The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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Monday, April 18, 2016 — 7A
“When you’re away from home — and taking exams
— it’s a huge transition,” Rondenelli said. “Plus, it’s
such an opportunity to just isolate yourself and just let
things get out of control.”
A balancing act
The services the University provides for students
struggling with mental health issues span several
arenas.
CAPS, the main University resource for mental
health, spans three prongs: clinical, outreach and
training. Within clinical aspects of CAPS, resources are
divided between providing ongoing services and the
demands of new requests and crisis appointments.
According to CAPS director Todd Sevig, the
distribution of counselors currently heavily prioritizes
short-term care. Sevig said one of the largest challenges
for CAPS is how their counselors — to whom the largest
portion of the program’s funding goes toward paying —
are distributed within CAPS.
Reichel said he sought help from CAPS near the
end of September of his freshman year and found the
experience to be beneficial in helping him adjust to
campus and learn to deal with his depression.
“It was definitely very, very helpful,” Reichel said.
“Normally they don’t do (long-term) therapy there that
much. Normally they just figure out what’s going on and
help you find somewhere out in the community to send
you to. They kept me around.”
Reichel noted, however, that there are some issues
with the current system that he believes could be
resolved through increasing resources and funding to
the center.
“In regard to CAPS, they have really great stuff and
they have really great people and they’re doing a lot
of good things to help out — there just isn’t enough,”
Reichel said.
For many, that sense of not having enough is frequent
with CAPS — especially with long-term care like the
kind Reichel received, for which funding is noticeably
limited.
Since 2011, CAPS’ budget has increased by more
than 30 percent. In 2016, CAPS received $3.0 million in
funding from the University’s General Fund — the vast
majority of which goes to counselor salaries, according
to Sevig. Other funding for projects come from
donations: The Gatof Foundation funded the creation of
CAPS’ After Hours hotline and the CAPS Stress Busters
app, and funding from the Logan Family Foundation
created a QPR (Question Persuade and Refer) training
video for new faculty and students aiming to prevent
suicide.
But this increase in funding has been accompanied
by significant increases in demand. Last year CAPS had
more than 25,000 appointments — about 1,300 of which
were crisis appointments. The numbers break down to
4,197 individual patients seen for clinical services in the
last year alone.
Every year for the past five years, CAPS has
experienced an average increase in appointments of
7 to 9 percent. This year, the average increase for the
Fall semester in comparison to that of last year was
20 to 25 percent. During one of the first few weeks of
the semester, CAPS experienced a 43 percent increase
in new appointments. CAPS staff, in contrast, has not
increased at nearly that pace, according to Christine
Adiado, CAPS’ associate director of community
engagement and outreach.
“There is a 43 percent increase from 2010 to now —
our staff has not increased 43 percent,” Adiado said
Sevig said the increases have prompted CAPS
personnel to start looking for new answers in how they
do things, a conversation he added that the program
can’t have on its own.
“What we’re all trying to figure out is sort of new
answers to new questions: What if next year we have
a 40 percent increase? And then the year after that?
What is the best way to meet that level of student needs
on mental health?” Sevig said. “That’s where we can’t
figure this out on our own, we need to answer those
questions together with students — including faculty,
staff and administration. We can adapt, we can add,
but if that level of increases continues then we have to
rethink some new ways.”
For CAPS, the patient increases are a double-edged
sword: While on one hand the counseling center is
happy to see new clients and more students on campus
seeking help, the increase in demand leads to resources
stretched thin. CAPS staff said they largely credit the
recent increase in students seeking help in the past five
years to an increased de-stigmatization of seeking help
for mental health issues.
“I don’t know if anyone’s figured out the answer (to
the increase in demand) but what people are seeing and
what we’ve experienced both anecdotally and looking
at our data, there are a few multiple reasons,” Sevig
said. “The first is stigma has decreased over this time
period.”
Sevig pointed to several University outreach
mechanisms as potential reasons for that decrease,
such as the “Do Something” campaign, which promotes
a positive campus environment. He estimated that
at least 15,000 students are influenced by outreach
initiatives such as those annually.
“When we wake up in the morning we are devoted to
the people who walk in our doors — our clinical work,”
Sevig said. “But when we wake up we are also trying to
think of literally every student and also the culture of
this place, the campus climate around mental health.
And that’s where I think both of these things — when
I think of the last five to 10 years this is a big part of the
increase.”
The wait
The limited resources of CAPS is manifested most
readily for students in appointment wait time — it’s
one of the most talked about complaints students have
about CAPS, and one that has seen a renewed push of
attention this semester.
Kinesiology freshman Shanze Noorani, who is not
affiliated with any mental health advocacy groups on
campus, is currently petitioning to increase funding for
CAPS. To date, the petition, which emphasizes the need
for shorter appointment wait times, has garnered 1,836
signatures.
“I think it’s something everyone does feel really
passionately about,” Noorani said. “It’s one of those
things. I think I actually got a lot of support because it’s
not like a debatable thing; I think it’s pretty much across
the board that everyone feels that this is an important
issue — especially here at Michigan.”
Noorani said when the petition reaches 5,000
signatures she intends to present it to University
administration.
“Currently, wait times to make appointments
here are approximately 3 weeks long, which is not
very beneficial to those that are suffering NOW,”
Noorani’s petition reads. “If funding for CAPS is
increased, more staff members can be hired so more
students can make appointments and work through
their hardships. In order to make our campus a more
conducive environment to preventing tragedies like
this from occurring, mental health services should be
made a priority so that those suffering from depression,
anxiety, and other mental health disorders can get the
help that they need.”
Noorani said in her own experience, CAPS wait
times have been problematic.
“I’ve tried to make appointments there multiple
times and I always end up having to cancel it because
you have to make it three weeks in advance, and, like,
who knows what they’re doing in three weeks? Or if
they’re even going to need it in three weeks?” Noorani
said. “I think the main thing they could improve is
hiring more people that are available to talk to. I’m not
saying CAPS is the worst thing because I know it has
helped so many people, which is great, but there are
also so many more people that it could be helping.”
In response to the petition, Sevig said the three-week
wait periods aren’t true.
“It’s never been three weeks; it’s a myth and a
misunderstanding.”
Business junior Kelly Lewis said her first time making
an appointment at CAPS was difficult. She was told she
would have to wait two weeks to get an appointment,
but when she asked if there were any other options she
was pointed to see the on-call counselor, which she said
worked out fine for her.
Lewis discovered last semester she had a physical
disability causing her eyes to not see at the same time.
Soon, her disability began to have a negative effect on
her mental health as well. Lewis said she lost trust in
her body — everything she thought she perceived, her
mind doubted.
Lewis didn’t not need long-term counseling, but said
even the short period she dealt with CAPS scheduling
was a hassle.
“I really enjoy my counselor, and have a lot of good
experiences with him, but it is frustrating — even
as someone using the resource — trying to set up an
appointment,” Lewis said. “Even though I’m in the
system, and set up to see him, we have a very hard time
scheduling.”
Adiado said she thought perceptions of long wait
time may stem from scheduling issues.
“I think it is more of the student not being able to
make an earlier time so the thing that maybe works
with their schedule is a couple of weeks later, but it’s not
because we have a waitlist or a wait time of two weeks
or three weeks,” Adiado said. “It’s really essentially
eight days.”
The wait period for appointments is updated daily on
the CAPS website.
A focus on North Campus
Reichel, who noted feelings of isolation as a freshman
in Bursley, isn’t alone in his sentiments on the necessity
of increasing services to North Campus as part of
increasing CAPS service.
In recent weeks, multiple organizations across
campus have called for reform to North Campus
options. LSA senior Marlee Beckering and five other
students recently started the Help CAPS Catch Up
Campaign, a group advocating for better mental health
resources on campus. The campaign, which began as
a project for the course Organizational Studies 203,
aims to find ways to better increase CAPS’ resources.
On April 6th, the Campaign launched its survey of
students on what they would like to see done to address
mental health on campus. The survey is still open and
collecting data but thus far the top two responses were
increasing funding overall and increasing resources for
students on North Campus.
Engineering freshman A.J. Ashman president of
Bursley Hall, said he believes the University needs to do
a better job at broadcasting the mental health resources
available. In particular, he said he felt there was a need
for a CAPS clinic on North Campus given that the
majority of students there are freshmen and may be
having trouble adjusting to college.
Though there is no branch of CAPS on North
Campus, there are counselors available for students in
colleges based on North Campus, such as the College
of Engineering and College of Music, Theatre & Dance.
CAPS launched the program of “embedded counselors”
two years ago as part of a restructuring of the system
to reduce wait times, and has since expanded to
professional schools on Central Campus as well,
hiring seven new counselors for the initiative. Each
school on North Campus has one embedded counselor
whom students in need can e-mail for an appointment.
This past year CAPS expanded the initiative into
professional schools such as Law, Business, Rackham
and Dentistry, and are working on a study to see the
benefits of the program — hoping to ultimately expand
it into other colleges.
In recent months, Central Student Government and
LSA Student Government have each proposed several
resolutions to broaden mental health services onto
North Campus. CSG party newMICH, who recently
won the CSG presidential election, ran partially on the
platform of creating a CAPS center on North Campus,
along with hiring 11 new counselors to decrease the
ratio of counselors to students from the current 1:1,300
to 1:1,000.
At a recent LSA Student Government meeting, LSA
sophomore Nicholas Meier, who proposed a resolution
for a campus-wide “Mental Health Day,” highlighted
the importance of increasing mental health resources
in “isolated” areas of campus like North Campus.
“People should not be prevented from having access
to the same resources as other students just because of
where they were randomly assigned to live,” he said.
“We need to get something there now, so they can get
the help they need now. Not in a month or five years,
but now.”
Students who live on North note that it often has a
worse reputation of isolation or lack of community
than the reality. Ashman said Bursley Hall Council
works hard to promote activities to build a sense of
community.
Baits II residents Sabrina Wong and Elan Johnson,
both LSA freshman, echoed Ashman’s sentiments,
saying while logistic issues like buses to Central
Campus are not ideal, there is a sense of community.
That given, Wong said she “didn’t know how isolating
North Campus would be” until she got on campus, and
while there are benefits of the community setting, she
said there are noticeable drawbacks.
“It’s kind of nice to have your own community to
escape to” Wong said. “I think that the social aspect
of it, I think it’s a lot harder. I live in Baits so your own
house is like your own community and there’s like
maybe 200 people that live in a house. It’s really quiet
and unsocial. If I lived in Markley or East Quad or South
Quad, I feel like I’d have a lot more people to talk to and
hang out with.”
Johnson said Baits Residence Hall does a good job of
promoting social activities and creating a community.
“It’s a little bit isolating but if you make the most of
it then it’s not as bad as everybody says,” Johnson said.
“I think if anyone gets on North Campus, while it is
sometimes disappointing, if you make the most of it
then I think it’s not as bad as everyone says it is.”
Reichel said overall, expanding resources would
have helped students like him.
“Being on North Campus, coming down to the
Union can be hard at times, too,” she said “If they had
a satellite clinic or something up on North that would
be cool, too.”
Moving forward
The increase in demand, though it’s prompted student
outcry and concerns, has also been accompanied by
University and student efforts to provide more services
and shift campus culture.
Initiatives such as the embedded counselor program
have already seen progress in reducing wait time. When
the program was implemented two years ago, wait
times were cut 60 percent to an average wait time of
four days, according to CAPS.
One of the main pillars of the Help CAPS Catch Up
Campaign is ensuring funding is at a satisfactory ratio
based on the research of Daniel Eisenberg, an associate
professor in the Department of Health Management
and Policy at the University, who found that college
counseling centers should have $1 million per every
15,000 students. Under the increase in the 2016 budget,
CAPS is now receiving what Eisenberg deems is the
proper amount — prior to this year, though, it was below.
Lewis said another initiative the campaign supports
is one Central Student Government has mentioned
implementing: a mental health liaison for student
organizations. This would be a person who is trained
in the resources on campus, though not necessarily a
counselor themselves.
“I’m in a 300-person organization,” Lewis said. “If
somebody is having a moment where they just need
to figure out who to go and talk to, they can go to this
person and say, ‘Hey, who do I go see? What’s the
wait time like at these different places? What are my
options?’ ”
Beckering was interested in working to improve
mental health resources after dealing with her own
issues and experiencing others’ firsthand — noting
countless instances of the impact of mental health issues
in her sorority. She said she believes the widespread
nature of mental health issues is a result of counselor’s
limited resources.
“Unfortunately, one of my (sorority) sisters
committed suicide as a sophomore. As a 19-year-old
I had to plan her memorial service and support other
19-year-olds who were going through a period of loss,
and that was really, really hard,” Beckering said. “Then
when I was a junior, I intervened in a situation where
someone was trying to commit suicide. There have
been so many other situations throughout my college
career where I’ve seen people who aren’t able to gain
access to what they need — and that’s including myself.”
The group has also found lack of long-term care
in the form of follow ups after CAP appointments is
an area students feel CAPS is less effective in due to
underfunding.
Beckering said several suggestions have been made
to alleviate this, such as having CAPS call patients who
skip their appointments, or check in on them after they
are referred to an alternative private practice to see how
it’s going.
“CAPS doesn’t have the resources to call and check
in and say, ‘Hey, how are things going with the person
we referred you to?’ ” Beckering said. “They’re amazing
people and they have the capacity to make amazing
change in the people that they do help.”
Smith, who utilized CAPS when struggling with
mental health after coming to the University, said she
stopped going after a few sessions. She said she felt her
counselor wasn’t a good fit for her and she started to
have anxiety about it, but a follow up visit might have
helped encourage her to come back.
“Part of me is like, ‘You should probably just try
again,’ ” Smith said. “But it’s also hard because my
schedule is really packed. It’s kind of hard because
CAPS is only open during the day when we have classes,
but I should probably just try again.”
Overall, students interviewed for this article echoed
the same sentiment over and over again — any increase
in campus mental health resources will be a positive.
Across the board, the primary solution presented
by students was increasing the number of counselors,
whether at CAPS’ current location, a new North
Campus clinic, or more embedded counselors.
Sevig said he was interested in hearing student
input on what steps should be taken moving forward to
improve CAPS. Improvement models CAPS is currently
considering, he said, include whether to expand the
embedded counselor program or change the current
model’s focus away from prioritizing crisis work, as well
as more attention to ongoing follow up appointments.
“Yes, we’re all aware of what’s going on right now,”
Sevig said in regard to student concerns. “There’s a
lot of student cries and demands: ‘We love CAPS, we
need more CAPS.’ We’re all hearing it. What we’re all
trying to figure out quickly is what is the best way to
meet student needs, but don’t forget the president, the
provost, the vice president of student life have decided
to add seven new staff members in the last two years.
That’s not a small thing.”
In an interview, E. Royster Harper, vice president
of student life, echoed Sevig’s sentiments, saying the
administration wants to hear students voices on the
subject.
“We are open to hearing what students are saying
and we are open to making changes based on what
students are saying.”
HEALTH
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