I’ve heard a lot of horror stories of people going in for evaluations, and then they have to wait for weeks or even months to hear back about whether they had been assigned a therapist. That happened to me: I went in for an evaluation and never got any word back. These people have already reached out to a resource that should be an inherent right to them as a student at Yale. Lack of feedback acts as a detriment to their mental health because if they are reaching out in the first place they obviously have something that they need to talk to a professional about. Without any other resource to go to, it really puts them in a difficult situation. When a therapist isn’t responding to the student in their time of need, it really makes the student feel undervalued, and that the school really isn’t there for them. The current mental health resources at Yale are being exhausted because so many people are trying to get access to those resources. The demand is far greater than the supply of counselors that Yale can provide, so you have a lot of people left without the vital help that they need. I think it’s important to have therapists who are POC and LGBTQ+ because they can speak to those experiences and relate better. Like, for white therapists for instance, it can be difficult for them to relate the struggles that a person may be experiencing because of vast differences between how they live and how they navigate social relationships.
Miles Waits, He/Him, 2021, Jonathan Edwards College
