1. Connecting Students to Mental Health Resources
Juliana Cook
Adrienne Ivey
Meredith Marks
Nhien Tran
1 min intro

2. Interview Participants
Dr. Alejandro Martinez
Senior Associate Director for Consultation and Liaison at CAPS
Stanford Student
Student who has utilized CAPS counseling for her depression
Daniel Jackoway
Live-in counselor at The Bridge Peer Counseling Center
William & Mary Student
Student who has used on campus mental health resources
Dr. Alejandro Martinez - Senior Associate Director for Consultation and Liaison at CAPS - interviewed in his office on second floor of Vaden
Anonymous Stanford Student - Stanford student who was with CAPS for 9 months before switching to an external therapist

3. Students using Mental Health Resources
William & Mary student
student who reached out to school’s counseling center at the recommendation of a friend when she was having breakdowns
Stanford student
Interviewed a Stanford student who suffers from depression and used CAPS over 3 quarters.

4. Students using Mental Health Resources
Problems not “important enough” for therapy
Felt guilty for “taking resources”
Long (3+ week) wait time to schedule appointment
Tedious process to set up appointment
Poorly matched with therapist
Students of minority backgrounds not supported well
“Eventually you have to not be at Vaden anymore”
not urgent/important enough
doesn’t feel like she had a problem, felt like she could handle it
waiting to talk to someone until feel “urgent”, don’t want to take resources away from other students or seem like a burden, don’t think that problem is important enough for therapy
felt guilty, maybe other people need it more, maybe I don’t need it badly
long wait time
Stanford: 3+ weeks wait time to get appointment after initial phone screening
W&M: process was slow, took quite a while (minimum 2-3 week wait for appointment)
scheduled initial appointment, but counseling center was overwhelmed and didn’t call her back; when finally reached out last week of school, she decided to just not go; didn’t actually have an appointment until the next year
inconvenient
lot of dissatisfaction with appointment signup process
not convenient to set up; must have phone call before scheduling appointment
tons of steps to get an appointment; hard to find, navigation unclear, wait time between phone screen and actual appointment
appointments at inconvenient times, during class
not convenient location in relation to class work
match with counselor
needs more diversity (race, gender, background)
Stanford: asked about preferences; asked for female psychologist and got male psychologist. asked to switch a few sessions later and was switched
want counselor experienced with issue dealing with (ex. sexual assault)
feel out of place when not able to connect to similar experiences
minority background
specific issues regarding student’s background `
experience
talking over the phone is awkward :(
referrals/other resources
not long term resources intended for continuous therapy
see therapist for a bit, then referred to other resources (meditation class)
demographics of mental health
some people exhibit behaviors with mental illness, but because they don’t fit a certain mold, or do, they don’t get diagnosed
if you asian, likely to be diagnosed as family issues and not depression
needs
easier, more convenient way to schedule appointments
to more quickly and frequently meet with a counselor
more diverse services
for more awareness on campus and to remove the stigma of mental health
insights
different types of people can have different mental health challenges due to the different types of trauma that people face (ie male vs female, black vs. hispanic, etc.)
sometimes you just need to talk to someone and you don’t care how
depending on the environment you’re from, you may or may not recognize mental illness. Those spaces/demographics need people to spread the word about mental illness so it becomes legitimized for people dealing with the issue.

5. Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)
CAPS is the Counseling and Psychological Services portion of the Vaden Health Center; standard image of therapy provider, clinical setting with appointments scheduled in advance.
spoke with CAPS member Alejandro Martinez:

6. Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)
Lack of resources to meet demand
“Significant increase in willingness to reach out”
“When you need to be seen is when you need to be seen”
Current system structured towards mental illness and crisis
Catch-22 with helping students before issue is urgent
CAPS
noted that one of the main challenges facing CAPS was lack of resources to meet demand
interestingly, it wasn’t that they needed to increase awareness of resources on campus - many people are already willing to reach out for help
recognized that students are not okay with the current process (may have to wait weeks), in a fast-paced 10 week quarter, “when you need to be seen is when you need to be seen” - they are not necessarily always providing that
current system structured for mental illness and crisis
saving appointments for urgent mental health needs
not well suited for students with “life problems”, stress, anxiety, relationship problems. system of phone screen and initial screening appointment is overkill for these students
Interesting catch-22 CAPS faces - so much demand clinically, hard to get out into the campus community because it takes time away from appointments, but if you don’t get out into the community, more people will be coming to CAPS increasing the demand!
brainstormed some solutions
improve efficiency of CAPS internally (not everyone needs 1-3 sessions of evaluation)
Stanford - informal, 20 minute meetings about stress (#1 impact), provide resources
Counselor in Residence - meet students where they are at, in dorms, able to refer to proper resource
noted catch-22: high demand for appts limits availability to reach out into the campus community, but without reaching out, more students will make appts

7. The Bridge The Bridge is a 24/7 peer counseling center
walk in or call at anytime and speak to someone immediately.
located in Rogers House, a homey building close to the center of campus.
counselors waiting for you in cozy waiting room, very colorful and bright

8. The Bridge Peer Counseling
Students serving students
Enthusiasm for helping people
Positive student perceptions
Administration often forgets about The Bridge
CAPS doesn’t refer people to The Bridge
Disorganized system for resource referral
students serving students
talking with a peer about issues that you might both face
enthusiasm
real passion for helping students
positive student perceptions
trustworthy place; friends bringing their friends in need, even walking them over
Stanford students <3 The Bridge!
student staffers wearing t-shirts, stickers, RAs putting up signs on doors
hold a Wellness Week in the community, and visits to freshman dorms to hold workshops
The Bridge
in s containing campus resources send out after tragedy, “half the time The Bridge is left off”
no strong connection between CAPS and The Bridge; hadn’t heard of people being recommended to come to The Bridge from CAPS
Resources
The Bridge is meant as one-time visits; often students would be well served by another on campus resource
don’t know them all off the top of their heads
have a spreadsheet containing ALL THE INFORMATION
awkward to pull out laptop at the end of a session

9. Summary/Insights Easier way to set up appointments
Decrease time between asking for and getting help
Better connections to more diverse staff members
Help students find the right resource for them
we discovered many
Students need easier, more convenient way to set up appointments
simplify the process both online and over the phone to get students helped more quickly, in a way that fits their busy student schedules
Decrease time between asking for and getting help
wait time of three weeks is unacceptable to students, who often are reaching out only at the point when they really need help quickly
Better connections to more diverse staff members
working with a counselor who you feel comfortable with is incredibly important, and students need to have a diverse group of people and be able to choose to work with someone who meets their needs
Help students find the right resource for them
many many different resources on campus
CAPS model doesn’t fit every problem
develop new resources for different kinds of students, and make sure that students have information about them!