UVU vs. BYU: Mental Health

Feb. 11, 2013 

 

According to Dr. Jack Jenkins, director of Psychological Services at UVU, when comparing the mental health resources at BYU and UVU, you notice one major thing: BYU is “light years ahead.”

“We are understaffed for the size of student body we have,” Jenkins said after their presentation. UVU has five mental-health counselors and BYU has 30, despite that the two universities are similar in size and student demographics.

The national standard of counselor-to-student ratio is 1:1,500. UVU has a ratio of around 1:5,000. Jenkins said that because of the lack of counselors some counselors work through their lunch breaks to see an extra patient. He said there are some days when a counselor will see two or three high-risk patients on top of their usual schedule. The long wait to see a counselor, and the need for more of them, concerns some students at UVU.