The University of Minnesota has allocated funding for two additional mental health counselors at UMD, a decision designed to provide critical support for students.
“These new positions will increase our capacity to meet the mental health needs of UMD students and contribute to student wellbeing, an important component of student success,” says Vice Chancellor for Student Life Lisa Erwin.
The Need
Counseling director Jean Baribeau-Thoennes explains that UMD’s five therapists and one mental health counselor weren’t meeting the standard ratio of number of students to number of counselors.
That, on top of an increase in demand, means it’s difficult for Baribeau-Thoennes and her team to see people within a week of their requesting an appointment. And in order to make sure that new patients can be seen, UMD’s Health Services had to implement a policy limiting sessions to 12 per academic year. “The concern was that we don’t have any idea what’s going on with the students we don’t see,” says Baribeau-Thoennes.
Not knowing how UMD’s students are faring is especially concerning, as Baribeau-Thoennes sees the severity of what college students present increasing. “There’s a high level of stress and anxiety, and when you’re reacting to chronic stress, the thinking part of your brain isn’t working. This makes it hard to be successful academically.”
The Effort Behind the Increase
UMD Student Association President and former student representative to the University of Minnesota Board of Regents Mike Kenyanya knew about the need for more mental health counselors on his campus and watched with interest as President Kaler and the Board approved additional funding for Boynton Health services on the Twin Cities campus during the 2015-2016 school year.
“We used the Boynton success to argue that the same investment was needed on the other system campuses,” explains Kenyanya. “We did local research, spoke with students, and got data from UMD Health Services to include in the report. We showed the board that UMD was understaffed below best practices.”
Nearly two years after Kenyanya and his colleagues began working towards increased funding, the Board of Regents approved funding for two additional counseling positions at UMD. Vice Chancellor Erwin describes it as a joint effort.
“I am very grateful for the widespread support we received in our request for the new positions - our partners included the UMD Student Association, the University of Minnesota Senate Committee on Student Affairs, and the student representatives to the Board of Regents. Each of these groups worked with us to advocate for the new counseling positions,” says Erwin.
For Kenyanya, the new positions are not the finish line, but rather a water stop in the marathon towards ensuring all Bulldogs receive the mental health support that they need. “This is a huge step but we still have to keep talking about mental health and making sure we're breaking stigmas, providing resources, and being there for each other. People need to know that ‘it's OK to not be OK’. I myself was very ignorant of the mental health problem on campus. I'm glad I was able to learn from this.”
Baribeau-Thoennes hopes to have the new counselors in place by the end of the year.