Treatment Model and Scope of Services
The Initial Consultation at CAPS involves a counselor reviewing your paperwork, understanding your needs, and discussing treatment options, such as workshops, group therapy, brief-problem solving, individual counseling, or case management. Following this, treatment recommendations are made by our Clinical Review Team, who will determine whether a student will receive services at CAPS or be referred to other campus- or community-based providers. The variables influencing this decision can be complex. Most often, external referrals are based upon the student's need for longer-term, specialized, or more intensive treatment. Our case manager can offer support to link students with outside referrals.
Brief-Treatment Model
When CAPS counseling is recommended, students receive brief treatment, generally 6-7 sessions. Counselors help students resolve or learn to cope with concerns more effectively and offer new perspectives on situations to make needed changes. Using a range of techniques, they personalize approaches to overcome challenges and find solutions. While session length and frequency are individualized, treatment plans outline clear, achievable goals within the brief treatment model.
Common concerns related to counseling requests include:
- Anxiety and Stress
- Depression
- Family and Interpersonal Functioning
- Academic Performance
- Grief and loss
- Struggles with Identity
- Issues Related to Diversity
- Post-Traumatic Stress
Limits of CAPS Services
Our services have limitations. For some student needs, other campus or community agencies offer more appropriate support. The CAPS Case Manager can assist in locating and accessing these external resources for these needs:
- Benefits-eligible employees will receive case management to community-based referrals
- Students who are already receiving counseling services from another provider and do not end that treatment
- Students who are seeking counseling because it is a requirement of a class, and who are not otherwise motivated for or in need of treatment
- Students seeking documentation for emotional support animals
- Students seeking or attempting to meet requirements of court-mandated treatment, legal proceedings, or employment clearance
- Students whose needs fall outside the clinical expertise of CAPS staff
- Students for whom a short-term treatment model would be detrimental or inappropriate to the diagnosis or clinical issues
- Students with a desire to be seen more frequently than CAPS resources can provide (e.g., more than weekly), or on a long-term basis
- Students who demonstrate a serious lack of motivation or engagement in treatment, as evidenced by poor attendance to appointments or lack of follow-through on recommendations
- Students in need of ongoing or intensive supports to treat chronic, serious mental health conditions
- Students with a history of longstanding, seriously maladaptive interpersonal behaviors that result in severe relationship problems, requiring services beyond CAPS scope
- Students with a recent history of numerous suicide attempts, severe self-injury, or multiple psychiatric hospitalizations
- Students with significant or chronic disordered eating symptoms which require intensive outpatient or residential treatment and whose symptoms pose a medical danger
- Students with significant or chronic substance use which requires intensive outpatient or residential treatment, detox, or hospitalization, or whose symptoms pose a medical danger
- Students who, despite ongoing efforts of their counselor, are not achieving progress with established counseling goals
- Students in need of ongoing medication management after the termination of counseling services or case management at CAPS
- Students with active psychotic symptoms at risk for progressive deterioration of functioning and in need of intensive treatment for stabilization
- Students who engage in inappropriate, harassing, menacing, threatening, or violent behaviors towards CAPS staff