SYLVANA CUBILLOS
Special to The Leader
As college students, there are many factors that can negatively impact our mental health; from our academic duties, social pressure, and for some, being away from home.
To help those students, Fredonia has the Counseling Center as a necessary resource to give to its students.
Located in LoGrasso Hall, the Counseling Center provides free and confidential clinical mental health services to all registered SUNY Fredonia Students.
However, the availability of the services is one of the main concerns regarding mental health resources on campus
“They never got back to me,” said Abigail Jacobson, sophomore journalism major, about requesting or (trying to request) a counseling session with the center.
We spoke to a representative from the Counseling Center to learn about the traditional time frame a student has to wait until they receive a response to their request.
“Currently, our average wait time for a first appointment is three days,” said Jeffrey Janicki, clinical director of the Counseling Center, “We [also] offer crisis services where students can call or stop by at any time if needed.”
Individual counseling sessions aren’t the only services provided by the center.
Ivory Brooks, one of the counselors who works at the center, is the coordinator of the “Let’s Talk” program, which takes place on the second floor of the Williams Center. Informal conversational sessions are offered to students every Wednesday.
These informal sessions are just another way to make mental health services more accessible to Fredonia students.
“My goal is to make sure that we are there when you need us,” Brooks said.
Staff members play an important part in the availability of the services. The center currently has eight staff members.
“We are very lucky to be extremely well staffed,” said Janicki, in comparison to other SUNY campuses. “Based on the student population we are very well staffed [compared to] some of our peer institutions.”
SUNY Geneseo is one of the campuses closest to Fredonia in student population with 3,994 undergraduate students as of the 2022 Fall semester, compared to 3,217 in the Fall at Fredonia. Geneseo’s center has 10 staff members in their counseling center and most of the services they offer such as the Let’s Talk program are comparable to the ones Fredonia offers.
In terms of other campuses and what differentiates us from them in mental health services, Janicki said, “Some campuses may have more [resources] in terms of wellness and prevention. whereas in Fredonia, a lot of our resources go to students that are [already] struggling and that takes the majority of our staff.”
One of the biggest criticisms of Fredonia’s Counseling Center is that they don’t offer night or weekend hours. In response to that concern Janicki said, “One of the things we recently did is that we partnered with a company called BetterMynd, they provide students with access to additional counseling support with more extended hours than the ones the Counseling Center offers.”
As of April, this academic year, 550 students have utilized the counseling services — that’s around 12% of the student population. Although the 12% is very consistent, the number varies based on enrollment.
Before the pandemic, the number was around 15% of students, during, it went down to 10%, and since then it has remained at 12%.
October in the fall semester, and April during the spring, tend to be the busiest months for the Counseling Center.
“During the fall there is a chance that people are adjusting to college,” Brooks said, “They book us out usually around October, when homesickness kicks in, and the excitement of college [winds out].”
Most of the funding that the Counseling Center currently has is provided through grants.
“We got [special] covid funding which allowed us to do more things,” said Brooks, “But the question is once that money runs out how we continue to do programing with much limited resources.”
Right now, the center’s budget is determined by student fees, included in the Student Services and Programs charge.
“[A lot] of the funding for counseling services is fee-based,” Janicki said. “It’s part of the student health services fee so enrollment has an impact on how much money we have to devote to mental health.”
Both Brooks and Janicki were consistent in saying that there’s always more that can be done for mental health and to get the word out about a student’s mental health.
The SUNY Upstate Medical University hospital is one of the services that students working with counseling services can benefit from, all free of charge.
This SUNY-funded hospital provides psychiatric services for students that may need further treatment.
Fredonia is one of the campuses enrolled that benefit from the Upstate Medical University hospital, where students have access to psychiatric care, medical treatments or medication intervention if needed.
And while there are increasing resources to remove the barriers to mental health access, availability is not the only important factor to consider in the conversation.
The stigma there is surrounding mental health is also a big part of this discussion. It is understandable that there may be students who for various reasons do not feel comfortable reaching out for the services.
“A lot of it is about readiness, about students being ready to receive and being willing to ask for and receive help,” Janicki said.
However, that shouldn’t be a limitation, for those students that don’t feel comfortable using the services on campus, the Counseling Center on campus is not the only mental health tool there is in the community. Although it is perhaps the more accessible, for members of the campus community who would rather use a different service or are seeking additional support, here are some you can consider: Chautauqua County Department of mental hygiene, located in Dunkirk, UPMC Hospital in Jamestown, and the Dunkirk Resource Center, all offer counseling and psychiatric services easily accessible for anyone who may need it.Being a college student can get hard and overwhelming at times. As a result, it is important to use the resources around you and never hesitate in reaching out for help if needed.