Drury, Burrell Behavioral Health Launch Partnership to Expand Mental Health Services for Students
SPRINGFIELD, Mo., April 10, 2019 — Drury University is partnering with Burrell Behavioral Health to expand mental health services available to students on campus. The partnership is launching as Drury students seek to raise awareness about mental health with a charity soccer match later this month.
Under the partnership, a Burrell staff member will be co-located at the on-campus Panther Clinic for up to 20 hours per week. The partnership will build on the university’s existing team of two full-time counselors in order to better meet the needs of Drury students.
Drury counselors and Burrell staff will collaborate on services, education, and outreach to Drury’s student body. The services will be available for full-time students in Drury’s traditional residential undergraduate programs at no additional cost. Students will also have access to up to five visits per year with additional mental health professionals through the Burrell system at no additional cost.
Mental health is an increasingly important issue on college campuses. One in four college students reports being diagnosed with or treated for a mental illness, according to a study in the journal “Depression and Anxiety” and the use of campus counseling centers increased by 30 percent between 2009 and 2015, according to the Center for Collegiate Mental Health. The trend is likely to continue: a survey released in February by the Pew Research Center found that 70 percent of teens see depression and anxiety as major problems among their peers.
The second annual Mental Health Awareness Alumni Soccer Match in Memory of Joe Fehr will take place at Harrison Stadium on the Drury campus on Friday, April 26. Gates open at 6 p.m. The match is organized by the men’s soccer team in honor of Fehr, a Drury soccer player from Omaha, Nebraska, who lost a battle with mental health last year.
“A generation ago, no one really talked about mental health issues. But today young people, especially, are much more open to having this conversation,” says Matt Wagoner, a senior biochemistry major from Chesterfield who will enter medical school at Saint Louis University in the fall. “As a pre-med student I know how important it is to for all of us to find ways to address mental health in our lives. I’m personally very happy to see the university doing even more to serve students and ensure we have greater access to care, education, and prevention efforts.”
Tickets to the soccer match are $5 and proceeds will be used by Burrell, which is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, to help increase mental health awareness on the Drury campus. For more information about the match, go to www.drurypanthers.com.
