In the past, many students have found it difficult to get into the UT Student Counseling Center. Some students reported having to wait months for their first appointment while others were forced to opt for group sessions just to get in.
The SCC has recognized this issue and has worked to provide a continuous response. According to Nicole Saylor, director of the SCC, these issues seem to be resolved at this point in the semester.
“At this time there are no wait times, and other than a very brief two-week period at the beginning of fall 2023, the counseling center has been able to accommodate, with few exceptions, every student who has called this academic year with a brief assessment within two weeks of their call, or sooner, as appropriate to their level of acuity,” Saylor said.
The SCC has worked to combat wait times and accommodate students’ needs by filling vacancies, adding new positions and changing the structure of appointment scheduling in meaningful and helpful ways.
Filling vacancies
“For ongoing individual therapy, students typically wait an average of just over four days for an intake appointment once they are placed on the therapy appointment list after their brief assessment,” Saylor said.
Saylor noted that wait times fluctuate at various points in the semester, such as the middle of the semester being at highest demand with the pressures brought on by midterms, work and a multitude of life’s stressors. In times like these, a wait time for a therapy intake session may take up to two weeks.
Saylor also explained that extensive group therapy wait times are not always due to a lack of counselor availability but rather an absence of group members.
“Group therapy meetings require having at least three group members, and there may sometimes be a wait for a group to start while it is forming,” Saylor said.
Adding new positions
In the 2023-2024 academic year, the SCC has hired four temporary part-time therapists who provide therapy to an additional 65 to 70 students every week. Additionally, the SCC has two newly developed permanent mental health therapist positions.
“One of those positions is now filled, and we are currently conducting an interview process to fill the second position,” Saylor said. “We are also in the process of hiring two psychologists to fill existing vacancies.”
The SCC has also added two new postdoctoral resident psychologist positions that will start in August of 2024. Including leadership team members, the SCC will have 20 permanent clinical staff members, six full-time psychologist trainees and five part-time graduate student trainees in August of 2024.
Changing appointment structure
Depending on the time of the year, the SCC can look a bit different. The SCC adapts its clinical scheduling to meet the needs of students and to accommodate the academic environment and its unique scheduling demands.
“Just past the halfway point of each semester, the center transitions away from brief assessments and traditional counseling because there is not a sufficient number of weeks remaining in the semester to establish an ongoing therapy relationship,” Saylor said.
Starting the week of March 25, the SCC began offering one-hour Single Session Interventions for students’ initial appointment rather than the traditional half-hour Brief Assessments. This SSI appointment focuses on providing brief, solution-focused counseling support, but one or two additional sessions of brief intervention can be extended if needed.
Beyond one-on-one or group therapy sessions, the SCC offers other resources within its space that may be more accessible at times or preferred by students. One of these resources is a three-part stress management workshop series that discusses ways to engage in healthier stress management techniques, coping skills and time management. The next workshops will be held on April 19, April 26 and May 3 from 2–3 p.m. The SCC hopes to expand these offerings in the future.
“We also offer outreach events. Our staff are frequently present at campus events to raise awareness on mental health related topics or provide information on our services,” Saylor said. “Other outreach events include workshops and trainings to student groups that have submitted a request. In addition, we reach out to offer additional support or resources when we are aware of groups of students who may benefit.”
Outside of university space, the SCC points students in the direction of external, often more long-term, resources. One of these resources is the UT Psychological Clinic. While it is an off-campus resource and open to the entire Knoxville community, a sizable percentage of clients are UT students.
“We refer to a wide range of community resources, and we are fortunate to have two such high-quality resources located within academic departments on campus, UT Psychological Clinic and the Counselor Training Clinic,” Saylor said. “We do frequently refer to both of these resources. We also may refer to specific providers in the community, and we support students to develop the skills and knowledge to effectively navigate accessing mental health resources in the community in their time as students and beyond.”
“I see ourselves as the ‘sister clinic’ to the counseling center,” said Dr. Leticia Flores, director of the UT Psychological Clinic. “We do some similar things, including training graduate students and serving all university students. As such, we try to share resources when possible and may even share referrals if we think one of us can help a student better or more efficiently than the other.”
The UT Psychological Clinic has also experienced extreme wait times, yet unlike the SCC, the clinic sees these wait times as a constant norm.
“We have always experienced extreme wait times, even before COVID,” Flores said. “We also cannot accept all applicants because our graduate therapists are in training, and as such, we cannot take cases where folks are in severe distress, at severe risk of self-harm, engaged in the legal system, etc. So, we always have to refer some folks out into the community. We have a big referral list where we can refer folks for services, but it is up to them to follow up and make appointments.”
Flores acknowledges it is a tough situation for people seeking services. The UT Psychological Clinic consistently works to combat this difficulty, bringing in new graduate student therapists every fall to take on new clients.
If there is not an immediate availability, both the SCC and UT Psychological Clinic encourage students to remain patient and explore mental health resources beyond therapy or external resources. Other campus mental health and recovery resources include Rocky Top Recovery and UTK Sources of Strength.
In a crisis situation, students can call the SCC at 865-974-2196 to contact an after-hours service through an outside contracted company staffed by mental health professionals who can provide crisis stabilization, assessment and resources. For other emergency responses, dial 911 or the Suicide Prevention Hotline at 988.
