One Year Later: Unpacking the Crisis Narrative and Its Impact
December 16 2024 | By Ben Locke Ph.D.
Around 2015, I began having serious doubts about the direction of our mental health discussion and the pattern of characterizing each new piece of information as a crisis. A year ago, I introduced the concept of the Crisis Narrative of Mental Health, a macro socio/cultural narrative that has been quietly evolving and driving much of our shared experience over the last 20 years.
The Crisis Narrative frames mental health challenges as urgent, persistent, overwhelming, and persistently negative – prompting institutions to adopt reactive measures that often prioritize immediate needs over long-term solutions.
While this narrative has highlighted systemic gaps, it also risks conflating everyday human experiences, such as stress or sadness, with clinical conditions, placing unsustainable demands on mental health systems.
In this Blog, I reflect on the limitations of the Crisis Narrative, its impact on higher education, and the need to move beyond a reactive stance toward new understandings along with proactive, scalable solutions. It is time to shift the focus from crisis management to a broader cultural awareness of the human condition that embraces innovative approaches and balances immediate support with long-term, sustainable change at the cultural level.
During a recent webinar with colleagues from the University of Oxford, AUCCCD, CCMH, MWBHE, Advance HE, and other leading institutions the conversation reinforced what the Crisis Narrative has brought into sharp focus—the need for a fundamental shift in how we both understand and address mental health challenges across higher education before this narrative causes lasting damage.
The Limits of Crisis
The framing of a “Student Mental Health Crisis” has compelled institutions to focus in on the concept of “identify and refer” individuals with perceived distress into treatment systems, leading to overwhelmed counselling centres and strained resources. While these efforts have been well-intended, they have inadvertently contributed to a demand/supply imbalance and waiting lists; leaving students feeling unsupported and staff confronting untenable workloads.
One significant consequence of the narrative is the conflation of normative human experiences—such as stress, sadness, worry, anxiety, failure, loss and grief—with clinical conditions requiring professional care. These experiences are an integral part of students’ developmental journeys into adulthood and are common across the human experience. However, in the absence of acceptable and accessible alternatives, students are usually funnelled into specialized clinical services, further burdening systems that are already under-resourced. This outcome, while understandable, is not sustainable.
Beyond this reactive model, we must ask: How do we begin shifting toward a different understanding and a proactive, preventative approach that supports human distress without reactively categorizing it as a mental health problem? Our current reality makes it clear: a crisis management mindset, while essential for acute cases and instances of contagion, cannot serve as the cornerstone of a long-term strategy. We must now address a critical question: how do we move beyond this reactive stance to create systems that are scalable, effective, and enduring?
The Opportunity for Broader Solutions
The dual challenge for many institutions lies in managing immediate demands for care while also developing long-term population-level approaches that address mental health at scale. This challenge, however, represents an opportunity: to reframe mental health not as a specialized problem within a crisis mindset but as an integral part of the student/human experience with support that is readily available without a waiting list.
Such a shift involves several key steps:
- Normalizing distress as a part of life, empowering communities, professors, and students to move towards resilience with supports drawn from traditional sources.
- Embracing scalable solutions that complement traditional one to one services, including peer-to-peer networks, preventative programs, and broader community-driven initiatives that seek to change the narrative.
- Meeting students where they are, with resources that are accessible, inclusive, and adaptable to their needs in a modern age.
Additionally, there is an urgent need to increase investments in community-based mental health strategies that empower students to help themselves and each other. By leveraging peer-to peer-support and cultivating a culture of shared well-being, institutions can begin to move away from the crisis model and embrace a more resilient, preventive framework.
A Practical Path Forward
At Togetherall, we’ve seen the power of these principles in practice. By offering a safe, anonymous, and clinically moderated platform for peer-to-peer support, we’ve provided students with a 24/7, digital-first, moment-of-need accessible alternative that complements one to one services. This model not only alleviates strain on traditional services but also fosters a sense of community and shared understanding. Seeing the support flowing from person to person in real time is truly awe-inspiring.
The success of such approaches lies in their ability to balance scalability with individual care. It’s not about choosing between personalization and breadth but recognizing that both are required, and both must be integrated in intentional and sustainable ways.
This model also creates space for innovation, allowing institutions to reimagine how they support students holistically. Whether through digital platforms or community initiatives, we must continue exploring and scaling solutions that meet students where they are, not just during moments of crisis, but throughout their academic journeys.
Why It Still Matters
Changing socio-cultural narratives takes time and persistence. The Crisis Narrative has been evolving for 30 years, with help from many sources. It has helped shine a light on systemic shortcomings, but its continued dominance as a framework also carries clear risks:
- It can lead to resource allocation that prioritizes short-term, costly fixes over sustainable solutions.
- It reinforces an over-reliance on specialized treatment for issues that might be addressed through less intensive means.
As our awareness of mental health and the Crisis Narrative grows, institutions must adapt—not simply perpetuate the status quo. Failure to evolve risks leaving students and staff trapped in cycles of crisis response, rather than building a healthier, more proactive system through long-term strategies.
We must face the reality that continued reliance on “the crisis” mindset cannot be the sole framework for addressing mental health issues in higher education. To avoid this, a long-term commitment to both proactive and scalable solutions is essential.
What’s next?
The conversation sparked by the Crisis Narrative has brought us to an inflection point. It has clarified the scale of the problem, but clarity alone is insufficient. To truly move forward, we must act. This means:
- Growing awareness at all levels of society will spur new ways of thinking and responding.
- Implementing long-term, strategic approaches that balance individual care with scalable preventative strategies.
- Embedding community-driven solutions within institutional frameworks.
- Fostering partnerships between organizations, clinicians, and the broader student population.
Progress will require time, collaboration, and a willingness to innovate and act outside the box. By critically examining the assumptions behind the Crisis Narrative, changing our thinking about mental health, and embracing evidence-based solutions, we can reshape the landscape of mental health in higher education. Together, we can build systems that are proactive, inclusive, and capable of supporting diverse needs—both now and for the future.
Final Note: Toward Practical Solutions
In an upcoming blog post, I’ll explore practical solutions for embedding resilience and sustainability into institutional mental health strategies. We will examine actionable steps that institutions can take to transform their mental health systems, emphasizing scalable approaches that meet both individual and collective needs.
In the meantime, to learn more about how Togetherall provides students with a safe space to connect and share about their mental health, click here to book a demo and get an overview of our service.
