Justin Heinze

Stories

College mental health reverses course

As of May 2026: Co-Principal Investigator, Healthy Minds Study

College student depression rates climbed almost every year from 2007 to 2022 — a 15-year stretch that has now reversed. The 2024-2025 Healthy Minds Study, surveying 84,000 students at 135 universities, puts severe depression at 18% (from a 2022 peak of 23%), anxiety at 32% (from 37%), and suicidal ideation at 11% (from 15%).

Updated May 26

Notable Quotes

"These sustained reductions tell me this is not a blip. Whether it's distance from the pandemic, better institutional support, or something else driving the change, I think this is a promising counternarrative to what seems like constant headlines around young people's struggles with mental health."

from College mental health reverses course · Updated May 26

"I still see that as one in eight students reporting suicidal ideation in the last year, so I take all of these with a grain of salt and think about the millions of students still facing challenges we need to address."

from College mental health reverses course · Updated May 26