The Administration is making changes to the Office of Behavioral Health Services (OBHS) this year.

The controversial pilot program they are currently testing was formed in response to a report issued by an external review panel in the spring of 2003 along with an extraordinarily high demand on the time of the clinical staff.

“Around October of last year, the wait period for scheduled appointments grew to a point that concerned us,” said Phillipa Coughlan, director of OBHS. “We have always felt that a 10 day to two-week period was manageable.”

When the wait period grew to be three weeks or longer, Coughlan decided that a new approach was needed. The resulting changes are part of a pilot program that was put together throughout last year by a group including Coughlan, Director of the Davidson Health Center Joyce Walter and Mike Whaley, dean of student services. The group consulted with the WSA Student Life Committee (SLC), which also reviewed the OBHS report.

“We need to assess the impact of each change, and then make further changes as necessary,” said Whaley. “Funding for the office is the same as last year, [but] this pilot program will help us identify the types of new services that should be offered. I hope that our work this year will help us identify needs for the next budget cycle, 2006 to 2007.”

One of the most noticeable, and controversial, changes is a decrease from 10 to 5 standard, free appointments students receive before being referred to an outside counselor.

“There are a number of cases where a longer number of sessions is recommended,” said Dean of the College Maria Cruz-Saco. “If we can refer a student to an outside therapist, we’re going to do it right away now instead of waiting [10 sessions].”

According to Coughlan, her first choice would have been to add more staff members, but she maintains that the office will always provide excellent service for students. The feedback from this trial system will also give the office a much better idea as to the reactions of student body.

“Money is a factor, but it made sense to try lowering the number of sessions, just as long as we have the option of deciding when someone should continue with us or be referred,” Coughlan said. “If students need more than 5 sessions and can’t deal with an outside referral, for whatever reason, they will not be ignored.”

The review panel that released the report in 2003 included therapists from the University of Massachusetts and Oberlin, in addition to the Dean of the College of Barnard. The report criticized the OBHS for its isolation from the rest of the campus, long waits for appointment times, the lack of diversity among its staff and the lack of services for graduate students. The panel also held an open forum where students were able to voice their opinions and concerns regarding their own experiences with the behavioral health care on campus.

“The first therapist I saw wasn’t helpful,” said Sara ’08, who declined to give her last name. “They treated me like a small child. When I switched therapists, it was better, but scheduling [sessions] was harder with the woman I saw…[the office] was really nice about it and flexible with my schedule, but it would be very helpful if there were more [therapists].”

When asked about the possibility of adding extra staff to the office, Cruz-Saco said it was one of the many options the group was considering in its ongoing revisions process.

“This year, in addition to making sure students have access to excellent services, we will be assessing and considering options to expand [the OBHS],” Cruz-Saco said. “We acknowledge that in [this] office for the last 20 years, the staff number has not grown, and the size of the student population has. Before we go that route, though, we wanted to see how we could operate within the university’s [already existent] network with referrals.”

She added that potentially hiring additional part-time staff would give the University the opportunity to introduce more diverse staff members who are also closer to students in age. The current clinicians, four full-time therapists and one part-time, have all been at the University for at least 15 years.

“What we want in an institution is to have your care providers, your professionals, your staff member to parallel or reflect the demographics of the community,” Cruz-Saco said. “In this part of the office, that’s not the case, but that’s one goal we have.”

Another change that has already been made is the integration of the waiting rooms at Davidson Health Center. Previously, the Office of Behavioral Health had its own waiting room separate from the one for the rest of the health center, but now the two have been combined into one waiting room for the entire building. This was done to make students feel more comfortable and provide more confidentiality as to the reason for students’ visits.

“I don’t want students to worry,” Coughlan said. “This is going to be something that we are all going to try. We have our basic commitment to the students, and the university has its basic commitment to the students. We just want to see if there is a way we can fulfill this commitment in slightly different format.”