Development of college student focused care in a psychiatric hospital: Preliminary clinical outcomes and future directions

Abstract

Objective

The unique features of college experience make it essential to address escalating mental-health challenges beyond college campuses. In 2010, we launched college-student focused (CSF) care nested within an adult day treatment program in a psychiatric hospital. The CSF care consists of student group therapies, individual consultation services for hospital staff and student-patients, and student-focused mental health guides for patients and families. This study preliminarily examined the clinical impact of CSF care on post-treatment symptoms reduction.

Participants and Methods

In 235 college student-patients admitted to the day program between 2011 July to 2013 January, we assessed the targeted outcomes of the CSF care, using a newly developed CSF questionnaire.

Results

Higher levels of CSF care-related outcomes predicted reduced post-treatment depression and anxiety, even after controlling for baseline clinical symptoms and post-treatment skills usage.

Conclusions

These results highlighted the benefits and need for CSF care on a healthcare system level.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States of America and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of Mass General Brigham.

Data availability statement

Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data are not available.