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CBS LA — Studies show more college students are accessing mental health resources — October 27, 2025
Dr. Daniel Eisenberg, from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, discusses the findings that show college students have improved mental health due to the availability of resources.
Daniel Eisenberg, director of mental health at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, was quoted in an article about the national Healthy Minds Study, which showed improvement in college studnets' mental health for the third year in a row.
In a new book, “Investing in Children’s Mental Health,” Raghavan and co-author UCLA health economist Daniel Eisenberg, make the case for a boost in government funding and new policies that support “social vaccines,” which address the health of children’s social ecology and everyday environments.
If you’re a journalist covering higher education in the U.S., you’ll likely be reporting this fall on what many healthcare professionals and researchers are calling a college student mental health crisis. Sara Abelson, a research assistant professor at Temple University’s medical school; Sarah Lipson, an associate professor at the Boston University School of Public Health; and Daniel Eisenberg, a professor of health policy and management at the University of California, Los Angeles’ School of Public Health, have been studying college student mental health for years.
Daniel Eisenberg, a health policy and management professor, said the pandemic contributed to a significant, but not massive, increase in mental illness diagnoses. "We see about twice as many students that are reporting symptoms of depression or anxiety, but there's also a positive trend to that," Eisenberg said. "Students are reporting that they're using mental health services, which typically includes therapy or medication, so that there is an expansion of access to health care.
Most epidemiological models have been restricted to infectious diseases, forecasting the spread of illnesses like malaria and COVID. But some researchers believe that it’s time to apply these tools to mental health services too. These scientists aim to create models to predict where issues like severe depression and suicide are most likely to crop up—and which interventions are most effective. By doing this, they hope to correct some of the mental health funding disparity.