With the demand for mental health care on campus reaching record heights, Ohio University Counseling and Psychological Services increased its staff by more than 50 percent over the summer and added an annex location to meet the growing need.
In years past, the center was “woefully understaffed,” CPS Director Fred Weiner said — an issue that left many students waiting weeks to receive care.
CPS saw a 47.3 percent increase in students seeking counseling from Fall Semester 2014 to Fall Semester 2016, according to a previous Post report. Within the first three weeks of the 2017 Fall Semester, Weiner said the center is likely seeing 30 percent more students seeking services than two years ago.
This year, the center has taken steps to prepare for the influx of patients. Over the summer, CPS filled six new positions: two psychologists, two counselors, a certified medical assistant and the center’s first independently licensed social worker.
“We’re hoping to get them up to speed pretty quickly,” Weiner said. “It’s really an exciting time to be with us. It’s like a whole new chapter in the life of the center.”
During the 2016-17 academic year, 1,310 students sought ongoing individual therapy, 461 students saw psychiatrists regarding medication and about 700 students attended drop-in sessions. Having lost a number of staff members throughout the year, however, the center was ill-equipped to address the need.
“Last year, I would say that if a student was coming over here seeking services, say, midway into the Fall Semester, they might have to wait a few weeks to get a second appointment,” Weiner said. “That was for counseling. Psychiatry? Forget it.”
By the middle of Fall Semester 2016, students seeking to meet with a psychiatrist “might be lucky” to make an appointment for January, Weiner said. But now, with a second full-time psychiatrist on hand, CPS hopes to see more students and cut down on wait times.
CPS, which has been located on the third floor of Hudson Health Center for about 40 years, was recently renovated to address infrastructure problems. The renovations, however, failed to address the needs of a growing staff.
“It was obsolete the minute we walked in, because there were just enough offices for the size staff we had at the time,” Weiner said. “So then, over the past couple of years, we’ve had more staff and more part-time people, and interns, and graduate trainees — and we’ve had no place to put them.”
For now, the center’s psychiatric operation has joined three other staff members in relocating to a satellite office in Lindley Hall. Although CPS hopes to be back under one roof in the near future, the university is still exploring options for a new space.
“My vision is that they will be co-located together, and we’ll have one space,” Jason Pina, vice president for Student Affairs and interim chief diversity officer, said. “And that’s something that the university is aware of from a planning perspective, but there are a lot of folks who have desires for new and renovated spaces across campus.”
Initial appointments and drop-in consultations will still take place in Hudson for the foreseeable future. The center is also experimenting with online self-help services, as well as walk-in hours at the Living Learning Center for students who don’t necessarily require ongoing treatment with CPS.
“My understanding is that they’ve been as busy as they’ve ever been,” Pina said. “So you end up being successful with expanding and folks who are … choosing, maybe in the past, not to come to Hudson, now are coming. So on one hand, it’s making it busier traffic-wise, but on the other hand, we are actually able to help more people when we have more staff to do it.”
