How Campus Counseling Centers Can Increase Capacity With Little Money

Forbes

4 hours ago

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Some might believe that increasing the capacity of campus counseling centers to better serve students requires a large financial investment. This perception might seem daunting, especially in light of a 2025 report by Inside Higher Ed describing significant budget cuts at multiple colleges. However, below are five possible ways to increase the capacity of campus counseling centers with little money.
A 2022 report by the American Medical Association defined scope of practice as the range of activities that health professionals are authorized, trained and prepared to perform. Health professionals develop a scope of care statement to inform the public about the services they provide. This makes it efficient for when the public is searching for a provider and prevents providers from absorbing into their practice clients with concerns beyond the scope of care.
It might be tempting to believe that campus counseling centers should have an unlimited scope of care, and many centers don't provide a concise scope of care statement. However, this goes against best practices. Scope of care statements which summarize the services and limitations of counseling centers are needed. In addition, all staff counselors need to operate under the stated scope of care. When different staff counselors provide different scopes of care to different students, this reduces capacity because stakeholders might expect services that cannot be regularly provided.
A indicated by a 2023 report from the Center of Collegiate Mental Health, counseling centers gave 56% of all appointments to 20% of clients. Many of these clients were likely those with high clinical needs who were absorb into their counseling centers' normal operations. As discussed in a 2024 report on Forbes.com, using an absorption model to treat students with high needs is often ineffective. It's likely more effective to arrange specialized services for these students, and there are several ways to do this. As discussed in the report on Forbes.com, some centers have partnered with treatment centers to bring high level services onto campus. Others might develop memorandums of understanding with off-campus providers to facilitate referrals. Regardless, counseling centers should avoid an absorption model unless they have high capacity and decide to intentionally utilize this model.
It's important to note that third-party telehealth vendors may or may not be able to treat students with high clinical needs. Some schools might financially invest into a third-party vendor thinking that more online counselors will automatically increase capacity (and without thinking about scope of care). However, if the counseling center is spending the majority of sessions on high needs students, then a more effective, and often less expensive approach, might be to arrange specialized services for this group of students.
A discussed in a 2022 report by Inside Higher Ed, many current counseling center's clients have previously received services from the center. It's not surprising that, without after-care services, many students with episodic symptoms will return to the center and need additional services. There are several ways to provide after-care services. Some centers might provide individualized self-management plans upon termination of counseling. As discussed in the report by Inside Higher Ed, other centers might expand the principles within the field of substance use disorders and promote a mindset of recovery and peer support for those who've completed counseling.
The report by Inside Higher Ed also discussed how many staff counselors experience high levels of burnout. Because counselors with high levels of burnout might be less efficient, counseling centers should address sources of high burnout. For some counselors, serving on crisis/on-call rotations is a high source of burnout; however, other staff members might enjoy this work more than carrying a caseload. Thus, realigning staff duties to accommodate these preferences might be helpful. Other options include flex-scheduling, pre-determined caseload sizes, reducing outside committee assignments, and regular team building and self-care activities.
Many counseling centers have a robust mental health outreach program, but sometimes these programs are similar to those provided by a campus health promotion office. For large campuses, redundant programing is often needed, and there may be times in which saturating a campus with an outreach initiative is warranted. However, if a counseling center is struggling with capacity, and the campus has an active health promotion office, then it might be helpful for the health promotion office to take the lead in conducting outreaches.
It's possible that other campus partners can also meet certain sub-clinical needs better than the counseling center. For example, a student success office might be better equipped to address concerns related to procrastination and time management. Likewise, a student activities office might be better equipped to address homesickness. Few, if any, campus partners can provide the clinical services that the counseling center provides. Thus, avoiding redundant services is often a key to increasing capacity.