"Depressed: Get Out"
Life in the College Breakdown LaneApril 2009
For twenty six years, Spruce Mountain Inn has offered a life line for college kids who, due to a perfect storm of circumstances, have crashed and burned in college. The stress of the transition, loss of support systems, social difficulties, learning difficulties, substance abuse and the onset or exacerbation of mental health issues leave a significant number of young adults unable to make it in college.
Colleges are ill prepared to provide adequate support for the plethora of special needs of some students and become driven by their concerns over liability. Students may be abruptly terminated from school, in often humiliating and costly fashion, with no support plans in place. Since they have been forced to leave school with incompletes and/or failing grades, there are many barriers to returning or transferring.
Spruce Mountain Inn has seen many of these young adults for treatment and "a new start" following a mental health crisis in school. Our Vocational/Educational Coordinator since 1986, Teri Lawrence, M.Ed. , has assiduously assisted our clients in petitioning for retroactive withdrawals on their college transcripts. Teri's persistence and belief in our clients' rights to an education despite sometimes disabling psychiatric issues has turned situations around and helped those told to 'get out' to come back on both feet with dignity repaired and self esteem improved. Additionally, through careful assessment and planning, accommodations and supports are arranged for return to school.
Evidence based treatment practices such as Cognitive Behavioral and Interpersonal Psychotherapies, Psycho-education, Integrated Dual Disorders Treatment, Relapse Prevention Training, Medication Management, DBT Skills Training, and Supported Employment have been part of the treatment process at Spruce Mountain Inn for decades. However, it is the ways in which our committed and dedicated staff like Teri Lawrence go the extra mile for our clients that have made Spruce Mountain Inn a truly outstanding program.
