Editor’s Note: This article contains mention of suicide, self-harm, eating disorders and discussion of mental health care. If you or someone you know is struggling, resources are listed at the bottom of this page.

The anonymous instagram account @stillwaiting_washu, which provides a platform for students to anonymously share their negative experiences with the University’s mental health services, has spent the last two months raising awareness of inadequate mental health resources and calling for change.

Each post starts with a trigger warning: “Self-Harm,” “Mental Health,” “Eating Disorder”. . . the list goes on. Washington University students can submit stories about their negative experiences with mental services, and Still Waiting WashU posts them anonymously. Sophomore Angela Gormley submitted her story in an attempt to give voice to a larger community of people who aren’t getting the support they need.

Gormley has struggled with an eating disorder, yet found that the University’s mental health care wasn’t prepared to give her adequate help. Her biggest complaint was a theme that shows up repeatedly in the stories shared by Still Waiting WashU—a lack of timely appointments in the Habif Health and Wellness Center. Gormley reported having to wait multiple weeks for concerns that she felt needed to be addressed immediately.

“If you are a person who struggles with mental illness, you need an appointment every week, and you need to be able to keep up that sort of rapport with the therapist to actually be able to get the treatment needed,” Gormley said.

Student Union (SU) President sophomore Ranen Miao shares this concern. Miao’s presidential campaign platform placed a heavy emphasis on mental health, and he joined Still Waiting WashU out of his determination to fix mental health care on campus. He stated clearly that SU is pushing for Habif to hire more counselors so that appointments can be made faster.

“It can’t just be more counselors, but it should be counselors that reflect the diversity of our student body,” Miao said. “As of right now, there is a lack of counselors of color or counselors that are LGBTQ[IA*]…As a gay man, I would like to see a therapist who understands what it’s like being gay.”

Gormley also hopes for increased attention on specialized disorders.

“They have some eating disorder specialized therapists, but they don’t have an eating disorder specialized dietitian, which has been something that has been really horrible for students in the past,” Gormley said.

Habif Director of Mental Health Services Dr. Thomas Brounk acknowledged that there may be gaps between what a student wants and what Habif can provide.

“While we will always strive to meet the needs of students as best we can, we realize that there may be challenges to meeting those needs,” he said. He encouraged students with complaints to reach out to Habif via phone or email and ask to speak to a leadership team.

Still Waiting WashU is mostly focused on creating change through its social media presence, but is also working behind the scenes to advocate for better resources. Some of the organization’s main goals include hiring more counseling staff, increasing the diversity of counseling staff, centralizing the University’s health and wellness resources and removing the Washington University Police Department from all mental health calls.

Miao and Gormley both emphasized the importance of replacing WUPD officers on mental health calls with emergency social workers or therapists who could respond on short notice.

“There always should be someone available in crisis,” Gormley said. “[Students] shouldn’t have to turn to WUPD and EST to try and get the mental health support they need.”

Still Waiting WashU has now accumulated nearly 30 separate stories from students writing about inadequate mental health care—they range from stories of Habif ignoring suicidal ideations to complaints about frazzled and condescending therapists.

“I think we’re at the point where the University recognizes the severity of the mental health crisis,” Miao said. “I know there are [financial] constraints. But I hope we’re able to move towards a place where this becomes one of the top funding priorities.”

Though Miao had not heard of concrete solutions proposed by the University for the 2021-2022 budget plan, Brounk recognized the importance of student concerns regarding wait times and confirmed that three new counseling positions have been approved for the next academic year.

“We expect to continue to add additional counselors until we are able to significantly improve the current wait times,” he said.

However, Brounk added that although hiring more counselors is a step in the right direction, more work remains to be done.

“The supply and demand problem is a national issue which is not easily solved,” he said. “We also need to invest resources into prevention and develop systems that can provide assistance quickly and in a timely manner.”

Editor’s Note:

The National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) provides support for individuals and families affected by eating disorders through their toll-free, confidential hotline. It can be reached at 1-800-931-2237, Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Central Standard Time and on Fridays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. For 24/7 assistance, text ‘NEDA’ to 741741