For some Winthrop students, Health Services located in Crawford has been less than helpful.
With class schedules taking up the majority of their weekday time, many full-time students rely on services being available ‘after hours,’ either late in the evening or on weekends. Health Services’ (often referred to as Crawford by students) hours are strange at times and some days it will be closed in the middle of the week without listing it on its web page.
“It’s crazy difficult for me to get an intake session scheduled,” said Lyn Horton, podcast editor for The Johnsonian. “They don’t let you schedule in advance, only the day of. And even when I was in counseling, my schedule was so restrictive so I could only have sessions with a counselor I didn’t feel helped me out very much.”
During freshman orientation, Crawford representatives have had a booth at the information fair, often advertising the availability of health and counseling services or the ability to fill prescriptions there.
An editor at the Johnsonian who wishes to remain anonymous said that “For me, they literally refused to give me counseling when I was at the lowest point of my college career and was considering relapsing into self-harm.”
Students say they have been turned away for many seemingly superficial reasons.
Liz Barton, a former Winthrop student, was injured on campus and went to Crawford seeking aid. Barton said the members of staff on duty turned her away because they said they were “too busy to help.” Barton said there were no other patients in the building at the time she could see and that the staff members had been gossiping at the front desk when she arrived.
A Winthrop student who wishes to remain anonymous said that it was very difficult to schedule an appointment, and even harder to get their prescription filled.
“I am transgender and when I was first trying to deal with my gender dysphoria, I waited about two months to get an appointment with a counselor here and I still haven’t had them follow up with that three years later. More recently, trying to get Crawford to prescribe my hormones was like pulling teeth. It ended up being cheaper—and less effort—for me to drive up to Planned Parenthood in Greensboro, which is about a two hour drive each way.”
“They are aggressively and criminally understaffed in the counseling department” said Scooter Mistretta, a member of the Johnsonian’s podcast team. “And it sucks for everyone else because then they can’t get the care that they need unless they’re in capital ‘C’ crisis. I understand that even if this was a good situation, they probably still wouldn’t be able to handle students that needed to come into counseling a couple times a week.”
Health services charge a regular fee to students as a part of the tuition package. The health and counseling fee for fall 2021 was $200, which was billed as a part of the “Tuition and Required Fees” package.
According to a U.S. News report from 2020, Winthrop’s undergraduate population alone was 4,406. This begs the question—how are students’ fees being used at Crawford and will it become easier for every student to access mental and physical health care while on campus?
