TTU wellness center shares opportunities for students | La Vida | dailytoreador.com – The Daily Toreador

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Updated: February 5, 2022 @ 6:06 am

The Texas Tech University Student Health Services and Student Counseling Center, located at the on-campusWellness Center, are two resources readily available to students year-round 
There are many options and opportunities available through these resources that many students may not be aware of.  
“Most of the services we provide are kind of like an urgent care, type service,” Jenn Erdige, associate clinical department administrator at the Wellness Center, said. “We are seeing a lot of Lime scooter accidents. In the new year 2021 we saw most of our care was for STI’s. The next highest was depression. Then there was anxiety, upper respiratory infections like COVID, sore throat and then our next highest population was preventative exams. This includes your physicals, sports physicals, we do it all here.” 
Erdige said the treatments at the Student Wellness Center are free to all students attending the university who have insurance.  
In order for students to get started they simply need to call or book an appointment at the wellness center and wait for the next available appointment time.  
“One of the reasons I like using the Wellness Center was because I was going constantly like once every week for like the span of a couple months and like the amount of money that I saved in comparison to going to like an urgent care or like a doctor back home. It’s saved me so much money.” Dimitri DesJardins, a third-year finance student from Dallas, said.  
For him, DesJardins said the best part of his experience at the Wellness Center was its affordability and the helpfulness of the doctors and nurses.  
While all resources are available to students at the Wellness Center, there are many services that are overlooked and underutilized that have the potential to help a lot more people, Erdige said.  
“We’re a primary care office that offers behavioral health. So, we have psychologists. Our mental health case manager decides, when you call for behavioral health services, she’s the one who decides what you need,” Erdige said.So, we have a licensed practice counselor. We have a counseling psychologist. We have a doctor, psychiatric, nurse practitioner. We have an MD psychiatrist. We tend to follow more of the primary care aspect of behavioral health down here. 
Although the Wellness Center and the Counseling Center are housed in the same building, Erige said that the two are not directly associated with one another. Because of this the Wellness Center offers, aid for students needing help with behavioral health that differs from that of the SCC in that they have particular appointments set up for behavior health that are handled differently than a counseling session may be done. 
Hope Boniol, fourthyear political science student from Caldwell, said the efficiency of both the wellness and counseling center are what drew her to take advantage of the opportunities they provided. 
“With the therapy, I really liked that they got me in like that same day,” Boniol said. “I didn’t think I was going to be able togo in that same day because usually,like, you go to other places and it takes, you know, a little bit for them to get you in, so I like the availability.”  
Aside from the behavioral health services at the Wellness Center, Erdige said that contraception education is something that is offered to students, but drastically overlooked.  
The wellness center has tests, information and supplies readily available to all students to use, and labs as well as X-rays can all be performed for students at the center.  
“We really like to promote safe sex and keep everybody healthy,” Erdige said. “I think it’s underutilized We do have our own lab here. So, you know, we draw all our own students. So, if you do need STI check, or a TB check, test, we do all of our own labs here. 
In addition, there is a full-service pharmacy located at the Wellness Center that provides students prescriptions and medications to them as well as providing COVID-19 tests and flu shots by appointment or through the drive-up service, Erdige said.  
The most difficult thing for students regarding their health, Erdige said, is that they are having to learn to take responsibility for their own appointments, health problems and treatments. The Student Wellness Center is established to aid them in doing just that.  
“We understand that students coming to college, this is usually their first solo healthcare experience without their parents, you know, scheduling their appointment or following up,” Erdige said. “So, we like to take the time to educate our students and help them in navigating the healthcare world. 
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