A few weeks ago, the Yale Daily News, a Yale University student newspaper which self-identifies as "the oldest college daily," published one of the most important and terrifying op-ed pieces I've read in a long time. Titled, "We Just Can't Have You Here," the article is the personal story of a Yale freshman who, after admitting to her counselor that she was experiencing suicidal thoughts and had cut herself, was forced to "formally withdraw" from the school for the rest of the spring term.

Though this suspension period was meant to give her time to heal and enter therapy, Rachel Williams '16 describes her meeting with a Yale psychological evaluator as anything but generous: when she admits she has cut herself, the man "nods his head and closes his eyes like someone has just given him a bonbon." When Williams asks why it's assumed she will be safer at home, the man replies, "The truth is, we don't necessarily think you'll be safer at home. But we just can't have you here." Williams was quietly forced into a leave of absence from the school until Yale psychologists decide she is happy, peppy and perfect enough to be readmitted to their campus.

Williams was told to leave school a week after her initial suicidal thoughts. She spent that intermediate week in Yale-New Haven Hospital, where she was forced into an emergency room with nothing but a bed and blank walls. While Williams is perhaps not an impartial party, if even a few of the allegations she makes are true, it sends a dark message for the state of mental health care at Yale-New Haven Hospital. 

She claims she was not permitted to read, as the doctors feared she might cut herself with the paper. She was not permitted to walk outside, stretch her body or take headache medicine. She was threatened with being tied down to the bed, and upon finally entering the hospital's psychiatric ward, she was, in her words, "forced to take off my underwear, spread my legs, then hop up and down to make sure nothing was hidden 'up there.'"

Yale-New Haven Hospital is the same hospital where I was born. As a native New Haven-ite, the article struck a particular chord because I'm familiar with all of the locations she discusses. They say the New Haven economy depends on two things, "eds and meds," to employ the majority of the population. Reading about both of those staples abusing the trust of an innocent young woman left me disgusted with my city. Some of these precautions might have been standard hospital procedure, but forcing them on a young woman who had clearly demonstrated compliance and obedience toward the doctors is disturbing. The old defense that the doctors were "just doing their jobs" is, as ever, no excuse for turning off one's mind.

While it is horrifying to hear about the injustices committed against Williams, it is even scarier to learn that her story might not be uncommon. For obvious reasons, schools don't publish the statistics of how many students on average are forced to leave because of their mental health. However, just scrolling through the comments on the Yale Daily News piece shows several commenters sharing stories about themselves, their friends, or family being asked to withdraw due to some sort of mental illness. 

Not only Yale students, but people from all across the country have gathered on this comment thread to admit being afraid of talking to their schools' counseling centers. For many of them, college is the stimulation that keeps them going through their day. Friends, classes and activities help fight deep depression, but if they ever admit this ongoing internal struggle, all of these support systems might be taken away.

Last October, Brandeis received an award for its excellent mental health services from the Jed Foundation, a nonprofit organization that researches mental health issues for teenagers. The first year this award was ever offered was 2013. To qualify, the University completed a self-assessment test, meaning Brandeis was the one hiring and paying the firm which graded the Psychological Counseling Center on how good it was at helping people. One of the other schools honored with the Jed Foundation award was Yale University. 

This is not to say that Brandeis is Yale. I don't have the slightest idea whether Brandeis has a policy of expelling students who experience suicidal thoughts, and I have heard that the psychologists at our center are, in fact, excellent at their jobs. 

While the PCC does have notable administrative problems-there is no 24-hour counseling service, and scheduling an appointment can take a frustrating amount of time-these do not compare to a school whose student body have been forced to publicly decry the actual treatment. Yale actively ignored learning the specifics of Williams' situation, instead choosing to send her out of their hair after placing her through a traumatic hospital experience.
This same college received an award for "comprehensive mental health promotion and suicide prevention programming on campus." The field of University psychological care needs desperately to re-assess its priorities.

The stigmatization of mental health is a societal problem that will not be solved by one woman's article. But at least at colleges, institutions whose purpose is to open minds and encourage acceptance of all people, it is absolutely intolerable to have institutionalized fear of those who need help the most. We cannot just view students as an economic asset, as walking, talking tuition dollars whose benefit can be weighed against its cost. We need to start treating patients the way that "Introduction to Psychology" students are told to: as people.
*