By Kenadie Mlujeak
Taking care of your mental health is something that is being encouraged more and more recently. About 70% of students have struggled with mental health since starting college, according to data from a U.S. News survey. But where should you begin? Luckily, for Delta College students, there is a bounty of resources at their fingertips.
Delta College offers free personal counseling for all students both in-person and online, helping with problems from grief and loss to test anxiety. Other services like career counseling and workshops for procrastination and time management are also available to students who need extra support.
Counseling intern Sevia Reyes says that these services are important, especially as Delta College tries to support new students of all ages.
“We do get those first incoming students who are just struggling with the change,” she said. “Coming to college is a big change at any age so we do a lot of work with that.”
In addition to the resources mentioned, the counseling service team can also help if you are having issues with needs like food insecurity and financial problems.
“We also do a lot of basic needs to make the connections for the students,” Reyes said. “Housing, financial problems, food. We can try to point you in the right direction.”
Delta’s counseling team is looking to develop their services and add more resources for students. Workshops for student athletes are at the top of their list as the counseling team looks to broaden their support for all groups of students.
“We’re trying to expand more to make sure that our student athletes are taken care of as well,” Reyes said. “They are a vulnerable population here, so we try to make sure we are as involved as we can be.”
While the workshops surrounding more academic aspects of college are available, Reyes says that workshops focusing on socialization and making connections with other students are in the works as well.
“We see a lot of our students struggle with building friendships here, so adding those types of workshops would be nice,” she said.
The counseling service team is interested in adding support groups to help students make friendships on campus and connect with students experiencing similar issues.
As for the popularity of these services, Reyes says that they are clearly being utilized by students. Each member of the counseling team sees around five to eight students each day, and students are joining waitlists for the sessions. Reyes says that spots are always available for students to use any counseling service in the winter semester and beyond.
With tests, assignments, and things out of our control, it can be hard to prioritize mental health and self-care. The free resources that Delta College provides make it easier for all students to focus on their mental health and make sure that they are taking care of themselves as best as they can. For more information on the resources available to students at Delta College, visit the Counseling Services tab on the Delta College website, call 989-686-9330, or contact the team via email at counselingservices@delta.edu.
