Mental Health and Drug Use at IMSA

Within our campus, there is an evident problem relating to drug use and to underlying mental health issues among students. It is known that the students at IMSA use drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism for their mental health issues; however, this issue is not discussed on our campus. While many measures have been put into action on campus to prevent drug use, there has been no action to solve the root of the problem, mental health issues. This leads to a continuous problem of drug use within our student body and has a lasting effect on the mental health of our students. This can create a culture of accepted drug use on campus as well as a culture in which mental health issues are normalized. Therefore, it is imperative that if a student on campus were to get caught with drugs they should have their current mental health issues evaluated. The original policy that we wanted to implement focused on mental health within teenagers. Based on this national issue, we wanted to focus on the drug issue and its relation to mental health on our campus. To accomplish this we want to implement a new system in which if a student is caught with drugs or other substances on campus, they will need to be evaluated by the school counselor before disciplinary actions are taken against the student. Through the course of this project, we would like to see when IMSA’s policy of chemical use is violated that mental be considered when considering punishment and course of action.