Lack of counselors leaves some Toros without the support services they feel they need
The CSUDH Residential Life team announced in January that a counselor would be available to meet with residents in Phase III student housing on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Student Psychological Services (SPS) also planned to offer mental health support groups for the Spring 2024 semester.
Despite the new resource, some Toros feel they do not have immediate and consistent access to mental health care on campus.
“I’ve experienced trying to get mental health services, not just for therapy but also diagnosis,” said third-year labor studies student Jeydon Vargas. “It’s a long process.”
There are currently 10 psychologists on staff at SPS. According to CSUDH’s enrollment data for Fall 2022, there is “a total undergraduate enrollment of 13,816 (fall 2022),” which means there is one counselor available for roughly every 1,500 students. That’s a few hundred students more per counselor compared to the student-to-counselor ratio at other schools in the California State University system.
SPS director Dr. Denna Sanchez acknowledged the limited number of staff on hand for individual therapy sessions, but said there are other services available to Toros, such as group counseling sessions and workshops. Many students have said a workshop designed for a specific need or community helps them to feel seen and understood, according to Sanchez.
“We have workshops that address anxiety, we have mindfulness workshops, and groups for students struggling with romantic relationships,” Sanchez said.
SPS encourages students to take advantage of the creative options that carry out the same valuable impact as traditional therapy sessions. Sanchez said although there are teams of students and staff responsible for communicating with the campus community about these services, workshop and group therapy registration and attendee numbers are not very high. Other times, workshop registration numbers remain higher than the number of students who show up to them.
“They’re out there all the time, but students are busy, sometimes they don’t have time to stop at a table,” Sanchez said.
Programs like “Creative Arts Workshop for Students with disAbilities” or “I’m First: A Space to Connect with First Generation Toros” cater to students of different backgrounds, but some students still feel more diverse representation is needed among mental health care providers. Although the majority of psychologists on staff at Dominguez Hills are people from historically marginalized communities and backgrounds, there are still few providers there who identify as queer or trans.
“As a transgender student of color, I want a therapist who looks like me, someone I can relate to,” Vargas said. “There aren’t enough queer or trans therapists in Psych Services.”
According to Sanchez, an in-house therapist was placed in University housing to tackle issues faced by student residents and address their needs.. In-house therapists have been placed at other departments and campus organizations, including Toro Athletics, the Toro Guardian Scholars program; there is also first-generation student support at the Latinx Cultural Resource Center who provide specialized mental health services. However, there are currently no such services available at the Queer Culture and Resource Center.
Sanchez has taken note of how crucial representation is to queer and trans students. SPS intends to address this issue by strengthening outreach with queer students.
“As we continue to plan and develop programs, outreach, and workshops for unique populations, I will encourage our counseling staff to collaborate with the Queer Culture and Resource Center to address the needs of students from these communities,” Sanchez said. “In the future, we will be intentional about providing support, programming, education, and outreach for trans and queer students.”
There is a disconnect between Toros and the resources designed to help them. As Student Psychological Services takes on deeper evaluations of the CSUDH community, further amplifying the presence of the alternative variety of support could bridge the gap.
