Well­ness Cen­ter Adapts for COVID-19

MISHAWAKA—Bethel is mak­ing many ad­just­ments due to COVID-19. In par­tic­u­lar, the Well­ness Cen­ter staff is en­act­ing a few sim­ple poli­cies to en­sure they are still able to care for the phys­i­cal and men­tal health of stu­dents. 

“All se­mes­ter we’re of­fer­ing tele­health and in-per­son [coun­sel­ing ses­sions],” Chelsea Luke, Well­ness Cen­ter ther­a­pist and li­censed men­tal health coun­selor as­so­ci­ate, said. “Dr. Blom, our psy­chol­o­gist and the di­rec­tor of the well­ness cen­ter, he is solely do­ing tele­health this se­mes­ter for his own safety.” 

An­other ex­cit­ing de­vel­op­ment is the ad­di­tion of a Span­ish-speak­ing in­tern. 

“[This is the] first year in a long, long time, or if ever that we’ve had a Span­ish speak­ing ther­a­pist on board here,” Luke said. 

There is also a con­sent form stu­dents will need to sign ac­knowl­edg­ing they un­der­stand the risks that oc­cur with in-per­son meet­ings. Stu­dents will need to in­di­cate whether they are con­sent­ing to meet with or with­out masks.  

“We rec­og­nize that masks can be very suf­fo­cat­ing for some, very anx­i­ety-in­duc­ing for some, and we want to elim­i­nate some of that here if we can,” Luke said. 

Luke said the Well­ness Cen­ter is con­tin­u­ing to of­fer all the ser­vices it has of­fered in past years. 

“We still have test­ing ac­com­mo­da­tions, so work­ing with the Cen­ter for Aca­d­e­mic Suc­cess, start­ing there and then com­ing here if they’re look­ing for ac­com­mo­da­tions,” Luke said. “Say they think they have a learn­ing dis­abil­ity or dyslexia, that’s some­thing that we can pro­vide test­ing for, as well as in­di­vid­ual coun­sel­ing and group ther­apy.” 

Be­cause of COVID-19, the cen­ter is lim­it­ing the num­ber of peo­ple in the build­ing at one time. 

“We’re try­ing to re­duce the amount of walk-ins that are hap­pen­ing,” Luke said. “But we are still tak­ing walk-ins for emer­gency sit­u­a­tions... there are two peo­ple al­lowed in the wait­ing room this year, but we’re try­ing to limit that as much as pos­si­ble.” 

Stu­dents with ap­point­ments are of­ten emailed ahead of time with spe­cific di­rec­tions on which door to go to. 

Luke said a stu­dent is wel­come to come for any rea­son, whether they’re deal­ing with stress aca­d­e­m­i­cally, per­son­ally, strug­gling with a room­mate sit­u­a­tion or any­thing else they feel over­whelmed with.  

“If you’re look­ing for some­one to talk to, we’re here,” Luke said. 

There will also be a work­shop this se­mes­ter called, “Con­quer­ing Anx­i­ety: Tools for Mind, Body and Spirit.” 

“We’re go­ing to de­sign it for stu­dents who are feel­ing that pres­sure this year,” Luke said. “That could be di­ag­nosed anx­i­ety dis­or­ders, it could be this whole school year is chaos and we don’t un­der­stand all the changes and why we have to wear masks every­where and COVID, and all of that.” 

Luke said the group will not just be about the tools but also on help­ing stu­dents learn to rec­og­nize where their anx­i­ety comes from and de­ter­mine what they can do in a group set­ting and what they should do in­di­vid­u­ally. 

“Treat­ing the symp­toms is tem­po­rary and it comes back, and it keeps com­ing back, and how frus­trat­ing is that to have anx­i­ety con­tinue to come back again,” Luke said.  

Stu­dents can reg­is­ter for the event by email­ing Luke at chelsea.luke@bethelu­ni­ver­sity.edu; meet­ings will take place in the Suf­fi­cient Grounds con­fer­ence room from 4 to 5 p.m. and will oc­cur weekly from Mon­day, Sept. 7 through Mon­day, Sept. 28. 

Stu­dents can also watch for de­tails to come con­cern­ing the sex­ual as­sault sur­vivors' group that will be­gin Wednes­day, Sept. 30. 

The Well­ness Cen­ter also of­fers light ther­apy; in­ter­ested stu­dents can email or call the Well­ness Cen­ter to set up a ses­sion. 

Luke hopes stu­dents know they are wel­come at the Well­ness Cen­ter. 

“What­ever they’re deal­ing with, what­ever they’re strug­gling with, it’s not too big; we can han­dle it,” Luke said.  

To set up an ap­point­ment, call the Well­ness Cen­ter at 574-807-7370 or email the of­fice man­ager, Robin Dykes, at robin.dykes@bethelu­ni­ver­sity.edu.