UNLV Student Wellness Center
What do depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and substance use all have in common? They are all just a fraction of what university students seek treatment for at the Wellness Center. Mental and physical health have gradually become the top priority for human beings.
A new semester commences and various UNLV students voice opinions about having to pay for unnecessary tuition fees, one being for the Wellness Center. The Wellness Center consists of various resources, but few believe they should have to pay for it as it is something they do not use.
UNLV is staffed with various professionals who specialize in different areas. Kristin Zaccaro, is a licensed psychologist at UNLV CAPS, who normally sees students, coordinates outreach, chairs the Eating Disorder Treatment Team, and supervises predoctoral interns.
“Students never know when they may need additional support,” Zaccaro said. “With the tuition, it’s a built in option they can access as needed.”
The Wellness Center as a whole consists of the Faculty and Staff Treatment Center, Counseling and Psychological Services, pharmacy, laboratory, Wellness Groups as well as many other resources. These resources are available to not only students but UNLV faculty as well. The medical wing and counseling services both have licensed professionals, graduate students and interns all working to keep the cycle going.
The Psychological Services portion of the wellness center sees 30 to 40 percent of the student body throughout a calendar year alone. Zaccaro says that as for how many students licensed psychologists see a day, it all depends on the day and the provider. The most that Zaccaro sees can be six to seven clients a day. There are even some days where she will have no clients at all. The overall average clients seen can vary from three to five a day.
Christopher Jones, a junior criminal justice major, has experience with using the Wellness Center as a transfer student from San Francisco. He says that the staff are nice and he enjoys that area.
“Students who don’t want to pay probably have the money to go to another doctor outside of the school, and students who don’t have insurance, they can go there and they don’t have to worry about having to pay for it,” Jones said. “They probably believe that just because they don’t go then others don’t as well.”
Jones believes that this option should be built into student tuition because if in the case of an emergency students who don’t have this fee paid would be in big trouble. Meaning, if a transfer student for example, doesn’t have access to medical or psychological care on or off campus then it would be a tough situation to work through.
Zaccaro said that she can be seen for a variety of mental health concerns including anxiety, depression, stress management, relationship concerns, trauma, eating disorders, substance use concerns, grief/loss, ADHD, and interpersonal conflicts. Other psychologists can be seen for the same concerns and various others.
“The stigma of mental health prevents a lot of people from accessing mental health services,” Zaccaro said. “This stigma can come from parents and even society.”
There are many who take the opportunity to seek help from the wellness center due to the fact that they weren’t able to do so before. Depending on an individual’s background, There is a chance that they were denied help because their family didn’t believe in what such services had to offer or not believing in mental health issues in general.
These services may not be necessary for everyone, but in the end there will always be at least one person who will use it. It’s better to have them built into the tuition and optional for students because one may need them when they least expect it.
