BUTTE — A game of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a good way to relieve stress on the campus of Montana Tech, but more and more students are finding it necessary to seek professional counseling to deal with the many stressors of college life.
“I think that our students, I know our students need it. The volume of students I’ve seen in the last two years has been pretty phenomenal and it’s continued to climb,” said Montana Tech Mental Health Counselor Tara Kloker.
Montana Tech partnered with Mantra Health to provide telemental health counselors that students can speak with face-to-face over their computers or other devices. There are QR codes around campus that can help students access the system and set up an appointment.
“The real thing that we’re focusing on is trying to allow our students to be seen when they need to be seen and when they can be seen; we never want counseling to be another stressor,” said Kloker.
Kloker is the only mental health counselor on the campus of over 2,200 students and she averages about six students a day for one-on-one counseling.
Students say there are many things that cause stress while going to school including financial worries.
“I work two jobs while going to college, so balancing that is a really big thing and organizing your time and just having some way to get that stress out,” said Montana Tech student John Freze.
Like Freze, freshman Hadassah Wilson has not used the mental health counseling, but she says she’s glad it’s there because college is very stressful.
“I’m on the track team, so it’s difficult to find the balance between both homework, going to classes, practices, and also working. So it’s kind of difficult to make time for everything, so that does cause a lot of stress,” said Wilson.
Kloker said many of the students she counsels deal with everything from anxiety about tests up through suicidal thoughts. Young people seem eager to seek counseling.
“Our students are much more open to it and they also are kind of expecting to have that access,” she said.
