Family Physician

With the recent tragedy allegedly perpetrated by suspended college student Jared Loughner in Tuscon, AZ, the role of colleges’ and universities’ student counseling centers has taken center stage. This is a little odd, given that Mr. Loughner attended a community college that lacked a student counseling center. Most community colleges — catering to part-time students who often have families or hold down full-time jobs — don’t seem to have the mental health counseling centers that most traditional universities and colleges have.

Dr. Emily Gibson, a family physician who apparently works with students at a college, recently wrote a blog entry about mental illness in the college student. In this entry, she seems to bemoan the fact that students have come to expect a certain level of psychiatric care and treatment for their mental health concerns — even while at college. Of course, universities have limited resources to offer such care.

Indeed, she asks — but never answers — some compelling questions:

“Didn’t the college understand that removing him from school would make things worse and remove him from daily monitoring of his behavior? Wasn’t there a way to compel him to get psychiatric assessment and treatment?”