Treatment Use
About this Indicator
This indicator shows the percentage of students using one or more forms of mental health treatment in the past year, including prescription medication for mental or emotional health and participation in therapy or counseling. Estimates are presented by sex, age group, and Pell Grant recipient status. For estimates by sex, respondents were instructed to report their sex at birth as either female, male, or intersex, though small sample sizes for intersex students did not allow for reliable estimates. This indicator does not account for the respondent’s gender identity (e.g., man, woman, non-binary, transgender).
Estimates of treatment utilization can help inform assessments of service accessibility, help-seeking patterns, and resource demand. Differences in utilization across subpopulations, such as sex, may reflect variation in the prevalence of mental health concerns, preferences for self-reliance, perceived stigma, and other barriers to accessing care.1
Data Source
Healthy Minds Network. Healthy Minds Study – Student Survey.
Note. Percentages are not mutually exclusive because students may have used more than one type of treatment. Institutional participation in the HMS is voluntary, self-selected, and periodic, leading to variation in representation across sectors, states, and time. As a result, estimates derived from the HMS survey reflect conditions at specific participating institutions rather than institutions across the entire Midwest or nation. In 2025, 14,572 public four-year students responded to the survey, representing 10 public four-year institutions across six Midwest states: Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
This indicator was developed as part of a collaboration between MHEC and the Healthy Minds Network.
1Samlan, H., Shetty, A., & McWhirter, E. H. (2021). Gender and racial-ethnic differences in treatment barriers among college students with suicidal ideation. Journal of college student psychotherapy, 35(3), 272-289. Horwitz, A. G., McGuire, T., Busby, D. R., Eisenberg, D., Zheng, K., Pistorello, J., … & King, C. A. (2020). Sociodemographic differences in barriers to mental health care among college students at elevated suicide risk. Journal of affective disorders, 271, 123-130.