To the Editor: RE: Timothy Lipuma’s “Mental health services are needed at ARC”

As an ARC alumna and current Sacramento State student who co-exists with major depression and PTSD, I want the student body to know that resources are out there to help when you are feeling on the brink of a nervous breakdown or contemplating suicide. When I was an ARC student, I used intellectual stimulation as an unofficial antidepressant. This feeling ran out as I transferred to Sacramento State two years ago. If I had had the benefit of personal counseling on the ARC campus, mental resiliency would have been strengthened along with my academic progress. This is where the college fails its students. Fortunately, Sacramento State has a great counseling services department, which literally saved my life last year.

The stigma of struggling with mental illness has lessened significantly because I am still alive to fight for others who feel completely boxed into their grief and mental distress stemming from issues ranging from childhood sexual abuse to the pressures of a work/family/school balance in life.

It is of the utmost importance that the LRCCD and American River College works on its support resource deficits and start a trend of caring for the emotional and mental well-being of the student body, for as Lipuma stated in his Opinion piece “[O]nly 8 percent of community colleges [have on-site psychiatric services], according to the 2014 American College Counseling Association survey.”

For suicide prevention services, please visit Sacramento State’s Emergency Resources page at https://shcssacstate.org/counseling-services/suicide. Sierra College in Rocklin also has an extensive list of resources for people living in Placer, Nevada, Sacramento, and El Dorado counties at http://www.sierracollege.edu/student-services/campus-services/health-services/mental-health.php.

Most Sincerely,

Jasmine May, ARC alumna and Sacramento State student