the university's Protestant pastor, Neil Ellingson, mingled with dozens of students on the lawn outside the Catholic chapel.

"My major engagement is providing a climate where students feel their religious identity is legitimate," Shier said. "That's directly supporting mental health."

The need is indeed critical. In December, halfway through the first academic year when most colleges returned to in-person instruction, the U.S. surgeon general issued an advisory on the country's youth mental health crisis. It found everything from sadness to suicide plans increased by more than 40% in the decade before COVID-19 -- and that the pandemic's further impact was "devastating."

Counselors are seeing distress become more widespread and more severe -- particularly anxiety, which overtook stress and depression among students, according to the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors.

By fostering supportive community events where students can relearn to socialize in real life and not in always-curated social media -- a skill often lost in pandemic isolation -- campus ministries can have a big impact.

At the recent Eid celebration at the University of St. Thomas, three students worked the table offering glitter, decals and ribbons to decorate mason jars and hijabs. Salma Nadir, a graduating senior and secretary of the Muslim Student Association, said Shier, the chaplain, "saved us so many times" with events like this that foster a welcoming community.

"It's been good for my stress, to be able to talk with new people," first-year student Arianna Norals agreed.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.