Behavioral Health Clinicians join community allies to speak out against UC's growing mental health crisis

On April 26, hundreds of UC workers and students came together for a powerful town hall hosted by UPTE to discuss the growing mental health crisis on our campuses (you can watch a recording here). We heard from students, UC mental health clinicians, and others who shared powerful stories about the need to expand mental health services, invest in clinicians, and expand transparency around mental health outcomes. The event was cosponsored by the UC Student Association, UAW Locals 5810 & 2865, the Council of UC Faculty Associations, United Students Against Sweatshops, and UC-AFT.

"Since the onset of COVID, I've been struggling with depression and anxiety, and this was worsened when my uncle passed away. I've been struggling to process the loss while managing my academic course load. Last semester, I finally felt ready to seek professional support for my grief and reached out to CAPS. However, I was informed that there's a current wait for 2-3 month. This was extremely disheartening for me especially because I knew the longer I waited to see a therapist, the harder it would be for me to follow through," shared Ravneel Chaudhary, a student from UC Merced.

The bottom line is that UC can afford to ensure that students have timely access to well-staffed and world-class mental health services—and we're asking everyone to sign on to our open letter to demand that they do.

"We've had two student deaths here in the last three weeks, one of which we know was due to an accidental fentanyl overdose. If that's not enough to demonstrate that these services are more important than ever, I don't know what is. I'm concerned with the lack of support and investment we receive from UC, which leads to burnout, turnover, and risks to our students' safety. The position in my department that typically sees the most students for therapy has had so much turnover it's hard to keep track of. Most, if not all, of those people have left for higher paying jobs and that full-time therapist position has been vacant since last June," said Angie Bryan, a behavioral health clinician at UC Santa Barbara.

After you've signed our open letter, you can find resources here to help spread the word. We have flyers, social media graphics, and a template email you can share with your networks to ask others to sign on, too. Together, we can win the investment in UC mental health services that students and workers deserve.