UVA’s Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) is a University resource designed to help students with everything from school stress to mental health crises; however, CAPS has a long-standing reputation on Grounds for being an unhelpful, and sometimes even harmful, path to take for any student looking to seek help for their mental health. Some of the biggest student complaints involve extremely long wait times to be seen by a counselor, feeling unrepresented and unheard by CAPS’s predominantly-white staff, not receiving enough counseling sessions to fully deal with their issues, and meeting with counselors that are not fully informed regarding the topics the student wanted to discuss. If students feel like CAPS is an underdeveloped resource, they simply won’t use it for fear of experiencing the same issues that previous students faced. This avoidance leads to less students getting the help they deserve for their mental health and more students needlessly suffering in silence.

YDSA is responding to these trends and we’re speaking out to demand that UVA fully fund CAPS, increase funding for the Women’s Center, and expand resources to help all of their students in need. Fully funding CAPS would mean an end to the extensive waitlists and an expansion of the number of visits a student is allowed. By hiring counselors trained to assist victims of abuse and sexual violence, students would feel more comfortable reaching out to CAPS. Endowing and hiring counselors specifically dedicated to speaking with Black and Brown students about their experience within a PWI setting is another must to fully meet the needs of all of the University’s student population. These are only some of our demands in our petition to pressure the University into expanding their mental health resources and to begin to rectify the glaring lack of attention that mental health has gotten on Grounds.

Studies show that young people and college students face extreme mental health crises. These crises, exacerbated by the global Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, and neoliberalism are why Young Democratic Socialists of America at UVA is fighting to address both mental health services and the root causes of declining mental health.

a. Fund CAPS to the point where there are no longer extensive waitlists

b. Expand number of visits allowed per student to 18 and implement long-term counseling options

c. Endow and hire special counselor positions for POC students specifically dedicated to the experience of Black and Brown students in PWI settings

d. Endow and hire counselors specialized in dealing with victims of abuse and sexual violence

2. Fully fund the Women’s Center

3. End UPD involvement in mental health emergency response

4. Create standardized approaches to classroom and academic policies regarding mental health to accommodate students

a. We call for a democratic and collaborative process between administration, staff, and students that will set new standards for mental healthcare at the university

b. Provide SDAC testing free of charge