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Get Your Priorities in Order!

This year, in order to alleviate the waiting period for an appointment at the Office of Behavioral Health Services (OBHS) that plagues some students and annoys others, the Administration opted to cut the number of appointments offered. The decision was made after consideration of a variety of factors, including that the vast number of students who frequent the office tend to request just a few sessions. For the foreseeable future, the OBHS clinical staff may opt to provide longer-term care for some students or will attempt to outsource such cases to “nearby” universities like Yale and the University of Massachusetts.

What the administration failed to consider was the possibility that students needing more immediate assistance may have been discouraged or daunted by the possibility of the interim weeks between their initial contact with the office and their next appointment. What of those who needed further assistance, or in a better scenario, wanted to use all ten sessions but found the situation frustrating and stressful? Yet, rather than hiring another therapist, something that students and staff members alike have requested, services have been cut.

If the situation weren’t bad enough, this year, those students on financial aid who do not have their own healthcare insurance will have to pay for Wesleyan’s plan. Prior to this semester, the service was free for those students in need. The assumption clearly is that these other institutions will accept Wesleyan’s insurance, but if a clear, professional agreement has been arranged, it has yet to be elucidated to the Wesleyan community. For wealthier students, this may be an irritating, but manageable problem. Yet, for those students from low-income families supposedly so cherished, it might well eliminate their access to healthcare.

Admittedly, the OBHS is overburdened, and often ill equipped to provide the kind of care necessary for some cases. In these instances, outsourcing may be a legitimate, even a beneficial possibility. But, even for these situations, the “new and improved” plan for Behavioral Health fails to outline a key caveat: how are students expected to get to these off-campus venues? While administrators may plead financial restrictions barring the addition of a new staff member – the money has to come from somewhere so accounting has had to tighten its belt – somehow they found the money for plasma screen televisions in the new Fauver dorms. The TVs most certainly wouldn’t have paid a new psychologist’s salary, but the money would have been more than sufficient for transportation. Where are our priorities?

Upset about the decimation of New Orleans, the recent death of a student, or Saturday’s car accident? Therapists are standing by – but not for long.

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