Depression is prevalent on college campuses but is still highly stigmatized, making it difficult for students to seek help. The Counseling and Testing Center in Grace Wilkie Hall offers students, faculty, and staff ways to track mental health concerns and seek treatment for a host of mental health disorders. The staff at the counseling center aim to offer accessible services in a high-stress community like a college campus.

Cynthia Beevers, a post-doctoral fellow who works for the CTC, says it’s hard to get people to open up but talking about problems is part of the help and healing process.

Beevers said if you know someone who could be struggling with depression you should talk to them.

“Have a conversation with the person. That’s one of the things we always stress, is recognizing first that there might be something wrong or something that that person is struggling with. The next step is to ask them, just to engage with them.”

This can be uncomfortable but it’s all about seeing if someone is okay, Beevers said.

“Often we will pass people thinking, ‘That’s none of our business’ but we can just be like ‘Hey, you seem like you’re struggling with something’ or ‘You seem upset, do you need someone to talk to, can I help?’ We’re trying to get people to realize that we’re all responsible for each other,” Beevers said.

The CTC staff want to help the WSU community address depression in a manner that causes the least imposition.

“We want to have the least disruption possible,” Beevers said. “If we went straight to calling the police that would really disrupt a lot of things for students. If we can meet one-on-one and come up with a plan to help this person, that’s our goal — to help in a way that is the least disruptive method possible for that person.”

The CTC also offers mental health screenings.

“We also are trying to increase access to services, so increasing help seeking by having people take screenings,” Beevers said.

The screenings are not a diagnostic tool. They help those who take them get feedback to better decide what their next step should be.

Here’s what to expect from a screening.

First, you will be asked to select the statement that best fits how you have been thinking or behaving. Second, you will answer questions about yourself and how you’ve been feeling over the last two weeks. Third, you will get explanations about your moods and behaviors with the option to email or print your results. There’s also a referral button you can use if you want to seek professional advice. Fourth, there are links which allows you access to informational material about how to help yourself.

The process takes a few minutes and there’s no login required.

Beevers said the screening is part of the counseling office’s ongoing outreach activities to raise awareness of prevention for mental health issues.

“What we’re trying to do with prevention is give people actual skills, give them actual ways to address difficulties that might come up,” Beevers said. “Like if you do talk to someone and they are suicidal here’s exactly what you do, here’s how you have that conversation, here’s where you go for additional help. We take the same approach with things like our anxiety workshops, just trying to give people additional skills to manage stress, or to manage the beginning parts of any sort of mental illness again so that it doesn’t spiral into something more serious.”

“When we do prevention we aren’t asking people to be therapists. We aren’t asking people to be mental health professionals. We’re just asking that they care about other people, that they help them get to the professionals that can help them.

“All we’re asking is that you just be curious enough about another human being to just ask about what’s going on.”

Beevers said the CTC needs to keep putting their message out there.

“We really want to communicate a message of hope, that even when we’re struggling, and things are piling up that there’s still hope, that you can get help, you can get the support and part of the people offering that support is the Counseling and Testing Center.”

The CTC’s mental health screening can be taken online atwichita.edu/services/counseling.

Counseling and Testing Center

320 Grace Wilkie Hall

Office Hours: Monday, Thursday and Friday 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. / Tuesdays & Wednesdays 8:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Phone: 316-978-3440