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Climate shocks impede SDGs progress as Rwanda records 10,000 disasters in 8 years
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Person standing on a mountain peak As summarized in last week’s report on Forbes.com , there are real challenges that the field of college mental health will likely face in 2025. However, the field is well-positioned to face these challenges. In fact, 2025 could accelerate the unique opportunities that college mental health provides, especially regarding being a high priority for the post-pandemic generation of students, receiving greater recognition as a benefit to society, being exempt from certain political conflicts, and receiving increased investments from university administrators. Mental Health As A Priority For The Post-Pandemic Generation A 2024 report on Forbes.com explained how the Class of 2028 is the first college cohort that experienced the global pandemic during the formative years of early adolescence. Though it’s too early to determine how different this cohort will be from previous generations of college students, it’s established that providing mental health support to the post-pandemic generation of students is a priority. A 2024 report on NewAmerica.org , an online think tank about various policies in the United States, found that nearly eight in ten Americans currently believe that colleges students need mental health support services from their schools. The 2024 Gallup-Lumina State of Higher Education Report indicated that emotional stress and personal mental health concerns are the top two reasons why current students discontinue their college enrollment, and that these reasons are ranked more than twice the percentage as financial costs. This high priority opens the door for college mental health professionals to have conversations about expanding mental health services on campuses, experience less stigma from students about seeking counseling, and generate opportunities to showcase mental health services while recruiting future students. Furthermore, because of the upcoming enrollment cliff, and fewer college-age youth currently living on the planet, there’s high interest in support services that increase student retention. According to a 2024 study in the Journal of College Student Mental Health , about two-thirds of campus counseling centers’ clients reported that counseling services helped them stay enrolled in school . Greater Recognition That College Mental Health Can Benefit Society Another 2024 report on Forbes.com indicated that the value of college mental health remains high even though the public confidence in higher education is shrinking. Traditionally, college mental health was designed to offer limited/short-term counseling services. Similarly to many campus health centers, most student counseling centers focused on providing supportive services for acute and developmental needs, and students needing longer-term/specialized services were referred to an off-campus provider. This structure is consistent with the traditional mindset that colleges and universities are institutions of higher education and not treatment communities. However, there’s growing recognition that campus counseling centers have unparallel access to the vital demographic of individuals between the ages of 18 and 25. Furthermore, most college campuses have ready-made facilities, modern technology, and an infrastructure already in place that no other health care system in America has. Thus, there’s acknowledgment that college mental health can have an important role in reducing the mental health epidemic in America. As described in a 2024 report on Forbes.com , many schools are developing new models of campus counseling , which includes collaborating with treatment providers to offer specialized programs on campus. These new models have the potential to treat more individuals with less cost than traditional models, which is significant as a 2024 report by U.S. News and World Report indicates that mental health illnesses cost America approximately $282 billion per year. Samsung’s Android 15 Leak—Bad News For Nearly All Galaxy Owners Dark Web Facial ID Farm Warning—Hackers Build Identity Fraud Database Tesla CEO Elon Musk Issues U.S. Bankruptcy Warning Amid Calls For A Bitcoin-Inspired ‘Fix’ Being Exempt from Certain Political Conflicts A 2024 report by USA Today showed that many Americans feel hopeless about the increasing polarization and divide among politicians . One way in which political contention affects higher education is the recent tendency of state legislators to pass Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) bans. Unfortunately, many DEI bans include confusing language, such as prohibiting any campus office from offering differential treatment to students. However, the intention of politicians in using the term differential treatment is vastly different from how medical providers use the term. In fact, the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors (which I serve as an executive board member) released a press release regarding concerns that health care providers have about many DEI bans. This message seems to resonate. States that passed DEI bans in 2024 include Alabama, Iowa, and Utah, all of which included exemptions/special considerations for health care providers. Representatives in other states, such as Texas, plan to introduce such exemptions in upcoming legislative sessions. Increased Investments From University Administrators Last week’s report also discussed how campus counseling centers must compete with the lures of private practice, and that many staff therapists can make more money, and control their own caseload and schedules, by leaving the field. Fortunately, it seems like university administrators are taking heed of this. The 2023 Director’s Survey from the AUCCCD indicated that 59.8% of directors who responded reported that either all or some of their staff received salary raises outside the cost-of-living adjustments. College mental health is a premiere health care system in the world. College students are a vital demographic, most other health care systems cannot match the access and infrastructure of higher education, the work that college health providers do is respected by both political parties, and many universities are now finding ways to retain and recruit talent. Despite the challenges that are coming in 2025, there are many reasons to be optimistic.
Debunking false claims about US drone sightings | Fact check roundupIsraeli troops stormed one of the last hospitals operating in northern Gaza on Friday, igniting fires and forcing many staff and patients outside to strip in winter weather, the territory’s health ministry said. Kamal Adwan Hospital has been hit multiple times over the past three months by Israeli troops waging an offensive against Hamas fighters in surrounding neighborhoods, according to staff. The ministry said a strike on the hospital a day earlier killed five medical staff. Israel’s military said it was conducting operations against Hamas infrastructure and militants in the area of the hospital, without details. It repeated claims that Hamas fighters operate inside Kamal Adwan but provided no evidence. Hospital officials have denied that. The Health Ministry said troops forced medical personnel and patients to assemble in the yard and remove their clothes. Some were led to an unknown location, while some patients were sent to the nearby Indonesian Hospital, which was knocked out of operation after an Israel raid this week. Israeli troops during raids frequently carry out mass detentions, stripping men to their underwear for questioning in what the military says is a security measure as they search for Hamas fighters. The Associated Press doesn’t have access to Kamal Adwan, but armed plainclothes members of the Hamas-led police forces — tasked with keeping security and officially separate from the group’s armed wing — have been seen in other hospitals. The Health Ministry said Israeli troops also set fires in several parts of Kamal Adwan, including the lab and surgery department. It said 25 patients and 60 health workers remained in the hospital out of 75 patients and 180 staff who had been there. The account could not be independently confirmed, and attempts to reach hospital staff were unsuccessful. “Fire is ablaze everywhere in the hospital,” an unidentified member of the staff said in an audio message posted on the social media accounts of hospital director Hossam Abu Safiya. The staffer said some evacuated patients had been unhooked from oxygen. “There are currently patients who could die at any moment,” she said. A largely isolated north Since October, Israel’s offensive has virtually sealed off the northern Gaza areas of Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and leveled large parts of them. Tens of thousands of Palestinians were forced out but thousands are believed to remain in the area, where Kamal Adwan and two other hospitals are located. Troops raided Kamal Adwan in October, and on Tuesday troops stormed and evacuated the Indonesian Hospital. The area has been cut off from food and other aid for months , raising fears of famine. The U.N. says Israeli troops allowed just four humanitarian deliveries to the area from Dec. 1 to Dec. 23. The Israeli rights group Physicians for Human Rights-Israel this week petitioned Israel’s High Court of Justice seeking a halt to military attacks on Kamal Adwan. It warned that forcibly evacuating the hospital would “abandon thousands of residents in northern Gaza.” Before the latest deaths Thursday, the group documented five other staffers killed by Israeli fire since October. Israel launched its campaign in Gaza vowing to destroy Hamas after the group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel in which militants killed around 1,200 people and abducted some 250 others. Around 100 Israelis remain captive in Gaza, around a third believed to be dead. Israel’s nearly 15-month-old campaign of bombardment and offensives has devastated the territory’s health sector. A year ago, it carried out raids on hospitals in northern Gaza, including Kamal Adwan, Indonesian and al-Awda Hospital, saying they served as bases for Hamas, though it presented little evidence. Israel’s campaign has killed more than 45,400 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, and wounded more than 108,000 others, according to the Health Ministry. Its count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Deaths from the cold in Gaza More than 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians have been driven from their homes, most of them now sheltering in sprawling, squalid tent camps in south and central Gaza. Children and adults, many barefoot, huddled Friday on the cold sand in tents whose plastic and cloth sheets whipped in the wind. Overnight temperatures can dip into the 40s Fahrenheit (below 10 Celsius), and sea spray from the Mediterranean can dampen tents just steps away. “I swear to God, their mother and I cover ourselves with one blanket and we cover (their five children) with three blankets that we got from neighbors. Sea waters drowned everything that was ours,” said Muhammad al-Sous, displaced from Beit Lahiya in the north. The children collect plastic bottles to make fires, and pile under the blankets when their only set of clothes is washed and dried in the wind. At least three babies in Gaza have died from exposure to cold in recent days, doctors there have said.DP World Callao Strengthens Position as Peru's Gateway for Trade with Asia