It’s a shame that hundreds of students who need
psychological treatment at UCLA either go untreated or must seek
help elsewhere because of the limited facilities the UCLA’s
Student Psychological Services offers.
The SPS offers help to students in various areas, ranging from
sexuality to separation of parents. Among other things, they
provide students with both individual and group counseling to deal
with psychological, social and intellectual concerns.
For anyone who could use some help, the SPS sounds like a marvel
at first. The services for students are confidential, and it is
convenient with two different locations in The Mathematical
Sciences Building and Center for the Health Sciences. And last but
not least, it’s free to UCLA students when the average
outside therapist charges $60-$200 for one hour sessions. So then
what’s the problem?
The problem is that all the services mentioned above are like 99
cent chicken nuggets at McDonalds: available for a limited time
only. Students are only allowed from six to eight sessions for a
particular problem.
Many people can’t get sufficient help in that little
amount of time. By the time they have maxed out on their sessions,
they have finally just developed a rapport with their therapist and
are ready to delve deeper into their problems. According to Harold
Pruett, the director of SPS, about 20 percent of approximately
2,600 patients seen yearly at the SPS still need treatment after
their sessions are up. This means that about 520 students must seek
help elsewhere.
Students can be referred to another therapist within the UCLA
medical community. Their Student Health Insurance Plan would take
over payment for as long as it was deemed “medically
necessary,” according to Executive Director of the Ashe
Center Al Setton. However, students would now have to start over
with a new therapist and they would have to deal with their
insurance company. If they weren’t severely depressed before
this process, they certainly will be afterward.
The 14,000 students funded through private insurance would face
other problems. Private insurances often limit the money allocated
for therapy, leaving the student with the same problem with SPS: a
limited amount of sessions. Those people don’t have many
options available to them and they can either suffer or start
paying the fees themselves. This further poses the risk of having
to switch therapists for a third time. Students could go from
UCLA’s SPS therapist, to UCLA’s referral therapist, and
then to an outside practitioner, who hopefully may be merciful on a
college students when it comes to rates.
Regretfully, I fail to see how moving from therapist to
therapist and worrying about your session bills could be helpful to
anyone, especially someone who may be anxious and worried about the
future.
If SPS is really interested in helping students, they should
make a few important changes. First of all, the SPS should allow
SHIP to pay them once their six to eight sessions are up. That way
students will not be confused and have to switch from one therapist
to another.
Furthermore, more money should be allotted to the SPS so they
can hire more psychologists on the assumption that more than 2,600
students will need services. The sessions that are never used by
some of those students can be saved for the students that really
need them.
For a school with a population of over 37,000, the 23
psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers SPS has is hardly
sufficient, even if only about 15 percent of students utilize
them.
It’s ironic that UCLA may not be able to fulfill the
demand of therapists, considering the stress of being a college
student is a main reason why a student seeks help in the first
place.
Shasha is a fourth-year psychology student. E-mail her at
rshasha@media.ucla.edu.