Rethinking University Mental Health for the AI Era: From Crisis Response to Core Mission.

Across the World Mental Health International College Student initiative, 37% to 58% of first-year students worldwide meet 12-month DSM-5 disorder criteria, alongside low treatment use and major academic impairment.

• Why it matters: Universities face rising adolescent and young adult psychiatric needs that campus counseling cannot absorb, while students increasingly use unregulated generative AI without an evidence-based, safe, equitable integration plan.
• What they did: The authors synthesize WMH-ICS epidemiology, national surveys, randomized trials of internet-delivered digital interventions, and implementation studies of digital navigators and task sharing to propose a university-level stepped-care model.
• The result: They outline a 2-step system starting with prematriculation life skills training and a guided first-year cohort, using measurement and precision treatment selection to match students to the least-intensive effective care with AI governance guardrails.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.