Editor’s note: Lauren was granted anonymity to not have her last name published to protect her image.

College students experience copious amounts of stress within their academics, jobs and personal lives that mental health seems to be put on the back burner while students struggle to manage everything that is put on their plate.

“I was struggling with school, my life and my relationship where I didn’t see any purpose in life anymore,” Junior nursing major Lauren said. “I felt hopeless and wasn’t answering my parents’ phone calls or messages, then they called a wellness check on me and it honestly saved my life.” 

Lauren had “hit rock bottom” in Oct. 2022 and was struggling with her mental health issues by herself without getting any kind of counseling or help. As she started her fall semester, Lauren had been communicating less with her parents that prompted a wellness check to be done on her. 

Wellness checks are done when a person is concerned for the wellbeing of another that is going through distress during a difficult time.  

“A wellness check is not a negative thing,” Kent State Police Sgt. Tricia Knoles said. “It means that somebody has concern for them and cares for them to either check on them.”

Wellness checks are conducted to help benefit an individual in crisis and in need of help even if the individual is not fully aware that they need help or know how to find it.

“The night the wellness check was done on me, I was going through a mental breakdown and had been crying for hours over every stressful thing that was going on in my life,” Lauren said. “While I was in mid-breakdown, I heard the knock on my door and two police officers were there.”

Lauren said the police officers who showed up to do the wellness check on her had given her the chance to explain everything that was going on and had sympathized with her. 

“I felt so alone and so misunderstood with what I was going through, but the police officers who showed up that night had shared their own challenges of what they were going through when they were going through college or their 20s and it made me feel like I wasn’t alone anymore,” she said.

Counseling and Psychological Services is a resource on campus that gives students an on-campus counseling service to help guide and structure students daily life challenges as well as provide a safe environment for students to convey their emotions and concerns.

“When we go to check on a student we either take them to receive resources from CAPS, Coleman Access, etc. or provide them information on resources depending on the situation,” Knoles said. 

Angelia Kellhofer is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].