As more students seek mental health services, college counseling centers struggle to hire staff

Texas colleges and universities are struggling to keep up with the demand for mental health services amid a statewide shortage of care providers. This isn’t just a public health crisis in Texas but across the United States, according to Zachary Zoet, the assistant director of Midwestern State University’s Counseling Center in Wichita Falls. “There’s a lot of different factors that are going into the staffing issues, the salary issues, these retention and recruitment issues, because this is a serial theme that administrators in counseling centers are discussing at the state and national level,” Zoet said. The need for mental health support is urgent. During the 2020-2021 academic year, the majority of college students across the country met the criteria for at least one mental health diagnosis — a nearly 50 percent increase from 2013. It’s an alarming finding from a recent Healthy Minds Study, which surveyed more than 90,000 students on 133 U.S. campuses.

But the study did reveal a silver lining: more college students than ever before report receiving therapy or counseling. The increase in cases is partly due to more awareness and less stigma associated with mental health care, said Hillary Jones, associate director of clinical services at the Texas State University Counseling Center. She said students with less serious concerns, who in the past might not have considered counseling, are seeking help. Rising demand for mental health services on Texas college and university campuses hasn’t been matched by a corresponding increase in funding. This has led to higher caseloads per campus clinician – the number of sessions each counselor is expected to handle. “There’s a lot of students here at Texas State, so it’s a lot of resources to be able to meet the mental health needs of all those students,” said Jones. “I think it's just been an ongoing conversation, both within the counseling center and upper administration of ‘How do we meet those needs? How do we do this in creative and innovative ways?’”