Students at UNR Want More Help in Terms of Mental Health Services
Em Tomeo interviews students who say they’ve tried but failed to get adequate university help in their times of need.
“We are here for you. From individual counseling sessions to outreach activities, Counseling Services supports the needs of our student community.” The University of Nevada, Reno has this as their mental health services motto.
Not every student agrees they are living up to this, or even close to this.
“I was really struggling with classes and with having motivation to do anything. I was extremely depressed,” says an anonymous freshman who will go by Stephen Smith, currently on medical leave.
Stephen says he experienced depression and isolation in his first few months at UNR. Although he did have a network of friends, he came to Reno with only one more than surface connection — his roommate.
Stephen says he reached out to the University’s counseling services many times, trying to schedule an appointment and detailing how his mental health kept getting closer and closer to crisis. He says he never received a reply.
This is when Stephen’s situation got to the point of voluntary hospitalization earlier this October. He spent four days in inpatient treatment in a local hospital before being released.
Upon return to the University, Stephen says he was greeted by a knock on the door, a meeting with his RA, and an ultimatum; that he must move from his room and be placed with new roommates.
Although Stephen chose to take a medical leave for this semester instead, had he stayed, he would have been forced to leave his dorm and roommate situation, the one strong support system that he had in Reno, and be placed with new roommates.
Above the web entry point for UNR’s Counseling Services.
The University says it is trying to make students aware of mental health services and making them more comfortable in accessing and using them. The drop-in counseling Outreach Center underneath the Great Basin dorms that just opened this year advertises the mental health services offered at the University in many ways. Their goal is to make sure that students never go through a mental health crisis without knowing what services they have access to.
“We are trying to help students who are not current clients seek support,” says Carla Franich, the program director for outreach and community relations at the University’s counseling services. “Whether that is through stress relief, workshops, or drop in consultations. This is our way of helping to destigmatize mental health support.”
The goal of the Outreach Center is to let students know about services offered, and to help students become comfortable with using them.
The mission statement of the Counseling Services as a whole reads: “Counseling Services provides personalized culturally-responsive mental health services, training, and outreach to the University community. By doing so, we promote an inclusive learning environment supportive of mental health, diversity and social justice, as well as student personal growth and academic success”.
Several students interviewed for this report feel the Counseling Services goals are not being met.
“I don’t think it’s actually doing anything. It’s not drawing people in,” says Prashansa Capur, a sophomore. She has personally not attempted to access the mental health services, and does not see the efforts of coloring workshops and friendly faces outside of Great Basin Hall doing much to entice her or other students into looking into support from the University.
“I didn’t really even know it was a thing,” said another student, Jax Hendrickson, a freshman computer science major. “If my friends hadn’t been complaining about the services I wouldn’t have known they were there,” he said.
The phase of stigmatizing mental health is decreasing in today’s generation. Ben, an education and history major who wanted to only use his first name, says it’s a slow ending though. “As a guy, everyone is supposed to be strong and do their own thing,” he said. “I have friends who’ve said they’re depressed, but they just do it on their own. There’s help offered but they don’t take it.”
When asked about the Outreach Center’s impact on him and his friends, Ben didn’t think it was a significant one. “I see them out there with their coloring sheets, and that’s great,” he said. “But it’s like, what’s drawing doing for mental health. It doesn’t help as much as I think that it should.”
Once students are aware of mental health and counseling services, the next hurdle is accessing them. The process for getting a consultation with a mental health expert or therapist at the University is a difficult one, to say the least. In order to be diagnosed or join a group therapy option, students need an initial consultation with a therapist. Getting that initial consultation is the hardest part. Demand is high and supply of counselors is low. Appointments are only available on a same-day basis. The scheduling opens at 6:30 A.M. every morning, and appointments are known to fill up within the first five to ten minutes.
“I’ve been trying to get therapy for weeks,” Aidan Gray, a freshman at UNR complained. “I know I want therapy. And I have the initiative to try to get it, which also means I can function without it,” Gray said. “The people who really need (therapy) and can’t function without it aren’t going to be getting up that early in the morning to try to get an appointment.”
Another student who chose to remain anonymous, passed on through a friend that he was able to get a counseling appointment to address his crisis situation. Instead of working through the mental health concerns with him, he says the University chose to involuntarily hospitalize this student. Our reporting could not independently confirm this, as these cases are confidential.
Many students interviewed for this report shared a strong feeling much more should be done to help and reach out to students struggling.
“The University of Nevada, Reno is not there for us,” Stephen concluded. “They’re just there to tell us they are.”
