With today’s article we return to talk about the Walk-In and Single Session Therapy services and we do it, sharing almost in real time a news related to the birth of a new quick access and no-appointment service at the University of Ohio , aimed at students in crisis who request psychological support .
The news reported in the online magazine The Newpolitical on 6 December 2019 by journalist Emily Crebs speaks of the current situation of unease detected among the young population of students of the University and what response the latter has decided to provide.
Let’s see what the data reported by the University is!
According to Paul Castelino, director of psychological counseling services at the Hudson Health Center , during 2019 , 31% more of Ohio University students resorted already in the first ten weeks of the academic year to drop-in counseling at the Hudson Health Center .
Drop-In Counseling is a quick counseling service (even for just thirty minutes) that provides academic support and psychological support.
What are the reasons for this phenomenon?
According to Castelino, the factors that have determined the increase in the request for help from students are many and concern both the greater knowledge of issues related to mental health which pushes towards the request for treatment, and the increasingly consistent arrival of students with anxiety and depression disorders diagnosed or resulting from stress factors such as the transition to adulthood, away from home and from one’s social dimension.
How did the University decide to respond to these needs?
To offer more adequate responses to students’ requests, Ohio ‘s Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS) has decided to make changes to the provision of its services and to the organization of staff . Compared to the latter, for example, it has increased the units of professionals involved in counseling, thus extending the possibility of accessing the service to a greater number of students and in order to reduce waiting lists, it has reduced the frequency of therapy sessions .
According to Castelino, in fact, the traditional way of doing weekly therapy is slowly being lost both at Ohio University and nationally. Seeing people on a weekly basis would soon cause the reception of young students to come to a halt. However, if a student shows up in serious need of assistance or has suicidal thoughts, they are given priority and the option to be seen multiple times during the week if needed.
What are the psychological services offered?
The first step to receiving psychological services is drop-in counseling that students access without having scheduled an appointment . The session begins with the compilation of some documents and the meeting with the consultant takes place immediately after.
What does the intervention session involve?
During the session the counselor asks the student the reason for his request and what is happening in his life. Sometimes some problems that have arisen at that time in the young person’s life are resolved in the session.
The counselor may also suggest that the student be referred to individual, group, or single-session therapy . Finally, young people can also be sent to a coping clinic to learn the skills necessary to manage stress deriving from personal factors or related to college life.
Conclusions
It is now clear that the general trend in the world is to provide mental health services increasingly targeted to the needs of the community . The university environment undoubtedly represents one of the contexts where this adaptation requires greater efforts given the changing needs expressed by young people in training. As we have seen, one of the strategies put in place to best respond to the needs expressed almost always involves the training of specialized personnel in forms of brief therapy associated with the implementation of direct access services aimed at eliminatingwaiting lists .
Angelica Giannetti
Psychologist,
Team Psychotherapist of the Italian Center
for Single Session Therapy
Bibliography
Crebs, E., (2019). Mental Health Services at Ohio University adapting to increase in demand. The Newpolitical from https://thenewpolitical.com/2019/12/06/mental-health-services-at-ohio-university-adapting-to-increase-in-demand/