As we prepare to enter the third year of an unexpected pandemic, it is no secret that health providers (especially mental health and especially in higher education) are feeling the strain. COVID-19 upended much of what we knew about life—how our jobs worked, what was expected of us professionally and personally, how to navigate relationships and so on. This upheaval happened in the midst of a nationwide mental health crisis when more people and especially more college students were presenting higher levels of anxiety and other support needs than in decades past. This also happened in the latest era of societal awakening to racial inequities, bringing agony not only for what happens, but for the absence of systemic changes that are so desperately overdue. And it happened in the middle of a polarized political landscape, in which so many have lost sight of a middle ground toward a better tomorrow.

The pandemic has been, for me, a professional and personal tipping point.

As the most recent director of the University of Delaware's Center for Counseling & Student Development, I saw firsthand how these experiences weighed heavily on all of you––students, faculty and staff alike –– and deeply impacted our day-to-day lives in ways we never imagined possible. The culmination of what I experienced, professionally as well as personally, led me to realize that I must reprioritize key aspects of my life, including my family and career, and led me to step back from my position as director this past July 1, 2021.

Staying on as senior psychologist, I have appreciated doing more of the clinical work with students, supervision and student outreach that drew me to this field. I’ve been energized, despite the climate I just described, to continue my journey toward becoming a compassionate professional who is attuned and responsive to inequities in and around my environment. I’ve been proud to work alongside my colleagues in pursuing transformational collaboration in and outside of our counseling center that will allow us to better serve the needs of UD students now and into the future.

Among other achievements, this work has led to our move to the Wellbeing Center at Warner Hall, placing us one floor away from Student Wellness and one building over from Student Health. It has led to an expansion of therapy options for which no advance appointment is needed, such as daily crisis walk-in hours and protected drop-in hours for students of color, those who identify as LGBTQIAA+ and more. It has included a considerable lift to have all of our clinicians trained and resourced to provide telehealth care, as well as create capacity to hire more clinical staff.

In short, this work has resulted in more ways for our staff to clinically engage students, more ways to access services and more equitable offerings than we have ever seen at the University since CCSD’s creation in 1946.

To be clear, our work is not done. Sometimes it feels like we are using sandbags to stem a tsunami—providing support one bag at a time, only to be washed away by all that is beyond our reach. Our collective growing understanding of mental health and all it affects is a positive development, but one that was straining our systems long before COVID-19 or George Floyd. Despite the odds, we continue to rework those physical, organizational and theoretical structures that allow us to work smarter in serving student needs, but we do it amidst constant reminders that we aren’t able to work hard or fast enough.

The nature of confidential work precludes responding specifically to complaints, making campus counseling centers an easy target for dissatisfied students, their friends and those whispering further down the lane. Some of these complaints are truthful. All of these complaints, whether sent privately or aired via public platforms such as Instagram, are taken seriously and investigated to the fullest extent of our abilities, which, when they are made anonymously, means copious hours of poring over clinical notes to determine where something may have been said or done. Indeed, it is those quick, general and anonymous comments that are so easy to make which are the most difficult for us to investigate and hold specific staff accountable for.

This investigative work is in addition to the assessment we undertake routinely, and the tens of thousands of confidential client reviews that the public never sees. The relationships we build with our clients and community members through our work is what buoys us some days. For all the feedback, both positive and negative, there is only one thing I can say: thank you. I know that the effort to be heard stems from wanting the University’s mental health support network to be the best it can be. I know also that despite our mission to help all students feel welcomed and better prepared to succeed, this has clearly not been the case for all students.

As professional, licensed psychologists, psychiatrists, advanced nursing professionals and counselors, we are responsible for our behavior and can be held accountable not only through the Division of Student Life and the broader University, but also through our professional licensing boards.  I encourage anyone who has felt maligned by unethical behavior in any professional setting to report this behavior, and the methods to do so are described below.

I share the disappointment, frustration and anger any time that I hear the center has fallen short, either of inspiring students to seek help or of meeting their expectations for support. Despite no longer serving in the director role, I remain committed as a senior psychologist to pursuing any and all changes that are needed for the center to best serve students’ mental health needs.

Embracing conflict rather than shying away from it is part of our calling as mental health professionals. As we continue to find professional and personal relief to keep doing this work, I hope that students will continue to guide our path forward as a center and provide specific, actionable feedback on our progress. These past two years have been easy on no one and if we’re going to reach a better tomorrow, we’ll be doing it together. I look forward to it.

We want to hear from you. Email your feedback to studentwellbeing@udel.edu or submit anonymous feedback on the CCSD website. You can also submit an internal, anonymous complaint via UD’s EthicsPoint compliance hotline. Each state has licensing boards that are designed to review complaints about professional behavior. All CCSD staff are governed by the legal and ethical guidelines of our profession and overseen by the Delaware Board of Examiners. You can report a healthcare provider online or call 302-744-4500 to speak to an investigator.