CU student mental health fee 2016-17: $21.77 per semester 2017-18 proposed rate: $42.55 per semester Source: University of Colorado budget documents

Citing unexpected levels of demand for counseling and psychiatric care, the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus wants to double the student mental health fee that helps fund those services.

Students currently pay a mental health fee of $21.77 a semester. In return, they get six free counseling or psychiatric care visits at Wardenburg Health Services.

CU began charging students this fee, which was proposed by student government leaders and approved by the CU Board of Regents, in the fall of 2015.

When they first calculated the fee, Wardenburg leaders initially estimated that students would make 9,400 total counseling or psychiatric care visits per year.

As it turns out, they vastly underestimated the demand for mental health services — students made 15,200 visits in 2015-16.

By the end of 2016-17, health officials estimate that students will make more than 16,000 mental health visits during the year.

The spike in demand for mental health services at CU mirrors a national trend at colleges and universities around the country. In 2016, walk-in visits were up 32 percent from the year before.

“It’s been a trend nationally,” said Melissa Lowe, executive director of Wardenburg Health Services. “The more outreach you do and the more you tell students about services, the more they use them. There’s less stigma for mental health.”

The campus has made a few changes to accommodate that high demand, such as making group therapy sessions free to all students starting in early December (without insurance, those sessions used to cost $60 each). Wardenburg has increased staffing levels and recently opened a new satellite clinic in Williams Village with space for three counselors.

To keep offering service at the same level, the campus wants to increase the student mental health fee to $42.55 a semester, essentially double what students pay today. All fee increases are approved by the CU Board of Regents, which just got its first look at 2017-18 budget proposals this month. The board typically approves tuition and fee increases in April.

Health leaders point out that $85.10 per year for six visits with a psychiatrist or a therapist is a bargain. Students also have access to free crisis care and group therapy at Wardenburg.

If they sought counseling in Boulder, they’d likely pay $140 per session. For a psychiatric visit, that number is closer to $250 per session. And most community mental health providers don’t take health insurance, meaning that students would have to pay out of pocket for care.

“We’ve even tried to negotiate with insurance carriers to get better coverage in our community for counseling and psychiatric needs,” Lowe said. “But there’s a huge wait time and there’s not a lot of incentive for providers to take insurance.”

Plus, the mental health and medical providers at Wardenburg are trained to work with college students and the issues that are unique to that population. Wardenburg creates therapy groups based on common themes or student needs, for example.

“It may not be the most serious crisis; it’s just succeeding at a transitional point in their lives,” Lowe said. “Just basic stress of classwork and succeeding and coming to college — all the basic experiences that students have, we can help support them through.”

Keeping students physically and mentally healthy supports Chancellor Phil DiStefano’s goal of improving campus retention and graduation rates.

Wardenburg wants to support students with anxiety and depression so that they can focus more on their classes, jobs, research and social activities.

“Students cannot be successful in any of their other endeavors on campus if they’re not first taking care of themselves,” said Madalena DeAndrea, CU Student Government president of internal affairs.

Sarah Kuta: 303-473-1106, kutas@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/sarahkuta