Accomodate Students With Extended Health Center Hours

by The Cowl Editor on September 13, 2018


Campus


A photo of the health center at Providence College.
The Personal Counseling Center and the Student Health Center are both located in Bedford Hall on lower campus. Photo courtesy of Providence College.

by Laura Arango ’20

Opinion Staff

The Personal Counseling Center and Student Health Center at Providence College are two beneficial resources that the College offers to its students.

However, their maximum potential is not being reached—a sentiment that a majority of PC students share with one another. Both the Student Health Center and Personal Counseling Center are only open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

These are the hours of the day in which students are in class, learning, studying, attending extracurriculars, working, or attending their internships.

In other words, these are not the appropriate hours for students to unwind and debrief during a counseling session nor are they ideal hours for a student to seek medical attention.

Medical attention on a local campus should be readily available until at least 7 p.m. or 8 p.m.

Another issue altogether is the difficulty that lies in booking an appointment at the Personal Counseling Center.

Typically, it takes anywhere between two and three weeks to receive an initial consultation. Students seeking counseling for anxiety, confusion, or depression should not be left waiting nearly a month for a counseling session.

This discourages students from making an appointment at the counseling center because the wait is too long.

Truthfully, some students cannot afford to wait three weeks, nor can they afford to Uber or travel off-campus for psychological help. 

In reality, some students need consistent, weekly sessions and for the amount that it costs to attend PC, this should not be something that is up for discussion.

It is also unfathomable that both of these facilities are completely closed on the weekends.

With that being said, the reality of the situation is that many students may need to seek medical attention from professionals on the weekends outside of needing medical attention for intoxication.

Along the same lines, students may also need psychological attention on the weekends because of the party culture that dominates PC.

Additionally, Saturdays and Sundays are days when students are free and actually have the time to go to therapy or get a cough checked out.

Students who may be gravely ill may want the opportunity to seek medical attention out for themselves.

During the weekend, the only option a student has is to go off-campuswhich once again may not be feasible for said studentor to wait for an EMT to arrive.

For many students, particularly first-year students, having an EMT at your door is embarrassing and draws unwanted attention.

With unwanted attention comes unwanted questions and situations. Students at PC deserve access to medical attention without alerting every other student on their floor.

The students at PC have been wanting change for a very long time, but it is time that the College extends the hours of the Personal Counseling Center and the Student Health Center.