Photo of Fall leaves at the Health Center

Services Provided

Individual Counseling

The first step to accessing counseling services is to call CAPS for a telephone screening. If it is determined that you may be best served by CAPS' services, an initial consultation (IAC) appointment will be scheduled to obtain additional information. If you are appropriate for CAPS services you will be assigned to work with a therapist for short-term (6-10 session) counseling. Sessions are usually scheduled once every week or two, or less frequently depending on the situation. If you need specialized services, or long-term or more intensive assistance, you may be referred to mental health providers or other services on campus or in the community.

If you have paid the student health fee, services are available at a reduced cost. Please see costs for additional information on charges and financial assistance available.

Group Counseling

Each semester CAPS offers a variety of groups. There are groups to help you develop more satisfying relationships. CAPS offers yoga groups, groups that focus on anxiety and stress management, mindfulness and meditation, depression, eating problems, and for adult children of alcoholics (ACOA). Support groups are available for our diverse student body and for students and at both the undergraduate and graduate level.

Groups typically consist of six to eight participants and meet weekly for 1.5 to 2 hours. Some groups meet for a semester or less while others may meet longer. Group members may share personal concerns, interact freely with each other, and strive towards the honest expression of their thoughts and feelings. All group members abide by the principle of confidentiality, which means that what happens in the group remains in the group. Prior to joining a group, you will need to call CAPS and schedule a brief telephone screening. If it is determined that you are appropriate for CAPS' services you will be scheduled for an IAC appointment. During the IAC, additional information will be gathered about your concerns. Following the IAC you will be scheduled to meet with a group facilitator for a group screening. The purpose of the group screening is to determine if there is a fit between your needs and what the group has to offer and to provide information about group participation.

Spring 2008 Groups Schedule

Students who have paid the student health fee are eligible for participation in groups at a reduced rate. There is a nominal charge each semester for participation in groups. There are no session limits for group participation.

Psychological Testing

Psychological testing can help you and your therapist or psychiatrist better understand your concerns. Psychological testing may be recommended to help focus the goals of counseling, to clarify difficulties, to target specific problems such as substance abuse or eating disorders, or to assess and treat AD/HD. Testing may be needed during the course of your treatment or may occur as a separate service. If you are interested in testing for a specific issue (such as AD/HD, substance abuse, eating disorders, or personality), please schedule a telephone screening which will be followed up by an initial consultation appointment if appropriate. There are additional fees associated with the testing process. Costs for testing services may be obtained by contacting CAPS.

For further information on AD/HD assessment please see Problems with concentration and focusing

CAPS does not provide testing for accommodations for standardized tests such as the: LSAT, GRE, DAT, PCAT, MCAT. These tests require a full neuropsychological battery which CAPS does not offer.

Psychiatric Services: Medical Evaluation and Monitoring

Psychiatric Services is one of the treatment options available to you as a UGA student through CAPS. CAPS has full and part-time psychiatrists on staff available to serve you.

If you are new to UGA or have not been seen at CAPS within the last six months, you will need to call CAPS for a telephone screening appointment. If it appears that CAPS services will be a good match for your needs, an IAC appointment with a therapist will be scheduled. Once you are assigned to a therapist a referral to a psychiatrist may be made. Your first visit with the psychiatrist is usually an evaluation, which focuses on why you were referred. During the initial, one hour, evaluation the psychiatrist will talk to you about treatment recommendations and discuss a preliminary treatment plan. If you agree with the treatment plan, then a decision about ongoing treatment, probably involving the use of medication, will be discussed. For some people, counseling (done by CAPS therapists) and medication monitoring (done by CAPS psychiatrists) provides a complete and comprehensive system of treatment all under the same roof. If your counselor/therapist is outside of CAPS, then you will need to have your medication needs addressed outside of CAPS by a provider recommended by your counselor/therapist. We believe the best care is possible when your therapist and your prescribing practitioner have an on-going working relationship that is then put to use on your behalf.

Unfortunately, on some occasions a student's concern requires care that is beyond that which we can provide at CAPS. If this occurs, we will work with you to establish care with a community psychiatrist outside of the UHC.

Transferring Medication Monitoring to Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS)

More and more students are coming to the university already being treated with medications. We would like to be able to assist you with your medications but some preparation is needed to transfer your care here.

Even though you may be doing well on medications at present, we need to get to know you and your counseling and psychiatric needs before we can assume responsibility for prescribing and/or monitoring your medication. This process starts with completing a telephone screening appointment. If it is appropriate for the student to have their medications transferred to the University Health Center, an initial consultation (IAC) appointment will be scheduled for the student. If the student's needs are beyond the scope of our services, they will be referred to outside providers in the community.

At the time of the IAC session, you will be asked to sign a release of information form for us to obtain your treatment records from your previous physician or therapist. We will mail or fax this request promptly but it may take a few weeks for us to obtain the records as this depends on the response time of your former physician or therapist. If you have been formally evaluated for AD/HD or have other documentation (i.e. hospital discharge summaries, other psychological testing results etc.), we will also ask you to sign a release of information form in order to obtain copies for our records. Please keep in mind that all records must be reviewed prior to being accepted for medication monitoring.

It is important to have past records available to the psychiatrist prior to your first session with the psychiatrist. The psychiatrist will review the records before meeting with you. Access to this information allows the psychiatrist to better focus the interview while maintaining a high quality of health care. Please note that you will need to be assigned to work with a CAPS therapist before a psychiatric appointment is scheduled. Assignment to CAPS therapist occurs after the telephone screening or walk-in and IAC appointment and this process can take several weeks.

If you are running low on your medication, we suggested that you call your former physician to ask for a prescription to be phoned to a pharmacy in Athens. Your physician is familiar with your care and your needs and is in the best position to supply you with medication in this interim period. Let your physician know you are looking into transferring your services to CAPS and request a four-week supply of medication. Your former physician can call this information into a local pharmacy when you provide the phone number to a pharmacy where you would like to obtain your medications. You may also choose to have your medication filled at the University Health Center pharmacy (see Pharmacy Information). The phone number for the UHC pharmacy is 706-542-9979, 706-542-8627. If you are taking medication that cannot be called into a local pharmacy, mailing you a prescription may be an option. A four-week supply should be adequate to obtain records about previous treatment, complete the evaluation process and provide recommendations.

Once medication has been prescribed, it is likely that your psychiatrist will want to schedule a follow-up appointment for medication monitoring. If a CAPS psychiatrist is currently prescribing medication for you, you may be used to walking in for a refill when your prescription runs low. Students who contact CAPS for medication refills within 24 hours of medications expiring will be charged a late service fee. If you need to have a medication refilled, please call and schedule a follow-up appointment as soon as possible. By making an appointment, time spent waiting will be greatly reduced. Follow-up appointments can be made by calling 706-542-2273.

Please be aware that you will be charged a fee if you fail to keep an appointment or do not cancel an appointment by 5:00 pm the working day prior to the appointment.

Although some people do well with medication alone, many people benefit from a combination of psychotherapy (group or individual) and medication. It is likely that your CAPS psychiatrist will recommend that you work with a CAPS therapist in conjunction with being provided a prescription for medication. The University Health Center is staffed for short-term counseling and psychological treatment. Our psychiatrists serve a student population of over 33,500 students. Although we would prefer to meet the mental health needs of all students, realistically we only have a limited number of times available for medication evaluation and management. Our telephone screening and IAC evaluation process is designed to assist us in determining if your needs match the services we are able to provide at CAPS. A student with more urgent conditions may be accepted into our care, during which time we will help the student obtain appropriate treatment and work with the student to establish services within the community.

Because CAPS staff provides services that are short-term or time limited, a student in need of more intensive, long-term counseling or specialized treatment, may be referred to a community mental health provider. Unfortunately, there are times when demand for services exceeds the resource available, necessitating a referral to a community mental health provider, even when students are within our scope of service. Decisions regarding access to care are based on the fit between your psychological and psychiatric needs and the scope of services we provide. If a referral is suggested, we will supply you with a list of providers in the community and do our best to help facilitate your transfer to the appropriate referral option.

Crisis Intervention

CAPS provides brief interventions for emergency psychological situations such as suicidal thoughts and intentions, debilitating psychological conditions, an unexpected death or loss, or sudden and severe trauma such as receiving a diagnosis of a severe physical illness, suddenly learning of an unexpected death or being the victim of a sexual assault or crime. Immediate interventions will focus on increasing understanding of the situation, normalizing feelings, managing severe stress, making decisions, and planning for the future. If additional psychological and psychiatric care is needed, either at CAPS or another agency, the CAPS clinician will assist you in obtaining this care.

During regular hours, the crisis walk-in therapist will provide this service at CAPS if possible, or if appropriate, at the site of a campus event. After hours, the emergency on-call clinician may be reached by calling 706-542-2200. Students will initially be connected to the UGA Police Department, after which the call will be routed to an on-call clinician. Services will usually be delivered over the phone. Although the UGA Police may ask for information from you when you call, you are not required to disclose confidential information to them in order to access crisis services. If hospitalization is required the crisis walk-in therapist or on-call person will either help arrange this or recommend that you go to a local emergency room.

Consultation Services

Administrators, faculty, staff, students and parents at the University of Georgia have access to the expertise of our professional staff. While we are primarily a student service department, we also provide consultation services such as:

Consulting with faculty or parents about how to help a student in distress
Having liaison relationships between our staff and many campus organizations to assure continuity of care and timely exchange of important information.

Under Georgia law, mental health records are privileged and confidential. Specific information regarding a student under our care will not be released unless the student has signed a release to for us to provide confidential information. Without this release of information we can neither confirm nor deny that a student is receiving services at CAPS. Exceptions to confidentiality can occur only under certain circumstances. These exceptions include serious immediate threat to the life or welfare of the student or to the life or welfare of another person. For more information see Confidentiality.

Outreach Programs

University faculty, staff, academic departments, and student groups and organizations may request outreach programs addressing a range of mental health topics. Outreach programs focus on meeting the developmental needs of our students and on promoting their academic, personal, social, and psychological growth through use didactic and experiential programs.

Examples of CAPS outreach programs include: a description of CAPS' services, anxiety and stress management, depression and suicide, mindfulness/meditation, eating disorders, cultural diversity, and relationship issues. Other topics may be requested. Requests for outreach programs must be made two weeks in advance of the anticipated outreach presentation.

Please be aware that CAPS staff may not be able to accommodate all outreach program requests. Our ability to respond to outreach requests may be impacted by factors such current demand for services and availability of staff to present on a given topic.

To request an outreach program contact CAPS at 706-542-2273 and ask to speak with the coordinator of outreach services.