Abstract
The first Canadian Conference on Student Mental Health has provided the stimulus for this review of the development of a Psychiatric Service for students attending the University of British Columbia, and some of the data obtained for the Winter Session 1962–63 has been presented.
The Psychiatric Service functions as an integral part of the Student Health Service of the University and is staffed by a part-time Consultant Psychiatrist and a full-time Resident. In addition, other Residents in the Department of Psychiatry provide valuable psychotherapy time for the treatment of University students.
It is pointed out that the figure of 1.5% of the student population being seen by the Psychiatric Service must be taken as a low estimate of the incidence of emotional problems among students, since a number of other counselling-type resources are available on the campus.
It would appear that there is an uneven distribution of patients in relation to academic year and faculty or school, with more senior students and those receiving some kind of psychiatric orientation in their courses showing a readier tendency to seek help.
The motivation of students involved in psychiatric treatment is estimated to be fairly high in view of the large percentage of self-referrals and the small percentage of drop-outs, missed appointments and students missing more than one appointment.
The mean number of interviews was 7.8 per student with a mean time of 6.34 hours per student due to the use of less-than-one-hour sessions.
The need to regard hospitalization as a concomitant of out-patient treatment is stressed and the extensive use of the 26-bed campus hospital as a night and as a day facility for the treatment of emotionally disturbed students, is outlined.
Reference is made to the monthly distribution of requests for assessment and some of the factors in the high peaks in October and January are discussed. The low incidence of new referrals during examination times is not felt to be due simply to the students having something on which to focus their anxiety during these times and some of the other possible factors involved are mentioned.