UT-Austin offers a wide range of free mental health services — including individual counseling, support groups and wellness programs. These services are essential and beneficial, but the path isn’t always straightforward for students accessing them for the first time. By implementing student-led tools that meet people at the start of their journey, UT can help more students take advantage of readily available resources.
Many students don’t know where to begin. They’re unsure whether to call the Counseling and Mental Health Center, email a CARE counselor or sign up for a wellness workshop. For some, that uncertainty is enough to delay reaching out, scheduling an appointment or even exploring their options — especially if they’re already overwhelmed.
Deborah Cohen, associate professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and executive director of the Amplify Center, says this is a common experience.
“When you’re a young adult, it’s hard to navigate insurance, payment, where to call (and) what’s the right place,” Cohen said. “It’s just confusing.”
That confusion is amplified by another barrier: many students don’t believe their struggles are serious enough to seek help.
“The primary reason we found in our research for why young people don’t access care is because they don’t think they’re sick enough,” Cohen said.
Han Ren, a licensed psychologist, sees the same pattern.
“The best time to go and get help is when you’re not feeling your best, but you’re not in crisis (either),” Ren said. “You have the capacity and the spaciousness to make some of those longer-term, sustainable changes.”
These aren’t failures of the system itself but signs that even strong systems can be intimidating to approach. UT has committed professionals, growing services and a clear desire to support students. Even with a comprehensive system in place, students often need support that helps them take the first step in their mental health process with clarity and confidence.
One solution is a peer-run mental health navigation team. Trained students could walk peers through the steps of getting help, from scheduling an intake to choosing between services. They would be informed guides who help make the process less intimidating.
“I think it could feel a lot safer to be able to share some of what you’re going through, with the goal of them connecting you to someone who could be more long-term for you,” Ren said about this approach.
The second proposed solution is a first-timer feedback project: a campus-wide effort to collect student stories about their first experience seeking mental health support. That feedback could be used to refine communication and improve outreach to students who may not know what to expect.
At Amplify, Cohen uses a similar strategy.
“We have a young adult advisory board that we get feedback from about how our services are going,” Cohen said. “We also are about to do a series of interviews with people who’ve used our services to tell us about what things actually helped.”
These additions aren’t meant to replace anything. They’re meant to make a strong system even more accessible. They give students the tools to take that first step with confidence.
Mental health services at UT are free and valuable, but for many students, they still feel unattainable. When the process feels confusing, students may delay getting help out of uncertainty. Peer navigation and first-timer feedback can help clarify the system and make it easier for students to take that first step. With the right support in place, help becomes not only available but more accessible.
Chitturi is a Statistics and Data Science junior from Houston, Texas.
