Dear Community, Concerns over maintaining mental health and functioning have been quite salient during these past 2 year of navigating a global pandemic, in addition to the multitude of additional worldwide, national, and personal concerns that continue to evolve.
Dear Campus Community,
Concerns over maintaining mental health and functioning have been quite salient during these past 2 years of navigating a global pandemic, in addition to the multitude of additional worldwide, national, and personal concerns that continue to evolve. Sadness, anxiety, frustration, depression, disappointment, shame, fear, and grief are just some of the feelings that seem to have taken a prominent place in the media and in our conversations. CAPS knows that maintaining your mental health as a student is paramount and a vital aspect of college success. Ensuring that students are getting access to support is absolutely essential. We want to provide you with some administrative/personnel updates, as well as remind you of existing/continuing services at CAPS. We also know that these updates can inadvertently feel invalidating to specific experiences of having to wait for services during Fall quarter or being put on a waitlist to be able to see a therapist. We do, however, hope that it can demonstrate that CAPS is actively looking at options that can help our service delivery be more streamlined and more accessible to students moving forward as we all remain flexible and safety-minded this quarter (and beyond).
- CAPS has brought on seven new staff members - all licensed clinicians, who are now available to meet with students. Being able to hire on this number of staff will greatly increase our ability to serve the campus population. In addition, the new staff bring with them a wonderful range of diversity and they are so excited to support our students. Please visit our Staff Roster page to read bios from everyone in our department.
- Let's Talk (a more informal consultation service) and our Single Session Therapy (a single, goal-oriented, complete therapy session that provides you with strategies to help improve a particular situation or goal) continue to be offered to students. Let’s Talk appointments are released 48 hours in advance.
- In addition, UCSB CAPS has contracted with Uwill. This is a service which will greatly bolster students’ ability to connect with a community provider for tele-therapy/counseling. We know that the Santa Barbara community has been impacted and finding availability with an outside provider has been difficult. Uwill offers availability every day of the week, including evenings and weekends. To access this service, students will need to complete a CAPS Brief Assessment.
As we move through this Winter quarter, please remember that many of us are having very normal reactions to very abnormal times. Find ways to connect with your support system, practice healthy coping skills and self care in ways that feel true and valid for you personally, and be your biggest advocate in consulting with different departments and resources. If you are not sure where to start with building your support team, please visit wellbeing.ucsb.edu for some great options. If you are in need of support from CAPS, please visit https://caps.sa.ucsb.edu/, fill out a Services Request Form (https://bit.ly/CAPSrequest), or call (805) 893-4411 (available 24/7). If there is a situation that potentially involves harm to self or others, please contact Emergency Services (call 911).