Students are often caught in red tape when trying to get help on campus for psychological problems.
The Student Health and Wellness Center and Counseling and Consultation both have a lack of mental health providers and are ill-equipped to deal with long-term psychological care, said Michael Johnson, psychologist at Counseling and Consultation.
The health center and Counseling and Consultation are not set up to deal with long-term care because of the lack of mental health providers on staff compared to the number of students on campus.
"We don't have the resources in personnel so we have to make difficult decisions in terms of who to see and for how long," Johnson said. "Arizona is not the greatest at mental health resources, but hopefully that will improve and students can see people in the community."
The health center had 1,048 visits for depression and anxiety in the past year, up slightly from 1,039 the prior year. Counseling and Consultation saw an increase in the number of student visits from 646 in the 2004 spring semester to 691 in the fall semester.
With such a large number of patients, one of the improvements being discussed is increasing staff members who specialize in mental health. There are five mental health providers at student health who are on staff two or three days a week and 25 at Counseling and Consultation.
Health center officials are working for the option to use $500,000 of tuition funds to improve service and have mental health providers there five days a week, said Dr. Stefanie Schroeder, chief of medicine at the health center.
"[The money] would go to beef up the number of providers and have more appointments available to students," Schroeder said.
Reach the reporter at courtney.bonnell@asu.edu.
