With one in four adults in the United States experiencing mental illness and 75 percent of mental health conditions beginning by the age of 24, the University Counseling Center (UCC), located on the second floor of Old O’Connor Hall, is one of the most important services Binghamton University offers. Providing vital life-changing resources, the UCC offers services such as individual counseling and group therapy, which I wholeheartedly encourage students to explore. Yet for all the great work that it does, it fails to provide viable long-term care treatment options.
The counseling system currently operates on a biweekly schedule, offering a limited number of individual therapy appointments to each student as part of its brief therapy model. Employed to meet the needs of our large student population, this type of therapy is solution-driven and has proven to be efficient and successful for many. It is a logical approach that can satisfy the needs of a good deal of students, but there is still a desperate need for long-term treatment on campus as well, for those who need more extensive help. Currently, for issues that require long-term therapy, the UCC recommends a community provider for continued treatment.
The UCC has obvious limits and so this is understandable, but nonetheless, it is not reasonable to expect anybody, much less those who suffer from depression, to consistently take an hourlong bus ride off campus through brutal weather to meet with a counselor. This approach may work on other campuses, but in a college town like Binghamton, it is not a viable option. Seeking treatment simply should not be that difficult. We need to eliminate barriers and make treatment readily available, especially when stigma already makes the path to treatment so hard.
Although it has made efforts to improve, the UCC has still failed to solve this problem. Its initiatives included hiring three new counselors this semester in response to criticism of lack of diversity among counselors and adding the after-hour calling service, ProtoCall Services, Inc. In addition, it has added quiet spaces for students to Skype with home providers, which is a nice option for those who want long-term care that the UCC does not offer. However, this is still not a solution, as Skyping is no substitute for personal interaction and many students are not comfortable working with their parents to find a home provider.
Since we do not have the funds to hire University-funded counselors to provide long-term care, the only option is to think outside the box. I suggest allowing a private clinic to operate on campus, so students can receive treatment through their own private insurances. Minimally, certain counselors at UCC should be designated as long-term care counselors, for those who desperately need such counseling.
Overall, the administration has danced around making the necessary improvements, offering a haphazard effort in place of the real reform that the growing student body so desperately needs. Brief therapy is great for working through a specific issue known to the patient beforehand, but for college students, this is often not the case. Since mental illness just begins to present itself at this age, students start therapy to find that they are only beginning to understand their issues by the time their sessions run out.
Those who need the long-term care that the UCC does not offer are the most vulnerable, and failing to offer them the services they need is reckless. It only serves to decrease student performance and raise dropout rates. With plans to expand, BU has a responsibility to make real reforms to the counseling center.
Michael Harel is a senior majoring in political science.