Dr. GPT in Campus Counseling: Understanding Higher Education Students' Opinions on LLM-assisted Mental Health Services

Today's young adults, including higher education students, are reporting increasingly high levels of depressive symptoms, stress, and loneliness, surpassing those of older cohorts [1, 4]. Studies link these mental health issues to academic pressures, future career concerns, achievement culture, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a lack of mental health resources [10, 11, 26]. On average, it takes about 7.8 days for college students to get an initial appointment with a mental health professional, but the following sessions could extend to several weeks due to a shortage of mental health services on campuses [20]. This shortage is reflected in the counselor-to-student ratio, which often falls short of the recommended 1:500 standard, with many colleges having only one counselor for every 1,000 to 1,500 students[7]. In addition to the shortage of mental health resources, college students are reluctant to seek traditional treatment for multiple reasons, such as financial cost, time constraints, and concerns about stigma[14],. These findings highlight the urgent need for innovative solutions, such as technology, to address mental health challenges in this demographic. Researchers are considering LLM-powered chatbots [16] for mental health support.