Following a difficult year on campus that included two student suicides last year, UNI held a Mental Health Awareness Week from Oct. 24 to 28. The theme of the week was “You Matter at UNI,” and the goals of the various events during the week were to raise awareness on campus about mental health issues and resources available to students.

Hunter Flesch, Northern Iowa Student Government (NISG) president, said he was happy with the events throughout the week.

“I think the awareness of the week overall was extremely successful,” Flesch said. “Regardless of people showing up to an event or not […] We can always improve in spreading awareness, educating and informing students on mental health, and of course raising more money. But for the first year, I thought the feedback was amazing.”

Students currently have the option to see a mental health professional on campus through the counseling center located in the student health center. Shelley O’Connell, executive director of Health and Recreation Services, described the wait periods a student seeking an appointment with the counseling center can expect.

“Appointments for the Student Health Clinic psychiatric care [needing] a new evaluation to obtain medication is approximately two weeks, depending upon the provider,” O’Connell said.

According to O’Connell, each student is charged a mandatory health fee that covers “counseling visits with a psychologist or mental health counselor so there is not a charge associated with this service.”

However, O’Connell explained, “Students who see a psychiatrist or a psychiatric nurse practitioner to obtain medication are charged for their visits and the Student Health Clinic will file a health insurance claim for payment.”

According to Flesch, all the funds raised by the events put together last week went “to a fund that helps students who can’t afford psychiatric services or don’t have insurance to cover the cost.”

Flesch went on to say that while he thinks the campus reacted positively to ‘You Matter at UNI,’ there is always room for improvement when it comes to the mental health resources on campus.

“I think the obvious need is more funding for our health center to hire more counselors – which they are currently in the process of – and specialists,” Flesch said. “However, that isn’t something that happens right away without legislative support, so the biggest thing we can do right now on campus is to contribute to creating that community of care – making sure students are informed, educated and feel like they can talk about anything they might be going through with someone at UNI.”

“In addition to the two counselors that were recently hired, we have an additional position for [a] mental health counselor [and] diversity outreach specialist and hope to have them on staff before the end of the semester,” O’Connell said.

O’Connell explained that students who need immediate assistance can have access to crisis counseling in person by calling the Counseling Center during office hours at 273-2676.  In addition, crisis counseling is always available outside of office hours by calling 273-2676 and pressing 2 to speak to a counselor right away.