For many students, the Counseling and Psychological Services center has been a go-to resource for assistance with issues they’re facing on campus, but for some it has been more of a source of stress than relief.

Many students have raised concerns about the long waiting time for a scheduled appointment, long entrance assessments — or informational forms — and talk of only being able to meet with a specific counselor three times.

CAPS officials said they are aware of these concerns and misconceptions and are working toward improving them by renovating the center, hiring more counselors and creating a new database of community providers.

Todd Sevig, CAPS’s director, said CAPS is taking on a new approach to helping student mental health issues by thinking in a more campus-wide and community connection mindset.

“No one entity on campus is going to be able at any one moment to address every need for every student in the year,” he said. “So the new database will really help in that regard.”

The community providers database, which is expected to go live on Monday, will allow students to look up a provider that fits their needs, has current openings, takes their insurance and is within walking distance.

“It’s a little different than a typical database or obviously looking in a phone book,” Sevig said. “It’s all geared toward student life.”

As part of the renovation, four new offices in the center are expected to be completed by the end of the week and appointments there are scheduled for as early as next week.

Sevig said the increased space and staff to fill the rooms is the “most concrete way” the center is addressing the student concerns.

An LSA senior, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitive nature of the issue, wrote in an e-mail interview about difficulties scheduling an appointment through CAPS and issues with the computer assessments students take when first entering CAPS.

“After taking this assessment, students have to wait a few weeks to even see someone about whatever they’re dealing with,” the student wrote in the e-mail. “I have some serious problems that I quite honestly need someone professional to talk about.“

“I know I’m not the only one in this university who could use someone to talk to about the shit going on in their lives,” the student added.

The student’s longest wait time for an appointment was two weeks and a few days, which the student said was “quite a long time.”

Sevig said CAPS is as concerned about the extended waiting period as students are.

“We don’t like it when the wait stretches either,” he said. “What’s hard from an administrative point of view is that there is no one magic wait period that is accepted by every student so we literally make 3,000 individual decisions for what’s best for each of those students.”

Vicki Hays, CAPS’s associate director, said students who go to CAPS have the option to see a counselor on duty, who students can choose to see from the very first time they come in or whenever they feel it necessary.

She added that the counselor on duty is available from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, and sometimes there are two on duty.

Sevig said CAPS chose to have the counselor on duty option available every hour the center is open whereas many counseling centers at other universities only have the option available for a few hours.

“Students do have that choice,” he said. “But the reality is that sometimes waiting for that scheduled appointment is a perfect fit for students. There are multiple ways that people get in and we work with every individual student to make something happen.”

Hays said CAPS is busiest in the fall semester because there is an increase in students coming to the center and officials are busy organizing training programs.

From Sept. 1 to Oct.