Feb. 11, 2013
According to Dr. Jack Jenkins, director of Psychological Services at UVU, when comparing the mental health resources at BYU and UVU, you notice one major thing: BYU is “light years ahead.”
“We are understaffed for the size of student body we have,” Jenkins said after their presentation. UVU has five mental-health counselors and BYU has 30, despite that the two universities are similar in size and student demographics.
The national standard of counselor-to-student ratio is 1:1,500. UVU has a ratio of around 1:5,000. Jenkins said that because of the lack of counselors some counselors work through their lunch breaks to see an extra patient. He said there are some days when a counselor will see two or three high-risk patients on top of their usual schedule. The long wait to see a counselor, and the need for more of them, concerns some students at UVU.
