Mental Health, No Help
Students on a university campus struggle to manage life.
By Farha Nabeel
Life is hard, especially for an undergraduate student. They have to maintain social lives, relationships, and their grades. It comes with a price: their mental health. At University of
Illinois at Chicago, the campus offers a wellness center, whose services are inspired by “Eight
Dimensions of Wellness.” These services include; Alcohol and drug education, Self-care, Housing insecurity, and pantry, all resources accessible to registered UIC students. This information could be found on their website here: https://wellnesscenter.uic.edu.
To find this information, research was conducted around campus and online. Unfortunately, there was very little information to be found on campus about mental health services. When asked multiple students about mental health and the campus wellness center, many stared back blankly. This indicates that many students are not aware that their campus offers mental health services. “Well I’ll be honest, I’ve never heard of any wellness center at UIC,” said Justin Keys a junior at the university. Keys said that if he ever needed help in a crisis that he would not know where to start, and not know where to look at UIC. The university does not do a good job of advertising and advocating wellness centers on campus, as Keys says “Now that I think about it, I probably have maybe seen one flier, but it was not in a good spot so like I forgot about it.” This is a key finding, because it shows that the wellness center is almost nonexistent to students who may actually need help, but they have no idea where to get it from. For most, it is already embarrassing to reach out for help, so UIC needs to do a better job of advocating. In response to what UIC can do better for their students, Keys suggested that the professors could talk about it during lectures and upcoming exams. He pointed out that there is the MSLC, math and science learning center, saying “they should not only have academic based help centers, but also centers when our mental health is depleted.” UIC is very strict when it comes to Title IX, sexual misconduct, so much so that you have to complete the training module before you register, otherwise the students will not be able to complete registration. With this point in mind, many students, along with Keys, agreed that the university should enforce a module during registration, with regards to mental health. This way students can watch videos, chat, and meet live with a mental health counselor before they register. Students will then have the proper knowledge about what the wellness center is, and how to reach out for help if the semester weighs them down. It is important for students to know what services are available to them from the university, so they can use it regularly. “If I can see what they have, and if I like it, I would probably use (the wellness center) on a regular basis,” Keys added.
“I would rather take the time of me working on whatever is due, than seeking mental health help, even if my mental health is low,” said Jeniah Bonefacio, an undergraduate UIC student.
Bonefacio has already visited the wellness center on campus, but felt that it needed more, “maybe a therapy dog,” she stated. However, she had a little different take on the wellness center than Keys did. “They have been advocating for the center, with posters, and the websites on blackboard,” she added. This can prove that the advocacy is not reaching all the students on campus, which would ring true to Keys’ point of making it mandatory to complete a mental health module prior to registration. Bonefacio certainly does not prioritize her mental health, over school work and work in general, “I feel like I prioritize my education more, and if it’s low (mental health), that is just something that I can’t raise.” There are many students in her position right now that feel like it would not matter if they reached out for help, because it will not do anything for them. The university needs to change that. They can make it more accessible, inviting, no time restrictions, as for many students time is constantly an issue, between classes and working. Bonefacio suggested therapy dogs, and if the wellness center offered services like that, she would be more keen on visiting the wellness center and try to come out of her mental
health struggles.
Upon visiting the website for UIC’s wellness center, it was found that the website seemed a bit outdated. While there are new events added, a lot of the events from 2020 through 2022 are still up and show upcoming on the calendar. Another important finding was that there was no live chat feature, or appointment page to speak to a person. The mission of the wellness center is “to provide students with health and wellness education and to help encourage healthy and safer lifestyle choices.” A note added that the wellness center does not offer therapy/counseling services, which might be confusing for many students, since many that were interviewed thought differently. If the center is for mental health, it would be worth it for the students to have counseling services associated with the wellness center. However, the Wellness Coaching sessions that are listed on the website under an FAQ, state that students can have a one-time session to solve through a variety of life and academic challenges. This includes; time management, stress management, healthy eating, and self-care. Overall, there is a lot of misconception about what the wellness center is and what services they offer. It would be beneficial if the website, when it first opens, stated what the center offers, instead of searching through the website to look for answers and how to make an appointment.
Furthermore, the Wellness Center is not the only organization on campus to help with mental health. The Counseling Center is an important organization on UIC’s campus as they offer free therapy for students. While the Wellness Center offers one-on-one coaching for a short session and help with time management, the Counseling Center has clinical based services and professionals that provide mental health guidance along with psychiatric services. However, the Center faces its own problems among students with the lack of knowledge of the Center itself and students not knowing what the Counseling Center even is, which can be presumed from the
interviews.
Wellness consultations could be found using this link: https://wellnesscenter.uic.edu/resources-and-services/individual-consultations/
Counseling Center services/appointments can be found using this link:
