A second University of Arizona counseling center that opened this fall has cut appointment wait times for students in half — from four weeks to two — but the UA still lags behind the national average by one week.
Counseling and Psych Services opened CAPS North in August with nine additional counselors at the University of Arizona Recreation and Wellness Center, bolstering the full-time equivalent of 18 counselors serving the main campus CAPS center. Two more counselors will be added by July 2020.
The additional center was badly needed, said Joel Gaffney, a psychologist at CAPS North.
“Developmentally, this time of life is really kind of complicated in terms of young adults launching into their identities … away from home with less support, whether financial, emotional or physical,” Gaffney said.
According to a 2017 UA report, mental health hospitalizations of UA students increased by 63% since 2011-12. CAPS has also seen a 30% increase in the number of students it served in the past five years, from nearly 2,800 students in 2012-13 to 3,600 in 2016-17.
Mental health problems are especially high among university students because of homesickness, adjustment to a new environment, new relationships and academic pressures, said CAPS North Director Glenn Matchett-Morris.
He said the most common complaint from students in the past was that the university counselors “couldn’t see people soon enough.”
“Historically, by mid-October, (appointment) openings were three to four weeks out,” Matchett-Morris said.
Last year, Rachel DeHart, a sophomore studying physiology and psychology, waited four weeks to get an appointment at CAPS Main.
“It would have helped to get in a little bit sooner,” DeHart said. “Having to wait didn’t really help to solve any of the issues I wanted to go there for.”
Caitlin Moffett, a graduate student in biomedical engineering at the UA, also recognized the need for a second facility. Like DeHart, Moffett said her “friends have had trouble scheduling appointments” at CAPS Main in previous years.
Counselor Gaffney said students often were referred to other professionals in the area because the main campus location could not meet the demand.
“Just by the numbers, we were so slammed,” Gaffney said. “When we get to the capacity where we’re just referring out because we don’t have room, that doesn’t feel good to me.”
The International Association of Counseling Services recommends one counselor for every 1,500 students. Last year, with a full-time equivalent of 18 counselors, the UA lagged at one counselor for every 2,500 students. With an additional 11 therapists by July 2020, the ratio will stand at one per 1,500.
In comparison, Arizona State University has four ASU Counseling Services locations and employs nearly 50 professionals.
About 75,000 students are enrolled at ASU’s four campus locations, equating to nearly one counselor for every 1,500 students.
Erin Trujillo, director of ASU Counseling Services, said the “ratio tells you nothing meaningful about a center. What’s more important is the design and how it matches the mission of the university.” Trujillo would not provide ASU’s appointment wait times.
The additional center and counselors at the UA were funded in part by tuition and student fees.
According to David Salafsky, interim co-executive director of Campus Health Service, former Associated Students of the University of Arizona President Matt Lubisich “championed a mental health platform” during the 2017-18 year. A portion of the 2% tuition increase supplied the money to hire 11 new therapists.
Campus Health Service paid for the new facility with funds from its annual budget, which is supplemented through the student Health & Recreation Fee.
According to Salafsky, the annual fee per student is $425, with about half allocated to Campus Health Service and the other half to the recreation centers.
Triage counselors are available immediately, but students are put on a wait list for individual appointments. Matchett-Morris said the current wait time for an initial appointment at both CAPS locations have decreased from four to two weeks.
Appointment wait times vary widely across the country. Johns Hopkins University counseling centers had a wait time of almost six days, whereas a student might wait three weeks at Northwestern University, according to a 2017 study by STAT, a health and science-focused media company produced by Boston Globe Media.
Counseling centers at schools like UA with more than 45,000 students have average wait times of over a week, according to a 2017 survey of 316 college counseling centers by the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors.
“We are always trying new strategies,” Matchett-Morris said of attempts to decrease wait times at CAPS.
He said CAPS offers different treatment approaches, such as group counseling and self-help resources, in an effort to reduce the need for individual appointments, thereby further shortening wait times.
“Wait times are not usually ideal, and everyone desires to be as quick as possible in meeting demand, but it proves to be an impossibility for almost all centers,” said Barry Schreier, director of counseling services at the University of Iowa and an AUCCCD board member.
Schreier said AUCCCD has not determined a recommended average wait time because college counseling centers vary too widely in terms of campus size and composition.
CAPS professionals will continue to look for ways to reduce appointment wait times, said Matchett-Morris.
“It is an ongoing challenge to find ways to meet the demands,” he said.
