We at the Clog feel it is fairly safe to say students hate getting the flu. Although temporary sickness allows for catching up on “Homeland” or old “Breaking Bad” episodes, being immobile because of the flu is possibly the worst. When you have the flu, you can’t sit up to finish your reading, do your math homework, walk or function.

All UC Berkeley students should get flu shots immediately. It takes all of one minute for the nurse at a CVS pharmacy or Walgreens to give you the shot, and it is virtually painless. Be an adult, and get the vaccine — it is foolish to think that you will “beat” the flu season, because the flu season will beat you.

If you tell your roommate you refuse to get the flu shot because you are scared of needles, expect him or her to respond like this:

When you decide to get your flu shot, your roommates and floormates will be thrilled at the prospect that they have less of a chance of catching this nasty illness.

If you end up contracting the flu but refused to get the flu shot, never complain. It is your fault.

If you do not get your flu shot, you run the risk looking like this for an entire week:

Image Source:  Mark Turnaucka under Creative Commons, gifs for the masses, gifs for the masses, gifs of the masses and gifs for the masses.

Contact Ava Klein at avaklein@dailycal.org.

The post The process of deciding to get a flu shot in Berkeley appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Grace Beaudoin/Courtesy

We’ve all fallen prey to Berkeley’s most abundant creatures. They look up at you with those big, innocent eyes, and you just feel the urge to feed the poor things. Unfortunately, this is not Snow White, and you are not a squirrel whisperer. When the peanuts run out, they will turn on you …

We at the Clog recently saw the more dangerous side of these furry frenemies.

One particularly outgoing squirrel made his presence known by sniffing and climbing around our feet. Of course, we assumed he was being friendly and proceeded to pet him. Strike 1.

Then we bent down to allow him to sniff our fingers. Strike 2.

And finally, we attempted to pet the squirrel. Three strikes, and the claws came out.

We looked down at our hands, horrified to find we had a new battle wound. So we sulked to the Tang Center with our fresh squirrel bite, feeling defeated. Life lesson: Squirrels are not our friends.

Image sources: iricordidellanima and vofawk

Contact Tara Lookabaugh at tlookabaugh@dailycal.org.

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Jan Flatley-Feldman/Staff

Cindy Chang, the first female head team physician for Cal’s athletics program and a doctor at the Tang Center, was awarded one of sports medicine’s highest accolades at a ceremony Sept. 19.

Chang is the first woman to receive the Dr. Ernst Jokl Sports Medicine Award from the United States Sports Academy and joins  a group of past recipients including neurologist Roger Bannister, the first man to break a four-minute mile, and orthopedic surgeon Eric Heiden, a speed-skating champion.

Her selection was a “no-brainer,” given her many achievements in the field, said Duwayne Escobedo, USSA spokesperson.

Chang served as the first woman and first Asian American chief medical officer for Team USA in the 2012 Olympic Games. Prior to the games, she oversaw medical care at multiple Paralympic Games.

While Chang originally began her practice in family medicine, she was drawn to sports medicine due to her interest in musculoskeletal injuries and her lifetime passion for athletics.

In medical school, Chang tore her ACL in a basketball championship game and didn’t realize she was hurt until she went dancing to celebrate the team’s win. The injury, one of many she sustained while playing sports, furthered her interest in sports medicine.

As head team physician for Cal’s 27 Division I athletic teams from 1995 to 2008, Chang saw medical cases ranging from standard sprains to more unusual scenarios.

At a Louisiana football game, Chang said, she sutured a complex facial laceration in a dimly lit locker room. On another occasion, she drained a player’s abscess in a hotel bathtub the night before a game.

“She can all of a sudden run down the hall and say, ‘I want to show you this!’ ” said Harris Masket, a sports medicine doctor at the Tang Center, of Chang’s enthusiasm for her job. “She’ll show you this tiny little dislocation and say, ‘I’ve never seen this before.’ ”

Many of Chang’s colleagues recognize her as a leader in the field. When she first began her career, however, some older coaches questioned her ability to understand injuries that arose from male-dominated sports, Chang said.

“They would say, ‘You never played football. What do you know about football?’ ” she said. “In the end, you want to look for a good physician who understands injuries but also understands the psyche of a student-athlete and of coaches.”

Although Chang stepped down from the head team physician position, she still works as a doctor at the Tang Center.

In addition to her on-campus responsibilities, Chang works with the California Concussion Coalition, an organization she co-founded in 2012, and the California Interscholastic Federation’s Sports Medicine Committee.

Contact Chloee Weiner and Kimberly Veklerov at newsdesk@dailycal.org.

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The anonymous survey is part of a statewide evaluation of mental health services conducted by the RAND Corp., a nonprofit policy think tank, on behalf of the California Mental Health Services Authority. The survey seeks to gather information about individuals’ experiences with mental health issues, the quality of services provided and campus climate regarding mental health and well-being.

The survey asks about the level and frequency of stress individuals experience as well as their opinions on the accessibility of services and information the campus provides about coping with stress and depression. It takes approximately 10 minutes to complete.

The survey will help the UC Student Mental Health Initiative Program — which oversees mental health services at UC campuses — gauge where to make improvements, said Taisha Caldwell, manager of the program. She said similar surveys developed by RAND likely will be used again to gauge progress over time.

According to Caldwell, the need for mental health services across the country has grown over the past decade — a trend reflected in UC campuses. She said she hopes counseling and psychological services can create a strong foundation of prevention and decrease the need for direct services.

There has been a push to advance mental health in California. In 2011, the California Mental Health Services Authority gave UC Berkeley a $600,000 three-year grant to improve student wellness, reduce stigma associated with mental health problems and reduce suicides, said Ann Collentine, the organization’s program director.

One campus program funded by the grant is the Gold Folder, which teaches faculty and staff members about indicators of distress and appropriate responses when mental health issues arise.

UC Berkeley’s counseling and psychological services also introduced the Look for the Signs campaign, which aims to raise awareness of depression symptoms. Just in Case, a smartphone app, provides resources about finding help for mental health problems.

Still, some students believe there is a lot of progress to be made. The Tang Center offers resources that are useful but inadequate given the size of the student population, said Sanjala Chitnis, co-chair of You Mean More, a campus suicide-prevention group.

“There’s a larger issue at hand,” Chitnis said. “It’s a societal issue — the stigma and the connotation behind the word ‘depression.’ It’s something that a survey and its results are not going to change, but at least they’ll start a conversation about it.”

Somin Park covers academics and administration. Contact her at sominpark@dailycal.org.

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Anne Schuler/File

At first glance, language in UC Berkeley’s student health insurance plan appears to exclude injuries incurred during riot participation.

When Bahar Navab, the assembly affairs vice president of the UC Berkeley Graduate Assembly, contacted University Health Services on Monday to express her surprise at the policy’s language, UHS was surprised, too.

The clause, nestled in the plan’s benefit booklet, was mistakenly included when the campus entered into a contract with a new health insurance provider, Aetna, this summer, despite the fact that the campus asked the language be removed, said Kim LaPean, communications manager at UHS’s Tang Center.

“It’s sad that the (clause) was included,” LaPean said. “But what would be sadder is if students thought we wanted to include the misinformation.”

Within 24 hours of the inquiry, UHS confirmed the administrative error and stated that the clause would not affect those covered by the plan, LaPean said. UHS is in the process of officially removing the language from posted and printed material.

“We would never enforce such a clause,” LaPean said. “We respect our students’ rights.”

Aetna is also currently working to correct the plan’s language, although riot exclusions are “standard” in healthcare policies, said Aetna public relations manager Cynthia Michener.

The clause, currently printed in the campus SHIP 2013-14 benefit booklet, excludes coverage for “expense incurred as a result of injury due to participation in a riot.”

The booklet goes on to define participation in a riot as taking part in a riot in any way, including inciting or conspiring to incite a riot. It excludes actions taken in self-defense, so long as they are not against persons trying to restore law and order.

“I was surprised to see that clause too since UHS is generally a strong advocate for students and their wellbeing in all situations,” said Navab, who is the campus’ student SHIP representative, in an email.

For the past three years, UC Berkeley students were offered medical coverage under a universitywide health insurance plan. After a projected UC SHIP deficit that could have sparked double-digit student premium increases, UC Berkeley decided to transition back into a campus-managed, fully funded insurance plan for the 2013-14 school year.

While the clause is not in effect and is in the process of being removed from print, Mitar Milutinovic, a UC Berkeley graduate student who wrote a blog post about the clause, still has questions about why such language would be included in any insurance policy.

“Because demonstrations sometimes turn violent despite the best efforts of organizers and even the majority of participants, it is hard to draw a line between demonstrations and riots,” Milutinovic said.

Despite the mistake, LaPean says the decision to switch to a new medical service provider was a popular one and that Aetna “has been a great partner.”

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We hope this isn’t the case at UC Berkeley.

Last Wednesday, nine UC Berkeley students filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education alleging that the campus discouraged them from reporting incidents of sexual assault to local authorities, underreporting instances of sexual violence and failing to notify remaining campus community members of these threats.

Following a review of the complaint, the U.S. Department of Education will decide whether to investigate the campus’s policies to review whether it is appropriately responding to sexual assault crimes. If it is found in violation of the allegations, UC Berkeley could be fined $35,000 for each offense.

A college campus like UC Berkeley is a home away from home and a place where students should feel safe and protected. The campus has a system in place to try and promote this type of atmosphere. UC Berkeley provides a number of resources — such as the Gender Equity Resource Center and counseling at the Tang Center — that are dedicated to preventing sexual assault and promoting violence prevention education.

Cases of sexual discrimination, sexual harassment and assault or rape reported to the campus administration are pursued by the campus Center for Student Conduct. According to the code of conduct, all reports are handled with “utmost seriousness, and the student will be referred to the appropriate persons or units for assistance.”

UC Berkeley is also obligated to follow federal Title IX regulations, which stipulate in the code of conduct that “the University has an obligation to communicate information regarding University policies, regulations, and procedures to concerned members of the University community” as well as a “legal obligation to disclose the outcome of the discipline proceedings to the student who reports being sexually assaulted.”

What is worrisome is the ASUC Senate’s April vote expressing no confidence in the campus’s handling of sexual assault cases. A bill passed at the April 3 meeting drew issue with the campus’s code of conduct policies stripping sexual assault victims’ rights in reporting the incident.

A number of problems raised by the victims are also concerning.

One of the victims who filed the complaint said she received an email informing her that an investigation had taken place seven months after she reported a sexual assault incident to the campus. She said she was told the situation was resolved through an “early resolution” process but was not told whether her assailant received disciplinary action. Her assailant then graduated, making him or her exempt from any further action at the hands of the campus.

If the investigation finds problems with the campus’s response, UC Berkeley needs to take immediate action to revise its policies and work to improve its environment and communication with students. If the investigation does not find the campus in violation, we can still use this moment to reflect on the code of conduct and work to ensure open and transparent communication with the students who filed the complaint.

We should applaud the victims for coming forward and make sure they know their allegations are being handled with respect and diligence.

The post Time to respect the students appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Graham Haught/Staff

We came to Berkeley counting on the university’s vibrant history of activism and civil rights to guide our education inside and outside of the classroom. But contrary to its reputation for social justice, we believe UC Berkeley has had a long and documented history of silencing survivors of sexual violence and underdisciplining offenders. Last week, we joined a total of nine survivors in filing a federal complaint with the U.S. Department of Education against UC Berkeley, hoping that our university will be held accountable for mishandling our cases and for its policies and practices that perpetuate violence and rape culture at Cal.

We’ll start by ending our own silence: We are both survivors of sexual assault and battery. We expected justice against those who attacked us. We were denied it by university officials and a legal system who betrayed our trust in them.

Fifteen months since we first became engaged in conversation around sexual violence on campus, we remain disillusioned by the sheer number of survivors who have told us of how the university mishandled their cases and denied them justice. Their treatment was not isolated to their own experiences, and often it violated federal law. Our university dissuaded survivors from reporting, failed to update them on their cases, discouraged involvement by law enforcement and neglected to provide them medical and residential accommodations. And these responses are from just a fraction of the cases we know about. Our stories range from the residence halls to student organizations to the Greek system and from our medical service center to the disciplinary procedures themselves.

It is unacceptable that administrators do not currently believe our stories and warn us of the sanctions of false reporting while refusing to investigate our claims, that our medical center does not provide rape kits even when the case is reported to campus police and that assailants found in violation of the code of conduct and even guilty in criminal court are rarely held accountable for their actions by our university. But instead we were told by an administrative official that though the university’s system may have failed us, we could seek justice on a larger scale.

We love UC Berkeley, and we know that our school can do better than to sweep rape and sexual assault under the rug. This is why we filed a complaint with the Department of Education. Berkeley needs to lead the nation by creating new procedures, by making students feel safe from harassment and assault and by finally following the law.

Many students across the country are demanding that their schools begin to take sexual violence more seriously. We have been lucky enough to connect with the IX Network, a national coalition of college activists fighting sexual assault and holding their university administrations accountable. We move forward in solidarity with survivors at Yale, UNC Chapel Hill, Amherst, Swarthmore, Occidental, USC and elsewhere — knowing that national change is far overdue.

This is also not the first time that UC Berkeley has faced federal charges for mishandling sexual assault cases. In 1979, a UC Berkeley coalition known as Women Organized Against Sexual Harassment filed its own federal complaint with the Department of Health, Education and Welfare regarding a professor who preyed upon his own students. We’re grateful for what WOASH accomplished then, but we would have hoped that 30 years would have made more of a difference in UC Berkeley’s sexual violence procedures. Sexual violence at Cal is still alive and well. We don’t expect it to end completely, but we expect our university to take action to reduce its prevalence.

When you are assaulted, your campus and community should be there to support you. You shouldn’t have to worry about who you can trust when you are the most vulnerable, and you shouldn’t have to face neglect and betrayal when you are brave enough to tell your story. We have hope that UC Berkeley can become the supportive network that survivors of sexual violence need. Until then, we’ll be here — refusing to continue the silence and pressuring our campus administrators for change.

Sofie Karasek is a third year at UC Berkeley. Anais LaVoie is a recent UC Berkeley graduate.

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As a health worker for Unit 3 this past year, I was used to residents coming to my door late at night, timidly asking if I had any banana-flavored condoms left or wondering how to make an appointment at the Tang Center. In fact, I looked forward to those interactions. But 3 a.m. was a pretty unusual time to hear any knocking. Groggy, confused, and clad in my uncomfortably tight boxer briefs, I opened the door on a late Friday night to two serious faces staring nervously right at me.

I could tell this wasn’t just a late-night condom run. Standing in my doorway, one of them bluntly said, “I think our friend has alcohol poisoning.”

I muttered an expletive under my breath.

Sure, I was trained to notice signs of alcohol poisoning. “Remember ‘CUSP’: clammy, unconscious, slow breathing, pale.” Super easy, right? But until then, I had never been faced with such a situation.

So I followed them to their floor, shuffling through my memory bank to recall everything I had learned about alcohol poisoning and got ready to call 911.

When I got to her room, I found the girl in question lying on the bed, inebriated and surrounded by her floormates. She was perfectly conscious and entirely capable of carrying on conversation. But I proceeded through the checklist — just in case.

Normal breathing: check. Clammy: nope. Pale: not at all. So I reassured her friends that she wasn’t showing any signs of alcohol poisoning but that it would be a good idea to keep an eye on her throughout the night and to find me if they had any remaining concerns.

I took the walk back up to my floor feeling incredibly relieved, and it immediately occurred to me that the week’s “health tip” that I posted was about partying safe and being a good bystander in case of emergency. My residents had actually taken something from my tip and used it that night to keep themselves safe and healthy.

That stressful five-minute encounter proved that all of the responsibilities, commitments and experiences that contribute to the complex life of a college student open the door to a variety of health issues. From relationships to the flu, managing these issues is crucial to maintaining yourself.

As fun as Berkeley is, I think the student body can still make improvements among itself — not necessarily in its recognition of the full scope of existing health concerns, but rather in how students make each other conscious of these concerns. How many times have you walked down Sproul and had the opportunity to trade the business flier that you blindly grabbed for something associated with student health? The advertising of groups, organizations, programs and resources dedicated to student health just isn’t as prominent as it should be.

We have — or, rather, should have — the fundamental right to pursue our interests and strengthen our creative spirit with no restrictions. That’s what these four years are for, right? But being bummed about an ailing relationship — romantic or platonic — or being stressed about classes to the point where sleep becomes an afterthought does just that: present restrictions. While these kinds of things may not be entirely preventable, creating a dialogue around them and raising awareness among students can never hurt.

To consider myself an undeniable expert on things like relationships, sex, depression and stress would be completely foolish, but I’m trying to increase the understanding of these issues. A large aspect of my job was to educate the residents on all aspects of college health through weekly health tips, one-on-one interactions and monthly events.

Over the course of the year, I had numerous encounters with students relating to any issue you could possibly imagine — from common things like stress, depression and nutrition to unexpected afflictions like scalp sunburns, infected foot mosquito bites and random requests for XXL condoms. A happy result of all this is the well-rounded outlook I gained on the range of issues that we as a student body have to deal with on top of our academic responsibilities.

I saw how unnerving it could be to constantly worry about the potential consequences of unprotected sex from the previous night. I saw how debilitating depression could be for someone who was so intelligent but didn’t have the energy to reach his or her potential. By no means am I downplaying these situations, but the consequences of some of these instances could have been prevented — or, at least, eased — with the right resources.

I truly wish this column could solve all the health and wellness issues on campus. More reasonably, however, it will serve as an additional resource to raise awareness of the things we don’t always think about. Making college health issues more prominent on our campus will be difficult — but not everything is as easy or straightforward as CUSP.

Shahin Firouzbakht writes a Thursday column on health issues affecting student life. Contact Shahin Firouzbakht at sfirouzbakht@dailycal.org.

The post On the CUSP of consciousness appeared first on The Daily Californian.

The UC Board of Regents met on Wednesday in Sacramento to discuss the governor’s May budget revision and capital projects at UC Merced and UC Berkeley, among other issues.

The governor’s May budget revision, released Tuesday, remains largely unchanged from the January proposal. Patrick Lenz, the university’s vice president for budget and capital resources, said the university did not receive any additional increases in funding in the May revision.

The budget also calls for a four-year tuition freeze for all students except those in professional schools, a restructuring of debt and discontinuation of a proposed unit cap on state-subsidized courses, which could have affected 2,200 UC students in the next school year.

Student Regent Jonathan Stein and Regent Bonnie Reiss raised concerns about rising costs of professional student fees while undergraduate and other program costs have been held constant.

“Because Prop. 30 passed and because of new state revenues, we’ve been able to hold tuition constant,” Stein said. “In reality, we’ve been able to hold undergraduate and Ph.D tuition constant while professional schools continue to rise.”

The regents also discussed restructuring the university’s debt. The state of California currently takes out bonds on behalf of the university, but UC officials say shifting the responsibility of the debt to the UC system would help lower the debt.

“That debt is greater because the state of California’s credit rating is not as good as ours,” said Brooke Converse, spokesperson for the UC Office of the President. “What we’re asking is that the state of California let us take over and restructure that debt, because if we restructure it, we’ll be able to save $80 million a year.”

The university is also working with the governor to expand facilities at UC Merced, said Nathan Brostrom, the university’s executive vice president for business operations.

“The highest priority is a classroom and academic building at UC Merced,” Brostrom said. “They are now close to 6,000 students, and they do not have space for continued growth unless they get more classroom buildings.”

The regents also approved a plan to build a new aquatics center at UC Berkeley on the current site of the Tang Center parking lot.

Protesters from American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees 3299, a union representing patient-care workers at UC medical centers, also interrupted early in the meeting for about 45 minutes to protest in favor of higher pay and increased staffing.

On Thursday, the regents will meet in closed sessions to discuss collective bargaining matters and lawsuits related to the UC system.

Staff writer Virgie Hoban contributed to this report. 

Mitchell Handler covers academics and administration. Contact him at mhandler@dailycal.org and follow him on Twitter @mitchellhandler.

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Michael Tao/Senior Staff

The doctors said he should have died.

Even after surviving a war zone, UC Berkeley freshman Unis Barakat found himself succumbing to the lingering emotional scars of his experience.

Barakat had spent his childhood on the Gaza Strip in Palestine, fearing for his life as helicopters fired missiles and cars exploded around him. Before he moved to the United States, family members physically abused him, holding his mother back as they threw him down the stairs.

In the spring of 2011, Barakat attempted his first suicide.

“I was sick of the injustices in the world,” he said. “It wasn’t a place I wanted to be. I really wanted to kill myself at the time.”

“We need to accept that feeling
depressed, anxious or suicidal —
these are natural parts of
the human condition and part
of what it means to be alive”
- Scott Wallin,
Doctoral student studying
cognitive disabilities

Though Barakat’s story is exceptional, the depression he experienced is not uncommon and is in fact widespread among college-aged individuals.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the average suicide rate for college campuses is about eight deaths per 100,000 college students. Two UC Berkeley students committed suicide this past year, placing the campus just under the national average — though not all suicides on campus are reported.

“Cal is a very stressful place — there’s an intensity, an academic integrity,” said Aaron Cohen, a psychologist at the University Health Services Tang Center. “That creates a lot of stress, anxiety, depression — you name it. So I do think there can be a pulse on this campus where we’re not creating a healthy environment.”

In light of this reality, UC Berkeley began receiving $600,000 in the fall of 2011 as part of a nearly $8 million California Mental Health Services Authority grant that aims to improve mental health programs within the system over a span of three years. The campus began implementing programs this year to increase awareness, reduce stigma and educate the campus community about suicide prevention.

Raising awareness

UC Berkeley junior Silvia Lopez, grappling with a daunting workload and the death of a family member, decided she needed a therapist. But she thought the Tang Center was “just a hospital” and didn’t know where to go to have her needs addressed.

After a professor referred her to the center, she arrived as a walk-in, signed a small stack of papers and met with a counselor who evaluated her and signed her up for a series of treatments.

“I wish I knew how easy it was,” Lopez said.

According to Cohen, the Cal MHSA Student Mental Health Initiative coordinator at the Tang Center, approximately 5,700 students used the Tang Center’s Counseling and Psychological Services last year. He said that considering the campus serves approximately 36,000 students, many may not be utilizing the center’s resources because they are unaware of what it offers.

“It’s really important for us to get the word out there about our services and let people know about confidentiality, let people know we’re not about labeling, let people know we’re trying to figure out a way to support students through what they want,” Cohen said.

Stephanie Ho, a Tang Center psychologist and former Cal MHSA grant coordinator, said first-generation, first-year students and those who are away from their family for the first time experience stressors that make them more susceptible to depression but are least likely to be able to navigate the resources on campus.

“The Tang Center’s provided a lot of help for me now,” said Blake Simons, a UC Berkeley sophomore who battled depression. “But being able to access those resources was hard, especially as a freshman, being lost, in a sense.”

In targeting first-year students, this academic year the campus implemented the Interactive Screening Program, an anonymous online questionnaire that surveys students’ stress levels and substance abuse issues. Cohen provides students with feedback tailored to their responses and invites them to schedule a counseling appointment.

“You’re a student at Berkeley,” said Shannan McClain, a UC Berkeley senior and founder of the campus suicide prevention group You Mean More. “It’s overwhelming. You might not take the time to find the Tang Center even if you’re struggling.”

“Depression is temporary.
Suicide is forever.
I know I’ll get through it,
and that is what keeps me sane.”
- Silvia Lopez,
UC Berkeley junior

The Cal MHSA grant funded other programs designed to raise awareness like the Gold Folder, a reference guide for faculty and staff with indicators of distress in students, campus resources and protocol during an emergency. Additionally, the campus will launch a large-scale media campaign on topics such as depression and suicide.

“You need to help make people aware of this issue,” Lopez said. “It breaks my heart that people feel like there’s no way out. Depression is temporary. Suicide is forever. I know I’ll get through it, and that is what keeps me sane.”

Constrained by a lack of resources

Struggling to come to terms with the suicide of a close friend and shrouded by what he could only assume was depression, Blake Simons resolved that he needed help.

After calling Counseling and Psychological Services in his freshman year, Blake said a staff worker emailed him a list of outside psychologists, ultimately steering him away because he had “too many problems” — more than could be remedied in the allotted five free counseling sessions provided for all students.

“We just wish that we had more resources, more staffing,” Ho said. “Where it comes up is that we have a session limit and have wait times.”

McClain said many students struggle to access mental health resources and secure an appointment at Tang. She said students may wait indefinitely for a 15-minute conversation.

“Tang is doing a lot,” McClain said. “But in the time of budget cuts, I’m sure they’re understaffed and doing the best they can.”

According to Kim LaPean, communications manager at the Tang Center, campuswide budget cuts in 2008 affected the level of service that the Tang Center provided. After recovery from the budget cuts, staffing has grown, but Counseling and Psychological Services is still advocating for resources.

“Even with all of the funding we currently receive, we struggle to meet the demand for our mental health services,” LaPean said in an email.

Jeff Prince, director of Counseling and Psychological Services, said that although the university has supported the department, staffing is still not up to the level of need. The Tang Center currently employs 26 psychologists and social workers, 12 trainees and 12 psychiatrists, five of whom are full-time employees.

“Even with all of the funding
we currently receive, we struggle
to meet the demand for our mental
health services”
- Kim LaPean,
Communications manager at the
Tang Center

“Given the volume of students coming through the door, we do a really good job of trying to meet their needs,” Cohen said.“We always are needing more support and more resources.”

A portion of the Cal MHSA grant is directed at hiring staff, including a full-time psychologist and a part-time postdoctoral fellow.

“I believe the funding has enabled us to do some creative and long-needed work in suicide prevention and mental health education,” Prince said in an email. “Maintaining student access to counseling is critical — and just as critical is reaching those students who do not present themselves for counseling but can be helped through these programs.”

A stigma that feeds on itself

Lopez said it was a crippling stigma against mental illness in her community that kept her from seeking help for her depression.

“If I mentioned wanting to see a psychologist, my parents would say, ‘We won’t pay for that,’ and ‘What the hell for? You might as well tell me the problems,’” Lopez said.

Many researchers say an inevitable obstacle in raising awareness and even approaching depression is the harmful stigma surrounding and defining mental health.

“If I break my arm, there’s no stigma against going to doctor and getting it fixed,” said Scott Wallin, a doctoral student who studies cognitive disabilities. “But if I’m feeling stressed, if I can’t do my work or maintain relationships, there’s a stigma about going to the Tang Center and seeing a therapist. What’s wrong with me? Am I weak? Why can’t I be normal?”

This stigma, according to Wallin, stems from a continual cycle of self-deprecation when individuals internalize the negative perceptions held against them and sink further into depression.

Steven Segal, a campus professor of social welfare, said people tend to distance themselves from those who have been hospitalized because they perceive them as a threat to their safety, which exacerbates the isolation and reinforces the depression.

“It feeds on itself, in a way,” he said.

Wallin added that although some categorize depression as a medical condition in order to alleviate the stigma, this classification can prove detrimental, as it implies there is something defective on a biological level and innately broken or wrong “from your cells on up.”

“We need to accept that feeling depressed, anxious or suicidal — these are natural parts of the human condition and part of what it means to be alive,” Wallin said.

Yet Lopez has difficulty internalizing this affirmation and said at times she feels like a failure and “not smart enough to be here.”

Susan Bell, manager of outreach and consultation for Counseling and Psychological Services, said Cal MHSA programs, such as the peer-to-peer trainings, will educate students on the signs of depression and allow them to share this information with their peers.

“Mental health is nothing to be ashamed of,” Blake said. “Just say, ‘Hey, I have this problem, but I’m dealing with it. I’m getting the help I need so I can be where I want to be.’”

“I’m very happy now.”

The Cal MHSA grant programs will continue until spring 2014, when most of the programs will be implemented.

As for Barakat, it has been more than a year since his last suicide attempt, and he is still recovering. He said that his psychiatrist has reduced his medication and hopes he will be off of it in a year.

“I’m very happy now — not necessarily happy, but I feel like nothing would bring me down,” Barakat said. “Surviving the things I’ve been through made me a lot stronger, and a lot of times I feel like, if all of that didn’t bring me down, nothing will.”

Contact Virgie Hoban and Gladys Rosario at newsdesk@dailycal.org.

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