Gianna Hayes
News Editor
Longbrake Student Wellness Center changed hours following trends in last academic year’s most utilized times and increased costs to counseling services. These changes follow other campus cutbacks, notably Knowlton Science Cafe and Old Main Cafe’s hour reductions. In a September 11th interview with the Voice, Director of Wellbeing and Counseling Services Anne Ober and Director of Nursing, Health and Wellbeing Lori Hartzler shed light on the recent changes.
According to Hartzler, the Wellness Center collected data on hours most used by students in the last academic year. “The change in hours [was] not Anne [Ober] or I’s doing, but we’re trying to adjust and have the same services as we had before,” Hartzler said.
Another change was in the cost to students for counseling sessions. This follows the Wellness Center’s decision to stop partnering with TimelyCare — a virtual wellness provider that boasts 24/7 support, nationwide coverage, diverse healthcare providers and continuity of care. Now that counseling is provided only by in-house counselors at the Wellness Center, costs to students have risen.
“So traditionally, there has not been any cost associated with it, and last year students were allowed to have 12 free sessions, and then they were asked to pay, I think it was a $30 payment per session after that,” Ober said. Now, students are allotted six free sessions before paying a fee. “That process is still being put together in terms of insurance being billed or [a] flat fee,” Ober said. The exact or estimated cost has not been disclosed.
Ober also shared that a counselor has recently resigned. When asked if the position will be filled, Ober said that she doesn’t “have information yet on next steps.”
Previously, the Wellness Center had received grant funding from the Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE), which was partially used to pay for a clinical case manager position within Wellness, a position now occupied by Dawn Cory. The clinical case manager is responsible for meeting with and assessing students who are interested in receiving counseling services. From there, students can be put on a waiting list for counseling at Wellness or gain assistance in receiving counseling off-campus.
The ODHE grant additionally funded a partnership with the Washington Wellness Institute, an organization founded in 2018 by William C. Washington, “in an effort to make mental health counseling and holistic healing practices more accessible to the Greater Cleveland community,” per their website. This partnership allowed for counselors of color from the Washington Wellness Institute to meet with students several days a week on campus. Counselors operated out of the Center for Belonging and Intercultural Dialogue office, formerly known as the Center for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
“We had a really positive response to that from students, and that’s a partnership that we’ve maintained for some while and we’d like to continue — we just don’t have a ‘yes absolutely, this is happening, here’s when they’ll be here,’ at least at this point in time,” Ober said.
While Ober is looking forward to continuing the partnership, the same grant from ODHE has not been renewed.
“The particular ODHE grant … I don’t think has been renewed, and I’m not sure, my assumption is like many things within, because it’s [paid through the] State of Ohio budget, that it was impacted, but to be honest, I haven’t done the research to look at what those specifics were,” Ober said.
The Wellness Center is in the process of applying for another grant, which they are hopeful can be used to continue the relationship with the Washington Wellness Institute.
The Wellness Center is also continuing their partnership with OneEighty to provide support for students with substance use concerns. OneEighty is a local organization that offers addiction and substance use treatment, domestic violence and sexual assault support and mental health counseling, among other specialized services. Through a gift made to the College, Wellness is able to pay for a student’s intake assessment at OneEighty, and potentially cover their cost of treatment.
Per Ober, “the assessment is really the heaviest cost at the beginning, so in order to make it like equitable that everyone at least could have access to that, we’ve set that up as kind of an initial piece, and last year we had three or four students that took advantage of that, which was great, and then we were also able to pay for some treatment for them as well.”
The Wellness Center is also implementing group workshops to help students work through interpersonal skills, assertiveness training and managing emotions. These will be led by Cory. Wellness also hopes to gauge student interest in a peer support group for substance use issues, led by OneEighty counselors. Additionally, the Wellness Center is hoping to hear students’ feedback and encourages students with concerns to reach out via email to Student_Wellness_Center@wooster.edu.
Stuart Franklin ’26 voiced his concerns about changes to the Wellness Center in an interview with the Voice. “When [TimelyCare] was cut, I was kind of blindsided,” Franklin said.
“I really want to get a therapist now that I don’t have TimelyCare … to actually work up the courage to look at what online therapy resources are available that accept my insurance and navigate for the very first time in my life on my own … figuring out how coverage plans work, it’s a nightmare,” said Franklin. “I didn’t really ask questions because I’ve never really had much of a relationship with [the Wellness Center], and I … didn’t have any reason to think that they would be able to tell me anything other than what I could figure out for myself.”
Other students expressed similar sentiments. “The students who can’t afford it are the ones who often need these services the most!” Grace Laymon ’27 said. “Having a counselor helped me when I was struggling the most and now that the College has one singular counselor, the Wellness Center is drowning.”
Students struggling with mental health may reach out to the National Crisis Line: 1-800-273-TALK (8255), the Local Crisis Line: 330-264-9029, the Crisis Text Line: Text ‘4HOPE’ to 741-741, the Crisis Text Line for Persons of Color: Text ‘STEVE’ to 741-741, the Trans Lifeline Peer Support Hotline: 1-877-565-8860, or the TrevorLifeline (LGBT): 1-866-488-7386 or Text ‘START’ to 678-678.
