In 2015, the University of California Student Association adopted the hashtag #HowAreYou, a call to increase “access to counseling, staff diversity to reflect the identities and experiences of the student body and outreach regarding the availability of services” as its undergraduate campaign. UCSA representatives have been conducting evaluations of each counseling and psychological services department at every undergraduate UC campus for its accessibility, diversity and outreach.
Over the past few months, I evaluated these aspects of UCLA’ s Counseling and Psychological Services by asking Dr. Nicole Green, its interim executive director, a series of 17 questions. These questions ranged from the wait time between routine intakes to the number of clinicians with expertise for a specific demographic in order to address CAPS’ accessibility, diversity and outreach. UCSA staff then compared those answers to answers given by UCLA students, including myself, accessing any mental health support at CAPS or off campus. UCLA got an overall score of 78 percent on a weighted point system, generated by fill-in answers to these questions.
UCSA determined in its evaluation of UCLA CAPS that CAPS does a very good job outreaching to students and destigmatizing services thanks to the efforts of student groups working on mental health such as Active Minds, a committee in the Undergraduate Students Association Council Student Wellness Commission, and All of Us, a campaign supported by USAC. However, it was found that UCLA CAPS is more difficult to access than other UC instituions’ counseling and psychological services.
CAPS’ wait time for a routine intake can take up to four weeks at high peaks of the quarter. There are limited accessible and affordable referral resources and CAPS has a limited session limit compared to other UCs with three sessions offered to all students and an additional three sessions offered to students with the UC Student Health Insurance Plan per academic year. In addition, CAPS needs more clinician diversity in order to meet the needs of the UCLA population. While CAPS does its very best for UCLA students, CAPS struggles with the allocation of resources given by administration.
Through my meetings with Dr. Green, we observed there were certain things UCLA administration could do to provide the best mental health services to our students. More specifically, we determined that UCLA administration needs to work more swiftly to increase accessibility. Specifically, CAPS should increase session limits back to 10 sessions or more per year. Three sessions are not enough, and we cannot wait any longer for more sessions. In addition, UCLA needs to ensure that students get access to intakes within two weeks and follow-up for care when needed. UCLA administration must also work to increase affordable services for students without UC SHIP at CAPS. Furthermore, UCLA administration should increase efforts to recruit more diverse staff with expertise to serve our very diverse student body.
It should be noted that in my meetings with Dr. Green, it was clear there is good news on the horizon. CAPS will begin to see the financial impact of the 5 percent increase on the Student Services Fee, 2.5 percent of which will go directly to CAPS. According to Dr. Green, this will allow CAPS to fund several additional positions to ease the burden on CAPS services. In addition, CAPS is continuing to evaluate their data to determine how to increase services both offered at CAPS and in partnership with other departments. Specifically, the goal is to increase session limits over time and partner with other UCLA departments to offer other student-support services. UCLA is also working to broaden its options for longer-term treatment for students with UC SHIP beyond behavioral health services.
CAPS is a great resource but the truth is that we need more money and resources to better take care of students’ mental health. A C+ is not an acceptable score for a top-notch institution that prides itself on “ensuring a welcoming and inclusive environment for all members of the campus community and for serving as a guide for our personal and collective behavior.”
It is up to the UCLA administration and the University of California Office of the President to address major flaws within our mental health system to fully ensure that students’ mental health and resilience skills are prioritized. At a prestigious university such as UCLA, students pay too much money not to receive the best mental health support possible. UCLA administration and UCOP: We are an A+ institution, we deserve an A+ counseling center.
To provide feedback on CAPS services, please email feedback@caps.ucla.edu. To access CAPS, please go to counseling.ucla.edu, or contact 310-825-0768, a 24-hour crisis hotline to reach a counselor. For more information on the score breakdown, please email me at rjain014@ucla.edu.
Ria Jain is a third-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student. She is a campaign manager for All of Us, a USAC campaign to rethink mental health, and the mental health commissioner in the USAC external vice president office.