Comparison of Symptom Severity between Clients at a University Counseling Center and a Community Mental Health Agency

Oct 15, 2026

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The study compares psychological distress and symptom severity between clients presenting at a university counseling center and a community mental health agency in the same midsouth city. Clients completed the Brief Symptom Inventory at intake, and findings show significant differences between settings: community mental health center clients reported higher psychopathology, while 64% of the college sample met criteria for psychiatric disturbance. The literature review outlines typical client profiles and trends in rising service demand and severity.

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Comparison of Symptom Severity between Clients at a University Counseling Center and a Community Mental Health Agency

University Counseling Centers: Typical Clients and Services

Community Mental Health Centers: Typical Clients and Services

# Comparison of Symptom Severity between Clients at aUniversity Counseling Center and a Community MentalHealth Agency Joshua E.Gunn,Frederick G.Grieve,Richard M.Greer,Adrian Thomas The present study examined the levels ofpsychological distress of clients presenting at botha university counseling center and a community mental health center in the same midsouthcity.Chients completed the Brief Symptom Inventory (BST)at intake.Clients presentingat both units showed a significant symptom severity.Clients presenting to the communitymental bealth center bad significantly higher levels of psychopatbology;nevertheless,64%of the college sample met criteria for psychbiatric disturbance. University counseling centers have been in a constant state of transition sincetheir inception.Many variables,including economics,the social and politicalclimate on and off campus,staff interests,and changing consumer needs havedriven the direction of the modern counseling center(Heppner &Neal,1983).Throughout the more than 70 years that university counseling centers haveserved student populations,researchers have spent a great deal of effort incharacterizing every aspect of the counseling center client.The purpose of thisstudy was to examine how counseling center clients differ from communitymental health center clients. It may seem intuitive that clients of a counseling center would present with lesssevere symptoms than clients of a community mental health center.However,Aniskiewicz(1979)found no difference between students requestingpsychotherapy and personal counseling at a counseling center and those whorequested similar services at a mental health unit.Additionally,recent work byBenton,Robertson,Tseng,Newton,&Benton(2003)suggests that people withpsychological difficulties are now enrolling in college,who previously wouldnot have been able to attend because of those psychological problems.Thismight mean that if differences did exist in the past that they may no longerexist today. 5hhd0 Literature Review ## University Counseling Centers:Typical Clients and Services The trend over the last two decades has been that the number of studentsseeking counseling services and the severity of their problems are increasing(Aniskiewicz,1979;Benton et al.,2003;Gallagher,2002;Johnson,Ellison,&Heikkinen,1989).For over 20 years Gallagher(2002)has conducted theNational Survey of Counseling Center Directors,a project that aggregatesquestionnaire data from 274 counseling center directors across the UnitedStates.The latest survey(2002)reported that students with severe psychologicalproblems are a concern for 83.0%of counseling centers,and 83.5%ofcounseling center directors reported an increase in the severity of psychologicaldisorders among their clientele over the past five years.The survey reportedthat more campuses are offering psychiatric services and that the mean numberof psychiatric consultation hours provided had doubled from the previous year. Despite the claim that this is a recent phenomenon (i.e.,Kitzrow,2003),olderresearch indicates that the clients at counseling centers have been presentingwith psychopathology for a while.In 1989,Johnson et al.used the SymptomChecklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R;Derogatis,1983)to assess the type andseverity of psychological symptoms of all counseling center clients for one year.Nearly two thirds of counseling center clients,65.1%of males and 62.0%offemales,had scores suggestive of a psychiatric disorder. Beyond traditional studies looking only at services rendered,examination ofother indices also reveals an increase in the number of students requiringpsychological services.Comparing current data with past data indicates thatthere has been an increase in the number of college and university studentsbeing hospitalized and an increase in the number of third parties who had to bewarned because of potential harm students posed to themselves or others(Gallagher,2002).It has been suggested (May,1988)that the frequency

FAQs

What instrument did clients complete at intake?

Clients completed the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) at intake.

How did symptom severity differ between the two service settings?

Clients presenting to the community mental health center showed significantly higher levels of psychopathology, while clients at both units showed significant symptom severity overall.

What proportion of the college sample met criteria for psychiatric disturbance?

Sixty-four percent of the college sample met criteria for psychiatric disturbance.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by jayni