The Wellness Center has been working to decentralize health and wellness care on campus through preventative care outreach programs and health education since 2015, although efforts have increased in the last five years.
Decentralization is the redirection of care from a single department to the community, which increases the number of tools students have to respond to health stressors.
According to the Assistant Vice Chancellor of Health and Wellness Benek Altayli, the decentralization model was implemented due to increased demand for health services on campus and a general shift in healthcare toward preventative methods.
“The more educated people are about helping each other, knowing their resources, understanding issues and knowing where to go for them, the better the wellbeing of the entire community can be,” Altayli said.
The shift toward decentralization is marked by the establishment of the Wellness Promotion Unit in 2016 and the Campus Wellbeing Committee in 2021. The committee is a cross-disciplinary committee with students, faculty and staff.
Decentralization projects include suicide prevention trainings, bystander intervention workshops and Sex Week, which will take place Feb. 17 to 19.
Additionally, health and wellness care is advertised through the all-students email lists, including lectures, workshops, trainings, material resources, such as vaccinations and health testing.
“The goal is giving UCCS members what they need to make decisions for themselves so they don’t end up needing services that they could avoid,” Altayli said. “We are thinking about all the millions of decisions individuals in communities make in the tens of different spaces they live and function in every day.”
The Wellness Center is developing a webpage to feature projects that incorporate at least one of the seven factors of wellbeing: emotional, community, financial, intellectual, physical, purpose and social.
Expanding education and outreach in place of expanding clinical services will also include fewer out-of-pocket fees for students and more cost-effective uses of the Wellness Center fee, according to the Director of Wellness Promotion Chrissie Bailey.
“And, I can add, based on student feedback, in recent years we’ve added more Wellness Promotion, case management and graduate assistant positions, and those are a lot less expensive than, say, a licensed psychologist or a nurse practitioner,” said Bailey.
The Wellness Center initially focused on a centralized model, so they were solely responsible for assessing, strategizing, developing and implementing programs and services for the UCCS community.
However, this model is primarily effective for clinical services, such as for medical or mental health, and not as effective for preventative and sustainable health care.
“No one department or professional can do all the tasks of a comprehensive health and wellbeing initiative alone. With this program, the whole community becomes helpful when somebody needs support,” said Altayli.
People with questions can contact the Wellness Center at [email protected]
The Student Wellness Center. Photo by Anysia Hovel.