Counseling services are dealing with shortages in the number of staff able to provide counseling at Iowa State.

Student Counseling Services offers the most services available on campus. According to its Web site, they offer “prevention, intervention, information and referral services to Iowa State students.”

However, due to the small number of staff members at Student Counseling Services, a student may have to wait up to three weeks to get an appointment, said Joyce Davidson, associate director of Student Counseling Services.

The SCS facility has 11 staff members who see patients on a regular basis. Of these, eight are full-time staff and three are nonpermanent faculty who are completing their Ph.D.s and will leave at the end of the academic year.

The International Association of Counseling Services recommends a minimum of one “professional staff member” per 1,000 to 1,500 students.

With a student population of more than 26,000, ISU Student Counseling Services provide approximately one professional staff member for every 2,400 students. In 2006, the national average was one professional staff member per 1,698 students, according to the IACS.

“We try to make ourselves as available as we possibly can,” Davidson said. “We could definitely use more resources. We hate it when folks have to wait three weeks.”

Davidson said they do have a crisis feature – if students really need to see someone they will be able to do so within the day. If their condition is not considered a crisis, then they are put on the waiting list.

“We don’t decide on how busy we are, but on their individual needs,” Davidson said. “If a student is identified as having critical needs, we try to get them in that same day, or the next.”

Davidson said that SCS could use more funds.

“With more resources, we could do more programming, and even develop new services,” Davidson said.

If a wait would be too long for a student, or if the SCS facility could not meet a student’s needs, they would send students elsewhere in the community, Davidson said.

Students can also be counseled at the Wellness Center, which is located above Thielen Student Health Center. The center provides stress management, as well as smoking cessation and relationship therapy.

Scott Young, graduate student in psychology and therapist at the Wellness Center, said he works 14 hours per week and most of his weeks are “either mostly full or completely full,” although he has no wait list.

“There would definitely be room for more resources,” Young said. “If there were more money for more positions, there would be more interest [for positions].”

The Wellness Center has one fitness graduate assistant and one part-time registered dietitian.

Young said, besides smoking, the center doesn’t offer drug-related therapy, and usually refers those in need of drug therapy to other facilities in the Ames community.