I have heard that the counseling here sucks and as far as I am concerned there isn’t any mental health related clubs. As a person who planned on utilizing the counselling services and wanted to join a mental health related club to continue the work I a doing now, this is disappointing. What are you thoughts on the overall environment in regards to mental health JHU.
I saw that you also posted this on reddit, so for anyone else looking, I will copy and paste some answers from Hop students.
“Hi friend! I too have struggled a lot with the big sad. But from my experience as an undergrad on the Homewood campus, JHU actually has a pretty decent counseling center, especially for a more highly ranked school. Many of my friends have had positive experiences with the counseling center (far more people have had positive experiences than negative experiences). There aren’t really any super long wait times for appointments like at some schools (I think they are pretty short if I recall correctly). JHU does have an issue with stress culture, and it is very easy to really compete with your classmates/to feel inadequate in comparing yourself to those around you, but I think that is something that comes with the territory of being a research university that’s decently ranked. But in terms of stuff beyond the counseling center, you also have A Place to Talk which is a student org/club that is, well, a place to talk. Also they give you Calm Premium and like some other apps. Overall, I would say JHU doesn’t have services that are markedly worse than other peer institutions, and from people from other unis who I have spoken to, JHU’s services seem pretty decent.”
“As a graduate student who’s attended several different universities and used counseling services at all of them, JHU is imho the best of the bunch so far. I don’t know what constitutes “not good” for others, but suspect that in some cases it might have more to do with a lack of familiarity with approach JHU uses (it’s a crisis/triage model, not an ongoing-support one) and its particular costs/benefits. On the positive side, it’s really great at getting you help quickly when you need it. On the negative side, because of this format, JHU’s in-house staff don’t offer long-term (>6 weeks) care: they refer you to a community provider for that. I could see that being an issue for some people, especially if they’ve never received services from an organization like that.”
“I will say that the official counseling services are VERY hit or miss and very miss for trans students. JHU will try to help you find outside resources should you need it but idk how effective it is. I went a few times and it was fine but nothing revolutionary.
Mental health at JHU can be wretched though. You really need to know how to craft your own mental health services because JHU is pretty unsupportive once things start to go downhill for you. My roommate had a big stalker issue that JHU did nothing about which tanked her mental health and JHU barely accommodated her. She ended up taking medical leave twice and some professors are still severely unaccommodating.
I enjoyed learning there and met some wonderful friends and overall had a great time but you really need to be able to take care of yourself. I don’t know any places to compare it to, though.”
my note:
Most of my friends who are current students say that the mental health services at Hopkins are quite good, and one of my friends loves the counseling here. Also, APTT (a place to talk) is an amazing club related to mental health that is well loved in the university community. Additionally, mental health resources are an issue that SGA (student government) is consistently trying to improve.