Same day appointments are no longer being offered by UW counselling services. However, students shouldn’t be worried about this new development — in fact, it might actually make it easier to access the help they need.
Melissa Strachan, Associate Director of Counselling services, says that the decision to make the change had come about from simply looking at the data. “The same day [appointment] was a way for [students] to… [access] brief counselling, and we started that in fall of 2022 with one day a week.” Strachan says that its reception was well-received initially, leading counselling services to then offer same-day appointments two days per week starting in the fall of 2022. Immediately, there was a precipitous drop in attendance. “We continued to monitor the data and the numbers and saw consistently since the fall that we were not filling the appointments by 50 per cent or more every week.”
Student feedback suggests that the reason for the low usage rate and empty counselling hours most likely lies within the inconvenient scheduling structure of same day appointments. To book a session, students had to register in the early morning, after which they would be called by an intake person who would then schedule them in for some time in the afternoon. The lack of specificity in the timing of when a call would come and what times would be available often made same day appointments inaccessible and hard to schedule around, and students would often be caught unawares either in class, sleeping, or off-campus.
Those who used same day appointments will not be left helpless, however, as the regular single sessions are still offered. To book, one would also talk with an intake specialist who would book at the student’s earliest convenience. The benefit of this approach is that it meets the student’s schedule needs more effectively and ultimately decreases wait times for everybody, as there are fewer counsellor hours going to waste now.
Strachan says that counselling services are still closely monitoring student feedback and wants. With open community between all student support services as well as a dedicated student advisory committee, they are constantly on the lookout for what students want and brainstorming ways to make it work. “If there’s input from students that are like ‘we need this back,’ we will definitely look into that and… [how we] can make it fly this time.”
If you or a friend are in need of mental health support, please consider booking an appointment with counselling services by calling 519-888-4096. For more information, visit the UW counselling services website.
