the Informer

The University of Hartford’s Office of Counseling and Psychological Services, or CAPS, offers complimentary services to the university student body.
As its Web site explains, CAPS “provides a range of short-term counseling and psychological services to the university community… to full-time undergraduate students at no additional cost” beyond already paying tuition.
Additionally, according to the Web site, “Part-time and graduate students may utilize CAPS services for a nominal fee.” This fee is referred to as a “health and wellness fee.”

The Web site does caution, however, that “if you are on campus and require emergency psychiatric assistance call ext. 7777 for Public Safety,” and that “if you are off campus and require emergency assistance call 911 or visit your local emergency room.”

On the CAPS Web site, students may, without charge, screen themselves under “completely confidential and anonymous” circumstances, as the site explains, for “depression, generalized anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol abuse and eating disorders.”

These screenings, states the Web site, “are provided so [one] may quickly find out whether or not professional consultation might helpful to [oneself].”

On average, said Dr. David Albert, who is the director of CAPS as well as a Northwestern University-educated clinical psychologist, CAPS “sees between seven and 10 percent of the undergraduate population in any given year.”
Albert further explained that CAPS “will frequently work with off-campus providers, whether we’re referring a student for specialized care, or sometimes more intensive services than we can offer.”

CAPS, as Albert explained, has five full-time staff members including two licensed clinical psychologists- including Albert himself- two social workers and one licensed professional counselor. It also employs Office Manager Liz Inkel, who won Outstanding Staff Member of the Year last year. CAPS also has four graduate student trainees and has psychiatry residents from Hartford Hospital rotate at CAPS.

CAPS staff, according to Albert, are always on call to Residential Life staff members after hours. They will make a daily crisis appointment for any student who is “in crisis,” such as if he or she is contemplating harm to him/herself.
CAPS will also participate in the Tunnel of Oppression, which will be held in Suisman Lounge on Friday, Feb. 12. Christopher Weed, who is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker on the staff of CAPS, explained that he will be working with C and D Complex Resident Director John Hernandez and with other individuals coordinating the event “to help students process the experience of going through this event and what it means, and to point students in the direction of addressing the issues addressed in the Tunnel.”

Weed compared this event to Take Back the Night, which is an event for raising awareness of the oppression that women face.

“It’s nice,” said Weed, “[that CAPS] can participate in students raising awareness and the emotional awareness that comes with that, when it comes to emotional issues that are too difficult to address.”

CAPS, according to Albert, also “does a lot of outreach in various forms and presents a lot of dialogue courses” and tables in Gengras for occasions related to the services that CAPS provides, such as Eating Disorder Awareness Day, Mental Health Awareness Day and Depression Screening Day.

Photo by Suzie Hunter