In December 2008, Nick Meli was diagnosed with level three Oligoastrocytoma — a brain tumor.

Meli, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, suffered from anxiety after learning that the tumor had a high chance of recurrence with no treatment within the next five years. Realizing he needed psychological aid, he turned to the Marquette Counseling Center.

However, upon assessing Meli, the Counseling Center referred him to outside programs because he was seeking long-term, in-depth therapy.  The Counseling Center only deals with short-term treatment for students, or issues that can be treated and possibly resolved in the course of a semester.

Meli was unable to pay for the expensive treatment at the original referrals, like Aurora Sinai Medical Center, 945 N. 12th St., so he returned to the Counseling Center.

“After they realized my limited funds, they referred me to the (Center for Psychological Services) through the psychology program,” Meli said in an e-mail.

The center is free for students, and Meli said its services helped him “a great deal.” Normally, the Counseling Center does not refer students to the Center for Psychological Services, but Meli’s case was unique, said Christopher Daood, the assistant director of the Counseling Center.

Meli was at first frustrated with Marquette’s policy because he said they had tried referring him to places outside of Marquette “a long time prior” to suggesting the Center for Psychological Services.

Marquette is among numerous colleges and universities — including the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee — that only treat students on a short-term basis for mental health issues, despite a significant rise in college students seeking counseling.

“The demand for services has increased so much in the past decade,” Daood said.

Daood said that nationwide, and at Marquette, the number of students seeking mental health treatment has increased between 50 and 100 percent since 2000.

Ten percent of the student population at Marquette receives counseling from the center each year.

“Students are presenting with more mental health needs, and there is less of a stigma to seek treatment,” Daood said.

Keeping the door open
Marquette’s Counseling Center acknowledged that they are unable to provide long-term treatment, but said that it is for good reason.

“The way we look at it, we will treat students for the most common mental health concerns,” Daood said.

Such concerns include depression, anxiety, eating disorders, drug and alcohol abuse, and concerns that a student could cause harm to him- or herself or others.

By sticking to short-term treatment, Marquette counselors are able to provide immediate support for students needing help.

“We are able to keep the door open for students who are under acute distress,” said Lynn O’Brien, a counselor and coordinator of sexual violence prevention and treatment at the center.

Each counselor takes on three new “intakes” every week. Intake cases are students who have walked in to receive treatment, are first-time patients, or who have been referred to the Counseling Center. After an initial assessment of the student’s needs, counselors are immediately assigned specific cases.

“We pride ourselves on not having a waiting list,” O’Brien said.

Counselors are able to work with students for up to a semester’s worth of treatment. This time limit is placed so that other students in need of emergency assistance or aid can come in at any point and be able to see a counselor, O’Brien said.

All services the Counseling Center provides are free to full-time students. Part-time students are eligible for walk-in services, but nothing more. Services are paid for as part of the general tuition fund for every student. Students from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design who take classes at Marquette are also able to use Marquette’s Counseling Center.

The Counseling Center has a 17-member staff, with at least 11 counselors available to see students in scheduled appointments. The counselors also take turns being on call for emergency situations. Someone from the Counseling Center can be reached around the clock, every day of the week.

Seeking outside counsel
Not every school in the area has walk-in services available for students.

Although there is an on-call counselor at UWM for emergency situations, there is a wait for students to make an appointment.

In order to see a therapist, students likely have to wait about two-and-a-half weeks. Seeing a psychiatrist takes about four weeks advance notice, according to Paul Dupont, a clinical psychologist and counseling director at UWM’s Norris Health Center.

“We feel that is a dangerously long time to wait,” said O’Brien from Marquette’s Counseling Center.

There are only six counselors and two psychiatrists at UWM’s campus, despite having a student population nearly three times bigger than Marquette’s.

But although it’s convenient for walk-ins, Marquette students can only see counselors for a semester’s worth of work. If students return to the Counseling Center for a different problem in another semester, they can be seen again. However, if they return for treatment of the same problem, they will be referred to outside counsel.

“If students come to us with the same issue another semester, we have to make the clinical decision to use community providers,” O’Brien said.

Additionally, students are referred to other sites if they exhibit any sort of need for specialized treatment. Such cases are considered severe, according to Daood.

UWM students are able to receive up to 10 sessions of on-campus treatment before being referred to an outside counselor.

“If the services that we offer are not sufficient, for example, in the case of severe alcohol or drug abuse, we refer them to therapists that will be appropriate for their needs,” Dupont said.

Marquette and UWM both say they have good connections with other counseling services throughout the area and are able to find places that will help students who need specific aid.

“Sometimes we send them to the Psychology Department’s clinic on campus,” Dupont said. “But for the most part, we help students get access to private practitioners. We have about 15 to 20 agencies we typically refer to, but it depends on what the student needs and where they live. We try to hook the student up with a therapist as best we can.”

Both UWM and Marquette counselors meet routinely with psychiatrists in order to determine if medication is necessary for treatment for students they are seeing.

“Psychiatrists evaluate students and prescribe medication to students,” Dupont said. “They monitor students until they are stabilized.”

Reaching out
Outreach efforts are consistently made on both campuses.

At UWM, there is a specific counselor whose sole responsibility is to provide information throughout campus. At Marquette, each counselor serves as a liaison for an academic college and a residence hall.

“It connects the Counseling Center directly to the rest of the university,” O’Brien said.

There are other sources for mental health and wellness at Marquette as well.

Active Minds Inc. is a nationwide student-run organization to create awareness and reduce the stigma around mental health and illness-related issues. Marquette houses one of the 300 chapters, said chapter President Danielle Strauss, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences.

The goal of Active Minds is to create an environment where mental health could be more widely discussed, according to Strauss.

“There is such a stigma, or fear, in people that if they need help it can just be swept under the rug, or they are afraid that people will judge them for seeking help,” Strauss said.

Strauss said that members of Active Minds are able to speak openly about mental health concerns.

“We see the stigma within our club, but we also see that the barrier of it has been broken,” she said.