Nationally, the number of suicides among graduate students is significantly higher than among undergraduates — and the University wants to help any frazzled graduate students needing to get a grip on their mental health.

According to the Big Ten Student Suicide Study, graduate students have the highest rate of suicide among all college students.

A 2004 paper by the Suicide Prevention Resource Center states graduate students use mental health services on campus more than undergraduate students.

Counseling and Psychiatric Services and select University professional schools are teaming up to address the high level of stress for graduate students.

However, CAPS was unable to provide specific statistics on suicide counseling at the University.

Kelly Case-Simonson, assistant director of consultation and outreach at CAPS, said the joint program is still in progress, but it will teach graduate students stress management, self-care and ways to balance work and personal life.

“Just giving them skills to work through things before they become a problem,” Case-Simonson said.

She said graduate students have “unique struggles,” such as undergoing a tougher curriculum and paying for their own — and usually costly — tuitions.

CAPS is only working with the Medical College of Georgia and the College of Veterinary Medicine on mental health programs right now, but the future could bring even more.

“We’re hoping to expand that, but it depends on

resources on both sides,” Case-Simonson said.

Judy Milton, assistant dean of the University Graduate School, said the dean at each
individual graduate and professional school decides how to handle their students’ mental health.

But the Graduate School educates students about mental health at orientation and occasionally offers workshops led by CAPS, she said.

“We make them aware of the resources available to them on campus,” Milton said.

Paige Carmichael, associate dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine, said the school wants to make sure students don’t experience too much anxiety.

“Our goal is to keep the stress level of our students to as low as possible,” she said. “We recognize that the undergraduate curriculum, while challenging, is nowhere close to the challenge of a veterinary curriculum.”

The College of Veterinary Medicine and CAPS are working together to bring people from CAPS to the veterinary school campus a few times per month.

Carmichael said this would be an important service because students are in class from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. If they ever want to schedule a counseling appointment with CAPS, they would have to miss class.

“Because of those long hours that they work, it’s not always expedient for them to take an hour off to go over to CAPS for help,” Carmichael said.

She also said that at the orientation for new veterinary students the school invites CAPS staff to come and speak about how to manage stress.

Shana Gross, a third-year veterinary student from Atlanta, said the long hours of class and “intense” curriculum make it difficult to find time to take care of her well-being. Time is limited for activities such as exercising, shopping at the grocery store for nutritious food and visiting her family an hour away, she said.

“You really have to work to keep all of that. All of those things are almost luxuries, not commodities,” Gross said.

She said students would appreciate sessions with CAPS staff.

“It’s pretty hard to get counseling services that will fit with a veterinary student’s curriculum,” Gross said.

And students want those services, she said. The University’s Student Chapter of the American Veterinary Medical Association surveyed 160 out of 400 veterinary students at the University asking — among other questions — if they would like to have CAPS staff on the veterinary school campus.

“Overwhelmingly, the response was ‘We need mental health services and we would use them,’” Gross said.