Orange Coast College’s Director of Mental Health Services, Larry Valentine, discusses how students can cope with the stressful changes brought on by the COVID-19 global pandemic. If you have questions about OCC's current Mental Health services or would like to reach a member of the Mental Health Team, please leave a voicemail or text message at (714) 432-6858. The Director of Mental Health Services will respond to the message within 24 hours. If your need is more emergent, please refer to the crisis numbers on the OCC Student Health Center website or call 911 if necessary.
Q: In your experience, what are some of the challenges that students at OCC are facing right now as they navigate trying to continue their education during this pandemic?
A: Well, overall, there are many issues, but the main one is probably dealing with expectations versus a very different reality. College is supposed to be a time when people get a chance to get out there and experience different things in a way that they hadn't before. Our students were looking forward to being able to make transitions that are both wonderful and scary all at the same time, and also looking forward to being able to make connections in their lives in a different way. This is part of becoming a young adult. The pandemic has changed the trajectory of that. It's made it more difficult to communicate with people, and more difficult to explore different parts of your life. It's also made it more difficult to be able to move toward life goals in the ways that our students expected to. At the Student Health Center, we've had students reporting lots of anxiety, lots of depression, lots of isolation... all sorts of things.
On the other side, young adults often feel like they are, if not invincible, at least that nothing bad will happen to them. So some of the normal things that they do, like connecting with people, having parties, hanging out with friends, etc ... now they're being judged for doing those things because they’re not safe. For a lot of our students in that 18-to-25-year age range, the normal developmental things that they do are now have all these different meanings. It’s difficult, and it’s a really hard place for them.
Q: Research has shown that there's already an epidemic of anxiety among college students. What are some coping mechanisms that students can employ when they're dealing with these huge changes and disruptions to their lives?
A: First, I think finding some of those things that help with self-care is very important. Students should look for things that they enjoy doing alone. Even though many, of course, prefer to be with others, it’s still important to be able to do some solo activities, whether that’s going for a walk, meditation, watching TV, etc. Anything that helps bring some calm and self-care.
Another important aspect of self care that often gets overlooked is making sure to get plenty of rest, exercise and good nutrition, things that have become even harder to do right now. This is advice we would normally give people under normal circumstances, but it’s become even more important now that we are in such isolation. Finding small places where they can self-care, small places where they do have control, is important for students because so much of this is out of their control right now.
A lack of control can be very difficult for anyone, and this is especially true for college students. On top of the fear of getting sick or worse, of not being able to be on campus where they want to be, and of not being able to be with their friends, there's this nagging thought of, “when is this going to end?” This is where, unfortunately, we see hopelessness creep in.
We’ve been talking a lot with our students about trying to find places where they do have control, where they do have power, even if it’s very small. Finding those decision-making places where they can find some of their own agency is important, because that helps them get through this time when they are just unsure about what's going to happen next.
Another way for students to cope is by making connections where they can. Luckily, we do live in a world where a lot of our students are highly skilled at connecting to people in lots of different ways via technology. Staying connected to family, friends, and anyone who is supportive is very beneficial for young adults. Even if it can't be face-to-face, it’s still helpful to maintain and create those virtual communities.
Q: Many of our students have lost their jobs as businesses have shut down, and others have had to provide more support to their families while also dealing with disruption and change in their own lives. What advice do you have for students who have the added stress of lacking basic needs?
The fear of “Am I going to be able to make my rent this month? Am I going to be able to buy food?" is very real for many of our students. I think finding places of support, where they can get help, is essential. But it’s more complicated than that because of the isolation caused by this pandemic - it can be difficult for students to reach out when they don't have that regular connection, right? When normal relationships are not happening naturally, it's harder to ask for help.
This is where I think there’s an opportunity for employees at OCC to not only encourage students to be proactive in finding support - because there is definitely support out there - but to also make sure they are giving the correct information to students.
Q: That is a great transition into talking about what resources OCC offers through, for example, the OCC Student Health Center. The SHC offers counseling for students - can you elaborate on what services we provide in that arena?
At the Student Health Center, we have a medical side and a mental health side. The medical side recently re-opened with limited hours for some in-person services.
For the mental health side, we're still primarily working through Zoom, but we do have 12 therapists who are available. We still have lots of appointments available to work with people to provide both telehealth and therapy services. We're still seeing a lot of people, which is good, but we're concerned that we're not seeing as many new people as we normally do, especially given the current climate.
Years ago we limited the number of sessions that students could access, but now that session limit is gone and students can see us as often as they need to. We still consider ourselves short-term therapy, but together with our student clients, we decide what that actually means and what is okay. Most people see us maybe four, six, eight times.
Right now we’re focused on figuring out ways to reach out to and connect with people where they are. So we've been trying to do more outreach, like Zoom presentations for classes or athletics teams, with the goal of connecting with different parts of campus to try to let people know we're still here.
Q: What does a therapy session look like? How long does it last? How can students make an appointment?
I'm the person who facilitates making an appointment or, if a student wants to find out more information about therapy, I can call and just have a conversation about what therapy is like and what things we do at the health center and how we can be helpful. I'm happy to be that first point of contact to try to get people scheduled.
Once we do have somebody connected with one of our therapists, we do sessions that are 50 minutes long. They're usually once per week, but we also individualize that. If a student needs more, then we can work that out. We also try to give the support that people might need in-between their weekly sessions,whether that’s through text, voicemail, or email.
We've got a great staff. I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist, and I have another licensed marriage and family therapist in addition to two associate MFTs. And then I've got eight interns that I supervise. It’s a very, very good group, and it’s worked well. We just want to be able to reach out and see more people.