Purpose of review: Provide a critical overview of recent global advances in student mental health from a public health perspective, highlighting key challenges and gaps in the literature.
Recent findings: Mental disorders and suicidality are common among university students globally. However, there is a significant treatment gap even though evidence-based treatments are available. To overcome barriers to treatment, public health interventions should be conceptualized within a developmental paradigm that takes cognizance of the developmental tasks of young adulthood. Traditional one-on-one treatment approaches will not be a cost-effective or sustainable way to close the treatment gap among students. A range of evidence-based interventions is available to promote students' mental health; however, novel approaches are needed to scale up services and adapt intervention delivery to suit student specific contexts. Digital interventions and peer-to-peer interventions could be a cost-effective way to scale-up and expand the range of services.
Keywords: College; Interventions; Mental health; Suicide; Treatment barriers; University students.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.