Counseling and Psychological Services continues search for more diverse staff

Although Counseling and Psychological Services initiated a search for more diverse social workers last semester following student concerns, the positions have not yet been filled.

As CAPS’ search continues, demand from students continues to rise. More than 1,900 students visited CAPS in the 2014-15 academic year, representing a 24 percent increase from five years ago, said Libby Webb, interim director of CAPS. Even though the search for new social workers has not been completed, Webb said that the office has hired two psychologist interns and initiated cultural competency training for CAPS staff in response to student concerns about diversity.

“I am really appreciative of student activists who discuss bringing more diversity into CAPS,” Webb said. “Our staff wants to visually represent the demographics of our community that we work within. Yet it’s equally important for those of us who don’t come from those demographic backgrounds to hold cross-cultural competence.”

Webb noted that one of the interns, Marvice Marcus, a doctoral student in counseling psychology at Washington State University, specializes in working with black students and on social justice issues. He will continue working with CAPS as he completes his Ph.D. 

The second intern, Gregory Welikson,  a Ph.D. student at Fordham University, is completing a one-year residency at Duke that will end this August. Welikson has expertise in recognizing white privilege and building cross-cultural communities, Webb said. 

CAPS’ search for social workers who have experience working with Asian-American, Latino/a and international students began last November. The organization is also looking for a new director and starting a two-year initiative with dRworks—an abbreviation for the consulting organization Dismantling Racism Works—to address racial inequities in CAPS, Webb added.

Students have voiced the importance of having staff who can relate to minority students’ experiences.

“It can be both extremely tiring and triggering to have to explain one’s own ethnicity, especially if it relates to one’s mental health, and the common experiences that many members of the [Asian and Asian-American] community go through,” wrote senior John Park, executive board member of the Asian Students Association, in an email.

Park added that because mental health and illness is highly stigmatized in Asian culture, CAPS and other cultural organizations should work to make mental health resources more accessible for minority students specifically.

Yan Li, an Asian staff psychologist at CAPS, said that students’ call for psychologists of various cultural and racial backgrounds resonated with her. 

“It is also important not to make the assumption that students of color should only seek counseling or only benefit [from] counseling with therapists who share the similar culture background,” Li wrote in an email. “Addressing issues of equity and inclusion around race, ethnicity, ability, sexual orientation and gender identity [is] the responsibility of all therapists at CAPS.”

Li noted that the demographic picture of students seeking CAPS clinical services has largely mirrored the percentage of various groups within the Duke student population, with the exception of international students, who are largely underrepresented.

Senior Quang Do, president of Duke’s International Association, explained that the underrepresentation of international students at CAPS is largely due to cultural differences and said that they may feel less comfortable seeking help.

“We are talking with Li and plan to collaborate with CAPS to promote mental health in the international students community,” Do said. “We are going to help Li reach out to other cultural groups on campus and have a grand meeting. The International Association also wants to build a mentor-mentee system, to pair up upperclassmen and incoming international students and then bring Dr. Li in to hold mental health workshops throughout the year.”

CAPS is also planning on making its website more user-friendly and hopes to allow students to schedule appointments online.

“[Duke Student Government] has reached out to us and suggests that more students would come in if they don’t have to call to make an appointment,” Webb said. “We’ve been checking other online appointment programs and talking with developers. We believe that would be an added benefit, and we want to move that way.”

Students have also noted that the relatively long waiting time between calling CAPS to get an appointment and actually going in can be problematic.

“The long queue of students who are often waiting for an appointment is proof in and of itself, that the presence [of CAPS] is necessary,” sophomore Ambika Menon, a peer responder for Peer for You, wrote in an email. “However, the wait while you’re in the queue may allow for the internalization of emotions that need to be understood and spoken about and dealt with immediately.”

The average waiting time before getting a first appointment is 4.5 days, but CAPS has an on-call team that can provide immediate service if the student has an emergency, Webb said.

CAPS is meant for short-term counseling, and students on average use CAPS for four to five counseling sessions, she added. CAPS can refer students to other clinics near campus if students are seeking long-term therapy.

Gary Glass, associate director of outreach and developmental programming for CAPS and a staff psychologist, noted that students have become more involved in addressing mental health issues and that student efforts can complement CAPS’ efforts.

Peer For You, a student organization that provides web-based support for other students, received training from CAPS to properly respond to messages from those seeking help.

“We want to serve as the frontline when students are stressed out and want to talk to someone, and CAPS is a separate but connected resource that students can utilize too,” said junior Louisa Hanson, co-president of Peer For You.

Peer For You and CAPS also collaborate to hold mental-health related events and refer students to each other when needed, Hanson added.

“I think Peer for You’s being run totally by students and for students is special because it allows a certain empathy and ability to better relate to the students who message in because we’re all Duke students and understand what that’s like, ” wrote junior Kelly Vittetoe, a peer responder at Peer For You, in an email.

Webb applauded students’ efforts to help promote mental health on campus and expressed that CAPS hopes to keep partnering with and advising students.

“They can do things in the ways we can’t,” Webb said. “What we hope for at CAPS is that students can open up to each other, and in that opening up knowing that everybody struggling with something and that’s normal.”