Having been through two college orientations now, as well as countless college visits where they’ve tried to sell themselves to my kids, one thing is extremely different than it was 35 years ago when I matriculated: Mental health is a big deal.

Both boys had to do several online training sessions and attend assorted activities where mental health, and the resources available to them, were discussed. I follow both schools “general” and “family” pages on social media, and a variety of mental health activities are always being advertised.

A has four different advisers, and two of them are tasked with checking in with him about his mental health. I don’t know exactly what’s in store for G yet, and perhaps I won’t get the detailed reports from him that A passes on, but I am confident that between his residential adviser, his academic adviser, his college’s “team,” he will have to check in regularly.

Now, I know this isn’t something that schools started doing out of the goodness of their hearts. Sadly, it took a few well-publicized suicides, breakdowns, dropouts and other events to get us to this point. But overall, I think this is a good thing, both in the present, as kids face one of the biggest changes of their lives, so far, and so that going forward, they know that their mental health is just as important as their physical health, and they learn how to care for it.

So, why am I hearing so many denigrating comments, mostly from the parents who are moving their kids in, or griping about all the time that their kids are “wasting” on this stuff? On one occasion, I heard a dad mocking a flyer posted in the hallway. Another time, I heard a family making fun of the advertised event, claiming their child wasn’t a wuss who needed their hand held. I’ve heard many more comments along those lines and seen them in online forums as well.

I liken mental health to glasses or insulin. If your child (or you) needed glasses, you wouldn’t dream of saying to them, “man up, just see better.” If your child (or you) was diagnosed with diabetes, you would never say, “just make your pancreas work harder, you’ll be fine.”

After having been through an extremely traumatic, sudden loss, I also liken it to the loss of a limb. If you lost an arm or a leg, ultimately, you’d hope that a prosthetic could help you return to the same functionality you had prior to the loss. After we lost Steve, I honestly felt like a part of my brain just disappeared. I’ve talked about the “widow’s fog” before. It’s a real thing.

For a lot of these kids, it may be their first time away from home, it may be their first time sharing a room or not sharing a room. It may be the first time they’ve had to be completely responsible for themselves. While most of these things are deemed “good” or “positive” changes, they’re still monumental changes, and it’s not out of the question that they may need a little help navigating their way through them. With big changes, brains don’t always work like they used to.

It may be as simple as dorm socials, or ice-breaking activities, that give their mentors a chance to get to know them, while it also introduces them to their new community. Sometimes it can be friendly inter-dorm athletic events that get kids out of their rooms and moving. It may be more formal, such as wellness check-ins with an adviser.

A’s school offers every single student a dozen free mental health counseling sessions every school year. These schools take mental health seriously, and as parents or guardians, we should take it seriously, too.

Being more empathetic and kinder to those around us, more aware of our own mental state of health, and asking for help, of any kind, should not be seen as weakness. Sometimes asking for help is one of the hardest things a person can do.

Colleges have some of the best resources available, tailored to the stresses that students are most likely to encounter, and most of them are already included in what your student is paying to attend. Having an open mind can lead to having a healthier mind, and isn’t that what we all want for ourselves and our students?

Liz Pinkey’s column appears on Saturdays in the Times News