Free campus well-being programs help college students through loss

(Pictured: Author Bill Burman, left, with his father. Bill's dad passed away unexpectedly while Bill was a college student.)

In the weeks after my father's death, I wandered around in a shocked, blank state. I didn't throw myself into drugs or alcohol or drop out of school, but I could have used someone to talk to very badly. Nobody told me that as a student I had access to an array of free well-being programs that might have helped me.

The entire time I spent wandering around campus carrying my grief quietly inside me, I was passing offices staffed with professionals who were there to offer counseling to bereaved or depressed students or those with other issues.

I eventually healed on my own, but I feel a certain duty to broadcast the existence of these services to students today.