Mental health awareness is a growing concern on Canadian campuses. More and more students are being encouraged to speak openly about mental health and seek support.
Despite the increase in awareness, some students are reporting that long wait times, a crisis-focused model, and perceived carelessness from staff at Carleton’s Health and Counselling services are exacerbating their stress, not helping it.
Health services on campus treat more than physical illnesses. They also offer a counselling service, a resource centre, and a student peer program, according to their website.
Yet Adam Stone, a masters student studying cognitive science, said he was actively discouraged from seeking a counsellor by health services when trying to resolve symptoms of acute anxiety and depression in March.
“I show up and it took me a while to get assigned to a specific counsellor,” Stone said. “The staff on duty listened to me and told me that they only help people manage academic work related things, and that they couldn’t deal with major issues not related to school.”
Stone said he went back to Health and Counselling services two months later after his condition had worsened and the doctor he spoke to was shocked to hear Stone’s previous experience with health services.
“The doctor said that they are committed to helping people and that I would be set up with a counsellor in a couple of weeks,” Stone said.
A month and a half later, health services contacted Stone and said a counsellor was found for him.
“By that time, my condition had worsened to the point where I had begun seeing a counsellor off campus, and was paying out of pocket with my tuition money for help,” he said.
The main issue with health services, Stone said, is that they are understaffed, and need larger facilities.
“This is an issue that plagues a lot of health services,” he said.
Ellen Cottee, a fourth-year journalism student, reported similar experiences to Stone’s when recounting her visits to health services.
After using the residence health and counselling services in first year, Cottee said she switched to health services for off-campus students in her second year after moving.
“In second year I was having some issues with my depression and anxiety and wanted to see someone,” she said. “They told me it would be a two-week wait, and I understood that they were busy.”
Cottee said when she didn’t hear back about an appointment in two weeks, she returned to health services to check if she had missed any calls. She said the staff on duty told her she had not.
Four weeks later, Cottee said she was contacted by health services and was told they had been trying to contact her for the previous month, and that it was up to her to make an appointment if she needed one.
“I remember just sitting on my bed crying because I was made to feel like it was my fault for not getting in,” she said.
Cottee said access to health services was a big factor in her decision to live on residence again in her third and fourth year, as the in-residence counselling wait times are much shorter.
“I don’t want to blame counselling services for the whole issue, but it really left a bad taste in my mouth and made me think twice about recommending it to other students who were looking for someone to talk to,” Cottee said.
Maureen Murdock, director of Health and Counselling services, said she was surprised to hear about the students’ experiences.
She said wait times are sometimes long because students can’t make appointments, and are unable to schedule a timely meeting due to their busy schedules.
Scheduling meetings is also not first come, first serve, Murdock said.
“If you’re more urgent than another student and the circumstances are more severe then we will see you faster,” she said.
Murdock also addressed the timeliness of on-residence counselling versus off-campus counselling, and said the ratio of students living in residence compared to counsellors available is a lot smaller, therefore wait times are shorter.
“In the main clinic there are nine counselling staff compared to about 21,000 students,” Murdock said.
Included in those nine are two counsellors who are new hires as of September. Students voted to increase funding to Health and Counselling by $10 per student following the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) referendum last year.
“We went to CUSA for additional funding to get more counsellors because the demand has increased,” Murdock said.
As the year goes by, she said health services will evaluate if they are still understaffed with the two additional counsellors.
“I’m very appreciative for what the students have given and I hope in return they’ll be given the value [for their money],” she said.
