The Cox Health and Counseling Center provides brief solution-focused individual counseling free of charge for students. It also provides five group therapy sessions each week addressing a variety of needs, including anxiety, depression and substance use. For after-hours care, students are encouraged to connect with ProtoCall, a 24-hour telephonic counseling service. Students in need of long-term care or more intensive services may be referred to off-campus services. Kenyon provides crisis intervention services for all students.
The number of college students using counseling services at Kenyon and at schools nationwide has risen in the past several years. According to a 2015 report by the Center for Collegiate Mental Health, on average, the number of students seeking services at their college counseling centers grew at approximately 5 times the rate of institutional enrollment between 2009 and 2015. Several factors are believed to contribute to this rise, including increasing rates of anxiety and depression among young adults nationally.
The wait time for students to see a counselor, when the center is fully staffed, can be one to two weeks, which is on par with other colleges and universities.
Kenyon currently has five full-time counselors and one part-time counselor on staff, plus one part-time psychiatrist. Kenyon employs approximately one full-time counselor for every 300 students. The average ratio among Kenyon’s peers in the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and the Great Lakes Colleges Association is over 400 students to every one full-time counselor. The International Association of Counseling Services, Inc. recommends a minimum ratio of one full-time counselor for every 1,000-1,500 students.
Peer Counselors play an important role in peer-to-peer education and in connecting fellow students with licensed or trained professionals. Their campus programming and advocacy efforts can reduce stigma around seeking help as well as raise awareness about clinical resources available to students. Because peer counselors are not licensed clinical professionals, they cannot provide clinical services. Kenyon values their role as peer educators and plans to continue that mission with their partnership.
The College has responded to the growing demand for counseling services in a variety of ways over the past five years. In 2014, the Cox Health and Counseling Center moved to a new, central and more visible location on campus, and in 2015, the College added counseling staff. The College began contracting with ProtoCall, a 24/7 telephonic counseling service, in 2017 to expand student access to care after-hours. With the 2017 addition of a single director who oversees an integrated health and counseling center, Kenyon further refined its delivery of services to ensure outreach to more students, with a focus on holistic wellness and preventative care, and facilitates more direct care by clinicians. Additional recent efforts include a staff reorganization in order to maximize the clinical hours that students may be seen, as well as an increase in the hours of the College’s contract psychiatrist. In fall 2019, Kenyon announced the formation of a Task Force on Emotional Health and Well-being to further examine access to mental health resources at Kenyon.
The Task Force on Emotional Health and Well-being is charged with conducting a review of how Kenyon as a whole promotes the emotional well-being of students, including the services offered, resources available, and current policies and practices. The overall goal of the task force is to assess the extent to which Kenyon is meeting student needs, fostering resilience, and providing a healthy and supportive community in which all students can thrive. With generational trends in mind, the task force will proactively plan and determine whether future enhancements are needed to support wellness programs at Kenyon.
The Task Force was formed in mid-September 2019, with the goal of conducting its review during the 2019-20 year. It plans to provide a set of draft recommendations to President Sean Decatur by August 2020 with respect to: (1) education, outreach and mental health promotion, (2) campus services and resources, and (3) academic and cocurricular policies and practices.
The Task Force is co-chaired by Vice President for Student Affairs Meredith Harper Bonham ’92 and Dane Heuchemer, the John B. McCoy-Banc One Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music. It includes four students, two faculty members, three staff members and one member of the Board of Trustees.
To share your thoughts with the Task Force, email Vice President for Student Affairs Meredith Harper Bonham ‘92 (bonhamm@kenyon.edu) and Dane Heuchemer, the John B. McCoy-Banc One Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music (heuchemerd@kenyon.edu).