{"id":11431,"date":"2019-11-22T20:56:52","date_gmt":"2019-11-23T04:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=11431"},"modified":"2019-11-22T20:56:52","modified_gmt":"2019-11-23T04:56:52","slug":"after-news-of-low-enrollment-the-student-health-and-counseling-center-struggles-to-meet-the-growing-needs-of-students-sparking-conversation-about-stigma-and-human-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/after-news-of-low-enrollment-the-student-health-and-counseling-center-struggles-to-meet-the-growing-needs-of-students-sparking-conversation-about-stigma-and-human-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"After news of low enrollment, the Student Health and Counseling Center struggles to meet the growing needs of students, sparking conversation about stigma and human connection."},"content":{"rendered":"

Sage Kiernan-Sherrow<\/strong> | News Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the 2018 Marion-Polk Community Health Profile, depression ranks as the most common chronic condition experienced in our community, and approximately 1 in 10 adolescents reported having attempted suicide in the last year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At Western, appointments to the Student Health and Counseling Center are booked until finals week. Director of the Student Health and Counseling Center, Beth Scroggins, said, \u201cwe are aware that it is an issue, we are aware that there are students who are just now getting an intake done and it\u2019s going to be January before they will get to be seen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In Monmouth, students have few options for mental health services and their coverage depends entirely on insurance. Their student fees cover the cost of mental health services on campus, but therein lies the problem: \u201cEverything that runs (the Student Health and Counseling Center) is only provided through student fees \u2026 funding keeps going down because of lowered enrollment, but demand for services goes up,\u201d reported Scroggins.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Scroggins divulged that she is \u201cglad we have this problem and not the other problem \u2014 that students won\u2019t come in.\u201d She revealed that this year in particular, she has seen a rise in students accessing services and thinks that some of \u201cthe stigma has diminished.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are looking at how we can accommodate more and what that is going to look like,\u201d she said, but as of now they\u2019re still in the planning stages.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite that, Scroggins assured that the Student Health and Counseling Center will \u201calways have crisis services available,\u201d and emphasized the various new support groups on campus that have been created from student need and initiative. She also expressed admiration for the amount of \u201cfaculty, staff, students, and community members (who) do a great job of referring students to us,\u201d and wanted to stress the importance of community involvement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Of the optional survey that students can complete after their visit to the counseling center, Scroggins asserted that she always reads \u201cevery single one of those,\u201d and that they\u2019ve \u201calready made some changes to student services based on those, so (she) takes student feedback very seriously.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And while she believes that stigma has reduced, \u201cpeople are a lot more comfortable talking about depression, anxiety, self-care \u2026 when we start talking about PTSD, trauma, sexual assault, abuse, psychosis \u2026 people don\u2019t know how to respond to that because lack of information or knowledge,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople worry so much about saying the wrong thing \u2026 that they say nothing. Say something,\u201d Scroggins urged.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a community, we need to be \u201ccomfortable with hearing things that are uncomfortable,\u201d and remember that, \u201cpeople don\u2019t have to be experts to be a support system,\u201d Scroggins said. She followed up with that, sometimes, all it takes is noticing the differences in a person\u2019s behavior or listening to someone and directing them towards help to make a difference.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Regarding the student suicide that was reported in an email sent out on Nov. 6 by Western\u2019s vice president of Student Affairs, Gary <\/span>Dukes, Scroggins stated, \u201cwhen there is a student death, it does affect everybody \u2026 I think that mental health is an issue for everybody; even if they aren\u2019t directly experiencing it themselves, someone they know is.\u201d Scroggins reminded all students to \u201cgive themselves grace,\u201d count their support systems, engage in self-care and set healthy boundaries.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThings will be okay, and even when they\u2019re not, they will be,\u201d Scroggins concluded.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Health and Counseling Center\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

(503) 838-8396<\/em><\/p>\n

Psychiatric Crisis Center<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

1 (888) 232-7192<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sage Kiernan-Sherrow | News Editor According to the 2018 Marion-Polk Community Health Profile, depression ranks as the most common chronic condition experienced in our community, and approximately 1 in 10 adolescents reported having attempted suicide in the last year.\u00a0 At Western, appointments to the Student Health and Counseling Center are booked until finals week. Director […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":10024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":"The Western Howl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}