CAPS Undergoes Name Change, Emphasizes Service Expansion
The CAPS Office.
Utah State Today regularly highlights work created by the talented student journalists at Utah State University. The following story was published by The Utah Statesman prior to its inclusion in Utah State Today.
CAPS underwent a change to their official title to promote a new era of campus mental health services. CAPS has transitioned from Counseling and Psychological Services to Counseling and Prevention Services, the change signifying a combination of USU’s mental health and wellness services.
According to Eri Bentley, director of CAPS, the name change came as a result of organizational restructurings under the new USU presidency of Elizabeth Cantwell.
Over the summer, Cantwell released a message highlighting the importance of the university’s organizational restructuring and fostering greater communication and collaboration on campus. The combination of wellness and counseling services aims to reflect those values.
“The wellness services that used to be together with the student health center became under us, as CAPS,” Bentley said. “We are under the same roof now, and we can collaborate more effectively.”
The change from “psychological” to “prevention” is intended to represent a broader scope of services now included under CAPS, rather than only therapy and counseling services.
“We are known as CAPS, so finding something that allows us to keep that well-known acronym and making a minor change to be really descriptive and inclusive of our services made sense to us,” Bentley said.
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