The Counseling Center is a little stressed.

After a counselor left during the second week of classes to take a position at another university, the Center has been short-staffed.

“For her, there were a couple of really significant benefits (to leaving),” said Thomas Longwell, Counseling Center director. “She was able to take a promotion from this other university, so she’s also, in addition to being a psychologist at this other university, she’s also the coordinator of their training program at the counseling center.”

A one-way commute of two-plus hours everyday also played a major factor in her decision to leave, Longwell said.

“She was able to find a position much more closer to home,” he said. “She cut her commute in half – if not more. So I absolutely can not blame her for that.”

Her departure, while a positive situation for her, isn’t good news for the Counseling Center.

“It does have an impact. That’s a very valuable person,” Longwell said. “In terms of the impact, we try to minimize it.”

The Counseling Center is minimizing the impact being short-staffed has on students by upholding the policy that if a student is in a crisis situation and can not wait, the Center will get the student in right away, he said.

“We don’t make them wait two, three, four weeks,” he said. “We’re going to see them that same day.”

The departure impacts the other counselors as well.

“It causes us to work a little bit longer hours,” Longwell said. “Sometimes we have certain things planned during our day that we then have to put to the side so we would be able to work with those emergency situations.”

To minimize the impact on counselors, the Counseling Center has hired two additional part-time counselors. One of the new hires starts today, while the other will join the Center next week.

“We’re attempting to fill in the gap while we do a full search for a full-time replacement,” Longwell said.

The departure also impacts the Counseling Center’s long-term goal of reaching accreditation.

Accreditation by the International Association of Counseling Services (IACS) is given based on applications from university counseling services with a full time equivalent of at least two professional staff members.

A recommendation, based on research and data, of one counselor for every 1,000 to 1,500 students is given to universities by IACS.

While IACS looks at numbers, it determines accreditation based on whether or not a center is providing good, quality services – as opposed to putting an artificial number on it.

According to IACS, accreditation is “intended to advocate for quality counseling services that continue to perform effectively and to show awareness and concern for professional growth.”

The Association holds accreditation of value because professional peer review is vital – a sentiment Longwell echoes.

“(Accreditation) gives you an outside perspective of – you know, you think you’re doing well, you think you are providing good, appropriate, professional services, and this gives you the benefit of the entire profession saying, ‘This is an appropriate thing you’re doing. Maybe you need to change this, revise this or think about this,’” Longwell said.

Accreditation assures the Counseling Center that it is serving students in the best way possible, he said.

“It’s a long-term goal of mine,” he said. “We’re not there yet. There are certain things I think we still need to do.”

One of these things is coordination with the social work department, he said. The leg-work for this has already been done and the Center hopes to coordinate with the department starting next year.

Other goals the Center has set to help it reach accreditation is to start a student intern program and expand its current group counseling program.

Even without accreditation, the Center knows it’s providing good, quality and professional services, Longwell said.

According to the Mental Health Student Profile Snapshot, a compilation of results from a survey sent to everyone who utilized the Center’s services last year, 96 percent of students who responded to the survey were satisfied with their counseling experience.

Ninety-two percent of respondents said they significantly benefitted from treatment at the Center, and 74 percent of students at risk to leave USI were retained.

Longwell said he’d like to see the Counseling Center apply for accreditation within the next five years.