 Riley Hellinger is only a freshman, but she's already extending a helping hand. As a healthcare worker, she's stationed at Unit 3 to assist students with a range of circumstances. If you have any questions about how to make an appointment here, like what social services does, that's what health workers are there for as well as just being like an on-the-ground peer counselor for like just like to listen, be a non-judgmental person. According to national data on campus suicide and depression, more teenagers and young adults die from suicide than from all other medical illnesses combined. Nearly half of college students reported feeling hopeless or lonely in the last year. Hellinger is one of 60 healthcare workers who live in the residence halls. Besides like active engaging with peers is like a kind of a passive education component where we make health tips, which we put in all of the bathroom cells, you've probably seen them, but like we have different like themes every week. And on the bottom of that is our number, is our email, is our room number and we also have office hours. As the seemingly perennial midterm season takes shape, the Tang Center wants students to know they're here to help and hopes to remove the stigma on mental health. We often get asked at the Tang Center like, oh, what are people dealing with during midterms or during finals? And what we find is it's really just the same things that they struggle with all year long. It's just very much amplified because of the rigor and because of the stress. Lepine notes that stress, time management, relationship issues and sleep are some of the most common challenges students face. There's been an increased demand for our services in addition to, and that's been a trend both here at Berkeley and just across the nation. This is something that, you know, people are really seeking mental health services. That's the good part. And they're all looking for something in a different way. With 45 counselors for nearly 40,000 students, drop-in services at the Tang Center or at several satellite offices on campus are available. For more urgent matters, long-term counseling and crisis appointments are also an option with no charge to get started. The Center for Collegiate Mental Health found that there was an uptick in rapid-axis counseling by 28 percent with a decrease in routine appointments. Reporting for CalTV News, I'm Thomas Manglonia.