Introduction to Mental Health Services

The fall semester is here. Are you a new student or excited to be back? Anxious already about failing all your classes? Missing home, hardly sleeping, feeling lonely? If yes to any of those concerns, or other concerns you were waiting for me to list, keep listening for everything you need to know about connecting to Mental Health Services.

Hello, and welcome to the Connecting Badgers podcast and a new season and a start of a semester for us. We are licensed mental health providers at the University of Wisconsin Madison. My name is Casey Smart. I use she and hers pronouns. I’m also going to pass it over to our fabulous new host, Kari. Hello, I’m Kari, and I also use she and her pronouns. And I will pass it over to Andy. And I’m Andie, and I use she and her pronouns as well.

Today we have Beth Adamski, Associate Director of Clinical Services, to introduce our services this fall. Beth, could you introduce yourself and share what it means to be Associate Director of Clinical Services?

Yeah, absolutely. And thank you so much for having me on today. My name is Beth Adamski. I use she/hers pronouns. And I am the Associate Director of Clinical Services. And what that means is I play a pretty big role in overseeing our day-to-day clinical operations, supporting all of the really wonderful things that our campus offers in terms of mental health services.

Thank you so much for being with us, Beth. Just to dive in and give a brief overview for folks who might be new to the university or new to our services, do you mind explaining what services are offered at MHS?

Yeah, absolutely. So we offer a wide variety of services that are really designed to meet the unique needs of students, knowing that different students will need different services and resources depending on who they are as individuals and what concerns they are coming in with. And so that can include our more traditional clinical services, and it could also include our outreach services.
As far as the more traditional services, those include individual and couples or partners counseling, group counseling, survivor services, psychiatric medication management, and also some specific supports around eating concerns, substance use concerns, and folks who are experiencing more acute crisis concerns.

We also provide support around connecting with providers in the community, whether that’s here in Madison or wherever the student is located at the time they need support through our care management services.

In addition to our routine services, I find it really important to highlight our crisis support services and same day or drop in services. So we have a 24 hour crisis line where students can call anytime day or night and talk with a counselor. And that can be accessed by dialing our main line, which is 608-265-5600, and then choosing option number 9.

We also have Let’s Talk services. Those are drop-in, and students can connect for a consultation with a counselor at convenient sites across campus or virtually. And we also have different offerings throughout the week.

And then finally, we have a lot of drop-in workshops, as well as on-demand workshops that are available through our Thrive Online resource.

That’s a lot. And I know we can talk about all of those in much greater detail, but thanks for giving that overview there. Curious then, in terms of cost, like, does it cost anything to use services?

Yeah, that’s a really important question that students want to know. There is no cost for services that are offered at UHS. They are covered by student segregated fees, and we don’t bill insurance. The one exception to that would be for students who are connected to psychiatric medication management with us. Students who get prescribed medications might use insurance or pay a copay to be able to get their medication, since they would obtain that from a pharmacy rather than from us. If there are concerns around the cost, we may have low cost or support options that we can use with a student.

That’s great. It really highlights how great of an opportunity this is for students to get connected to. If I were to want to start services, how would I do that?

Yeah, of course. There are a few different ways that students can get started with our services and with our resources. So I’ll start with most common way that students who are interested in clinical services will get started with us, and that’s through an access appointment. So this is not a counseling appointment, but rather a consultation appointment. And it typically lasts 20 to 30 minutes, generally held by phone, with a student and a mental health provider, discuss their concerns, and then collaboratively identify resources and services that will be the best fit for them.

So, while that access appointment is most common way to get connected, if a student is experiencing a crisis, or needs to talk to someone more urgently, we don’t want them to wait for that next available access appointment. They can walk into Mental Health Services, which is located at 7th floor of 333 East Campus Mall during our regular business hours, Monday through Friday, 9 to 5, and speak with an on-call provider, or they can call the 24-7 crisis line that I referenced earlier.
There are some additional ways that students can get connected to services that I’d love to highlight here as well. For students who are interested in connecting with our group counseling services, no referral or access appointment is needed. Students can sign up for a pre-group orientation meeting through webbooking on MyUHS or contact our main line during regular business hours.

Another option for counseling services is with our third-party telehealth company, Uwill. Students can sign up on their own and meet with a provider of their choosing at a time that will work for them. UWill appointments are generally available within a week, and they have a lot of evening and weekend availability as well. And also have providers anywhere nationally and globally. So this can be a great option for students when they’re home on breaks or studying abroad. And UWill also has wellness programming that is available for students who create an account regardless of whether they sign up for the counseling or not.

And then lastly, there’s many opportunities to connect with our team with our outreach services. This includes our Thrive workshops that cover a wide variety of mental health topics, our outreach events that are held across campus throughout the year. Those are kept up to date on our UHS website, which we encourage folks to check those out, as well as Let’s Talk services. To share a little bit about our Let’s Talk services, it’s not a full counseling session but it is a consultation, and it’s a chance to talk to a counselor about a particular concern in a more informal way. And again, we have locations available across campus and virtually throughout the week.

Phenomenal. Thank you for that overview. I always appreciate that there are multiple ways for folks to get in touch with us. I love highlighting the most common ways and most common services that people are asking for. But yeah, a lot of avenues to get connected. Speaking of one of the most common things people are searching for when they get in touch with us, individual counseling. We use a brief model. Can you explain what that means? Yeah, of course. So brief counseling is short term and goal focused counseling. So our providers will work with students to identify specific goals and specific areas of focus to work on in a limited number of sessions. We don’t have a specific session limit. The timeframe of care and the number of sessions will be unique to each individual and their needs, and this is a very flexible and collaborative process on deciding what that looks like. If students aren’t sure what would work best for them, participating in that access appointment is a great way to start. The mental health provider that a student meets with for access may have some recommendations. There’s some students who start with brief counseling here and find that they’re able to wrap up their care and take what they’ve learned, counseling with them, and other students may find, as they’re engaging with brief counseling, that they want or need more longer-term, more frequent, or more specialized care.

Some students may know or identify that they want or need that from the start. And in both of those cases, we have a team of care managers who work with our students to connect them to resources in the community, whether that’s in Madison or wherever they’re currently located.

And then in addition, we have an online searchable database on our website through MiResource for students who may wish to search for community providers options on their own as well.

I also want to take the time to talk about group counseling. Group counseling is an offering that we have where students will have a chance to meet weekly. They will get support from their peers as well as generally two mental health providers. And so that can be another great option for students who find that they are wanting or needing a little bit more.

Yeah, well, thank you. Just a curiosity, for students who want more support, if I wanted to keep individual but want more, can I do group in addition to individual, or do I have to choose one or the other?

Yeah, yes. It is an option that students can do both. So we have some students who might do individual and group counseling. We have some students that find that group counseling meets their support needs. So we certainly work with students to identify what the best plan is for them.

We appreciate that, and there’s a lot of options. Like we said, no real wrong avenues. Another question that we get a lot is in regards to medications. What if the student is interested in medications?

Yeah, medication can be an important piece of a student’s mental health care plan, and we have a variety of options for medication management. So students who are seeking psychiatric medication management should either book an access appointment, or if they’re already connected to Counseling Services, they can talk with their current provider. There are a few referral options depending on a student’s concern as well as their history with medications. So sometimes students will be referred to our primary care providers here at UHS. Sometimes they may be referred to care management to talk about community options, or they may be referred to one of our psychiatric services providers. Again, we’ll work with the student to figure out what the best place for them is when it comes to exploring medication.

Wonderful. Our kind of last question/area to explore today is that understandably, there are parents who might get concerned that their student or child is in crisis. I guess we are curious to hear more about what options are available for students experiencing mental health crises and if parents will be notified or how they can express any concern they may have.

Yeah, absolutely. It can be so hard for parents when their child is in crisis, and it’s really important for parents to know what the options are to support their student. So first, we recommend parents talk directly with their student about the concerns that the student is experiencing. Get as much information from them as you can. But it can also be helpful to loop in other supports and resources at UW Madison. Here at Mental Health Services, we do provide a lot of consultation and general guidance or options to parents who are concerned about their students. When students are over the age of 18 and are legally an adult, we are not able to share specific information about a student without a release of information. But we certainly can talk through concerns generally. We can receive information from parents, and then we can also share about resources and services available so that if a student isn’t already connected, a parent can help guide their student to those resources. We do also partner regularly with our Office of Student Assistance and Support on campus. That’s another great resource for parents and they are concerned and that office can potentially offer outreach to that student. So we regularly direct them there, and partner with that office as well.

And Beth, you mentioned that you can’t talk about the student to the parent without a release of information from the student. Can you talk about confidentiality? If I’m on the student side, will my parents or other family members be notified that I am seeking support?

Yeah, that’s a really important question that a lot of students have. So for students who are over the age of 18, what confidentiality means is that we are not able to share that someone is even connected to services. We can’t confirm or deny anything. We can’t share any information about the student’s engagement in services. So really what is said here stays here. There are some exceptions to that. There’s imminent risk to sell for others. There’s a threat to national security. If there’s disclosure of abuse of a child or protected adult or subpoenaed by a court or a judge. Those are the exceptions to confidentiality, but it is really important for students to be aware that here is a lot of privacy and protection in the care that they’re receiving here.

Great. Those were all of the questions that we had for you today to talk about and all the services we offer. We appreciate your time and be willing to chat about many different things. Yeah, thank you so much for having me on today.

Of course. Thanks for listening, everyone. Subscribe to our podcast. And remember, this podcast is not a substitute for mental health treatment. If you are a UW-Madison student and are looking to start mental health treatment, call 608-265-5600, option number 2 to schedule and Option 9 for our 24/7 crisis support. Thanks all.