Emily McPherson • @emcphersonok
W
hen Claire Funk sought treatment for depression at OU’s Counseling Psychology Clinic in the fall of 2017, she knew her time there as a patient might be limited.
But even though the clinic was facing a possible shutdown in the next year, to her, it was the best option.
Now, the clinic is closed, and the nutrition junior is left to search for another source of mental health care she can afford.
“I wish that there was another option for me,” Funk said. “I wish that there was something else, but I just don’t know what there is to fill that gap right now.”
The Counseling Psychology Clinic, which served as a practicum for students in OU’s psychology doctoral program and offered an affordable sliding fee scale for clients from all over the state, closed its doors for good on May 10 after struggling with administrative staffing.
Two faculty members retired and one resigned in 2017, and a new hire backed out after hearing of the others’ departures, said Gregg Garn, dean of the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education. Due to funding problems, the positions were not refilled. The doctoral program accepted its last class of students in February 2017 and will end completely when its final students graduate.
The closure means hundreds of clients now have to look elsewhere for low-cost mental health services.
“I kind of just don’t know where to go from here,” Funk said.
‘The Counseling Psychology Clinic … was literally my lifeline’
Advertising senior Bailey Brown started seeing a counselor at the clinic at the beginning of her freshman year in the fall of 2015 after her mom suggested therapy to address her depression and anxiety.
“I believe in I’m the right place now, and (the clinic) obviously directed me to that right place,” she said. “If I didn’t have that resource, then I probably could potentially not be here right now.”
Brown, who stopped going to therapy once she was put on medication for anxiety and depression at the beginning of her sophomore year, said one reason she chose to go to the clinic was its low cost compared to mental health care providers in Texas, where she’s from.
“(The sliding scale) was really nice,” she said. “The clinic here was a lot more affordable for us, especially with starting college and everything.”
The Counseling Psychology Clinic was different from other campus mental health centers in the state in that it treated not just students, faculty and staff, but anyone from the state who needed care for low costs and even, sometimes, pro bono.
While Oklahoma ranks fifth in the nation for mental health workforce availability, with one mental health care provider for every 285 individuals — the national average is one provider for every 566 individuals — it also ranks 42nd in the nation for access to mental health care. Nearly 30 percent of Oklahomans with a disability, such as a mental illness, could not afford to see a doctor in 2012 to 2013, according to Mental Health America.
“People would drive to this clinic from 50 or 60 miles because we were accessible, affordable,” said Terry Pace, who was the director of the clinic when it closed. “So yeah, there’s a loss. There’s definitely a loss in terms of serving the community.”
Pace estimated the clinic served around 200 people a month at its peak, and around 50 people a month in the year before it closed. Of those clients, Pace said, about half were able to complete their therapy goals before the closure. The other half were given individualized referrals to other mental health care providers.
5
Oklahoma's ranking for mental health workforce availability
42
Oklahoma's ranking for access to mental health care
But it’s unlikely every person who received care at the clinic was able to afford care elsewhere, said Lisa Frey, who retired as clinic director in December 2017 and now works in private practice. Frey estimates the clinic had the lowest sliding fee scale in the area, and she guesses many clients are simply no longer receiving treatment.
“I know that the student counselors were seeking people that were in private practice and in agencies and so forth to see some of the folks for low-cost fees … but, you know, when you’re in private practice, you can’t fill your practice in that way, or you’re not going to be able to survive,” Frey said. “So there’s no way that private practice people were ever going to be able to absorb all the clients that we saw there.”
While it is not an option for those who aren’t OU students, faculty and staff, Goddard’s University Counseling Center offers a low-cost alternative to the Counseling Psychology Clinic — an unappealing alternative, to some.
“I know a lot of the people that work in Goddard, and it’s not that I feel uncomfortable with people knowing that this is something I struggle with, but it is just kind of nice to have my own separate space away from it all,” Funk said. “That was (a) big reason I preferred the Counseling Psychology Clinic.”
Funk, who has struggled with depression since she was in middle school, said she was able to get an appointment at the clinic right away and see her counselor consistently every week — a stark contrast to the weeks, or even months, many students have had to wait to see someone at Goddard’s counseling center.
“What (the clinic staff was) hearing from students is that there were long waits for them to get (appointments at Goddard), that there was a long period of time between appointments, that their needs weren’t being met in those kinds of ways,” Frey said. “I don’t know what the reasons for that were. But I do know that the clinic was a place for people that wanted regular, consistent services, to come in every week or every two weeks.”
Brown said she went to Goddard once, during her freshman year.
“It was $10 a session, so I went and tried it out,” she said. “It wasn’t my favorite — I liked the other clinic better — but it still was a stepping stone. If I didn’t have more than $10 in my account, I definitely would have chosen to stay there.”
Mental Illness Stats in Oklahoma*
1 in 5 Oklahomans has a mental illness
Oklahoma’s individual to mental health care provider ratio is 285:1
National individual to mental health care provider ratio is 566:1
60.6 percent of adults went without needed treatment for a mental illness
*Statistics are from Mental Health America 2012-2013
Mental Illness Stats in Oklahoma*
1 in 5 Oklahomans has a mental illness
Oklahoma’s individual to mental health care provider ratio is 285:1
National individual to mental health care provider ratio is 566:1
60.6 percent of adults went without needed treatment for a mental illness
*Statistics are from Mental Health America 2012-2013
“I know a lot of the people that work in Goddard, and it’s not that I feel uncomfortable with people knowing that this is something I struggle with, but it is just kind of nice to have my own separate space away from it all,” Funk said. “That was (a) big reason I preferred the Counseling Psychology Clinic.”
Funk, who has struggled with depression since she was in middle school, said she was able to get an appointment at the clinic right away and see her counselor consistently every week — a stark contrast to the weeks, or even months, many students have had to wait to see someone at Goddard’s counseling center.
“What (the clinic staff was) hearing from students is that there were long waits for them to get (appointments at Goddard), that there was a long period of time between appointments, that their needs weren’t being met in those kinds of ways,” Frey said. “I don’t know what the reasons for that were. But I do know that the clinic was a place for people that wanted regular, consistent services, to come in every week or every two weeks.”
Brown said she went to Goddard once, during her freshman year.
“It was $10 a session, so I went and tried it out,” she said. “It wasn’t my favorite — I liked the other clinic better — but it still was a stepping stone. If I didn’t have more than $10 in my account, I definitely would have chosen to stay there.”
Brown said she feels she is “on the right track” and hasn’t sought therapy since leaving the clinic in 2016. Funk, however, wants to find a new therapist but said she is intimidated by the process.
“Once you get established somewhere and someone starts to know your history and understand what you need, finding a new person to be that outlet — like a new therapist — is a little daunting,” she said. “I just haven’t made that step yet.”
Funk said she’s holding out hope that the clinic may reopen.
“I definitely want to go back … because it just worked for me, something that I became familiar with, and it’s a space that I was really comfortable in,” she said. “In a lot of ways, the Counseling Psychology Clinic for me last year was literally my lifeline.”
‘Another death blow’
When OU’s program ends, Oklahoma State University will have the only counseling psychology doctoral program in the state.
Garn said 11 students remain in OU’s doctoral program. Four of those students are expected to graduate in either December or May, leaving seven students who still need to work on their internship hours and dissertations. Because the clinic is no longer operating, the students will have to complete their practicums with external supervisors.
To make up for the faculty who left when the clinic closed, Pace, professor and director of clinical training Paula McWhirter and a number of adjunct faculty stepped up to help see students through the program. Frey said she also continues to mentor a few students as they work through their dissertations.
“We’re lucky in that we have a good network we can pull people (from) to make sure that they’re teaching that class and then the students are getting the best experience that they can,” Garn said. “It’s certainly not an ideal situation, but we’ve really tried to work as hard as we can to make sure that we have the best folks around these students under the current conditions.”
But once those students graduate, OU’s doctoral counseling psychology program will be put on an indefinite hiatus, leaving only four doctoral psychology programs in Oklahoma: counseling psychology, clinical psychology and school psychology at OSU, and clinical psychology at the University of Tulsa. OU was the only university with a counseling psychology clinic used to train its doctoral students.
“This is going to have a trickle-down effect,” Frey said. “There aren’t going to be enough psychologists in the state.”
Pace expects a deficit in psychologists unless OU’s program is restarted or OSU’s is expanded — which is difficult to do while continuing to be a quality program, he said.
“I don’t think we’re going to get that many people moved to Oklahoma to practice,” Pace said. “We’re not going to see (the effect) right now. We’ll see it five, 10, 15 years down the road.”
Garn said that while he is hopeful the clinic could reopen some day, he is focused on graduating the current doctoral students and expanding the master’s program.
“A lot of times, you just kind of find yourself in these really difficult choices,” Garn said. “Without the ability to be able to stabilize and have the resources for long-term faculty, I think the right decision is to put this program on hiatus and then really focus on that master’s program and see if we can produce a lot of great counselors out of that program.”
In a statement sent through email by Erin Yarbrough, interim vice president for public affairs, OU President James Gallogly said there are no plans to reopen the clinic.
“We are committed to supporting students’ mental health,” Gallogly said in the statement. “An additional counselor was hired at the University Counseling Center this year and we will continue to monitor both wait times and costs to ensure students are able to receive the services they need.”
While OU continues to struggle to provide adequate mental health care services for students, faculty and staff, Frey said the closure of the clinic will have a big impact.
“Mental health services in Oklahoma are pretty abysmal. There just is not enough out there for the number of people that need services,” Frey said. “So every agency that closes, including the clinic, is another death blow for people that really need mental health services in the community.”