Eligibility for Services
All enrolled VCU students are eligible to access UCS for help in connecting to mental health support and determining which services may be a good fit. Depending on each student’s concerns and needs, UCS counselors may recommend time-limited individual therapy, group therapy, skills groups, support groups, and/or additional services offered at the center or across campus.
Some students may require a higher level of care beyond UCS’s scope of services. In these cases, UCS counselors will support students in connecting to community providers and resources. This recommendation may be made when:
- Students need or request to be seen weekly or more than once a week for individual therapy.
- Students need or request uninterrupted therapy from semester to semester.
- Students need or request long-term treatment.
- Students have concerns that will not be appropriately addressed in a short-term model of therapy.
- Students have a significant history of mental health concerns, treatment, and/or psychiatric hospitalizations.
- Students with active eating disorders that may require medical monitoring.
- Students need or request services not offered at UCS:
- Intensive outpatient, inpatient treatment, or specialty services
- Substance use detoxification
- Mandated therapy
- Documentation for an Emotional Support or Comfort Animal
- Psychological assessment or evaluation
- Frequent consultation after-hours that cannot be stabilized with short-term crisis interventions
If a student is currently seeing a professional for therapy and can continue to work with them, we often encourage the student to continue care with their current provider.