Dear Colleagues,
Even as we adjust to virtual instruction and telecommuting, our work to advance our strategic vision continues, as does our core mission of student success. To that end, I write to share updates on our Enriching Campus Wellbeing Initiative. If anything, the numerous challenges of the coronavirus pandemic have amplified the importance of this initiative, as well as the need to enhance available health services and support for our Roadrunner community.
UTSA recently completed a holistic external review of Student Health Services (SHS) and Counseling & Mental Health Services (CMHS) conducted by Hodgkins Beckley Consulting, a healthcare management consulting agency that specializes in higher education. As part of their assessment, consultants identified best practices in comprehensive college health programs, conducted on-campus interviews with multiple stakeholders, and benchmarked UTSA’s healthcare services against nine peer institutions with comparable student enrollments and demographics.
To no surprise, their review found that UTSA’s campus healthcare providers and support staff are highly capable professionals who are deeply committed and open to opportunities to better serve our students. There is an opportunity though to improve student access and expand scope of services to better deliver the care that UTSA students need. Indeed, the review showed that only 10 percent of UTSA students accessed Student Health Services in 2018-2019, compared to the peer average of 32 percent.
To promote increased utilization and, more importantly, to better provide comprehensive, integrated care to students, UTSA will immediately begin the implementation of a number of the consultants' recommendations, including the following:
To increase awareness of the availability and range of these services, UTSA will develop a communications and marketing plan that not only reaches students, but also engages families and faculty/staff to help promote these services to their students.
It had been our hope to have all these changes fully implemented by the end of the Spring 2020 semester. Because UTSA has restricted campus operations in response to the coronavirus pandemic, staff in SHS and CMHS will continue working on these recommendations, so that they can be implemented shortly after the university resumes normal operations. Information will be shared as part of regular updates on the Wellbeing Initiative. Other changes are planned for the longer term after Fall 2020 – please stay tuned.
In the meantime, please visit the websites for Student Health Services and Counseling & Mental Health Services to learn how students can utilize their services in a virtual format.
I am grateful to both Dr. Beth Wichman, chief medical officer and executive director of Student Health Services, and Melissa Hernandez, director of Counseling & Mental Health Services, for their longstanding and continued support of UTSA students and for working together to implement these changes. Moving forward, we will regularly assess these services to ensure UTSA is following best practices of comprehensive college health programs for the benefit of our students.
As always, we welcome your feedback and ideas at wellbeing@utsa.edu.
Sincerely, Kimberly Andrews Espy, Ph.D. |