Syracuse University’s Counseling Center has slashed wait times in half this semester and launched a drop-in system that allows students to meet with a clinician without an appointment, the center’s director said.

Cory Wallack, the Counseling Center’s director, said the wait for a first-time appointment has dropped from about six and a half days to less than three days in the first month of the fall 2018 semester.

The decrease in appointment wait time and introduction of a drop-in system come as SU uses money from Invest Syracuse — a $100 million fundraising initiative — to bolster mental health accessibility on campus. The Counseling Center has added nine new staff members, including four staff therapists, and expanded its hours this fall to stay open for an additional two hours on Mondays and Thursdays, until 7 p.m.

The Counseling Center’s drop-in system allows students to see a staff clinician between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays without having to schedule an appointment in advance. Wallack said the center previously only had a crisis drop-in service, but it was sometimes difficult to determine if a student actually needed the crisis service.

Wallack said more than 100 students had used the drop-in system in the first three weeks of the fall 2018 semester.  

“Given that there hadn’t really been a lot of marketing or advertising about that, we read that as a really good sign that people want to take advantage of that resource,” Wallack said.

The drop-in system also allows the Counseling Center to see students in-person during their first appointment. For the past eight years, students seeking treatment through the center did their first appointment on the phone, Wallack said.

“We know that students haven’t really liked the phone assessment system,” Wallack said. “With these extra staff, we’ve been able to eliminate that.”

SU’s investments in the center are expected to continue into the future, Wallack said. In 2019, the Counseling Center will move into the renovated Archbold Gymnasium health and wellness complex. Wallack said health and wellness directors on campus have been meeting weekly to discuss the building’s construction and service changes once all health and wellness offices are located in the same building.

The Barnes Center at The Arch, which SU is building on the former site of Archbold, will house the Counseling Center, the Office of Health Promotion, SU Health Services, Recreation Services and the Office of Student Assistance under the same roof. The renovated gymnasium will also include a fitness center, indoor sports courts, an elevated running track and a multi-floor rock climbing wall.

Wallack said physical activity is closely connected to mental health, and exercise is important for mental wellness in addition to therapy or medication. There are not many universities in the country that are housing all three services in the same place, he added.

SU’s new first-year forum, which all new SU students are required to take in the fall 2018 semester, includes aspects of mental health and wellness in its curriculum. Wallack said the concepts taught in the forum can help students manage stress, which could improve the mental health of the student population overall.

Wallack, who has worked at SU since fall 2003, said he has not seen the university take a heavy look at institutional mental health resources since the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting. Not many universities nationwide commit resources to student wellness, Wallack said.

“On a campus where people can sometimes be critical and feel like the institution is not being forward-thinking, I feel like (mental health) is an area where the university is being very forward thinking,” Wallack said.

Published on October 14, 2018 at 10:02 pm

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