Most would agree that health at college is usually compromised to prioritize school, work or social lives. Personally, when I feel sick, I either ignore it and pass it off as seasonal allergies or crumble to snotty pieces. Recently, Boston University’s Student Health Services, especially its mental health services, has been criticized as being underwhelming.
SHS has almost become a joke in my two years at BU. A majority of my friends and I have all been underwhelmed by its services, but in no way is this because of its employees. If anything, most of the complaints come from a lack of thoroughness and time.
As many have said before, the university does not seem to prioritize students’ health. Most of the complaints about SHS can be linked back to insufficient funding from the university.
The most public complaints are surrounding mental health services, and a recent HuffPost College blog post addressed many of the problems with mental health services. The post quickly went viral around campus, which only emphasized these feelings of disappointment with the university.
BU, at surface level, does a great deal to support its students’ health, but navigating the system of SHS is often filled with disappointment and frustration.
Making an appointment alone is frustrating enough, as you usually have to wait days to get into the office. Personally, when I am sick, I never know if it is serious enough to make an appointment right away or if I can just wait it out. Waiting it out is almost always a mistake, but I never seem to learn my lesson.
In the past two weeks, I had an ear infection that I thought I caught from my nephew. I tried three times to make an appointment at SHS, but for a few different reasons, I never did. My class schedule prevented me from booking an appointment, and SHS is closed on the weekends for non-emergencies. As a student, the weekends are virtually the only time I am free.
I woke up Thursday with sharp, constant pain from my progressed swimmer’s ear. As a former swimmer, I recognized the symptoms. They are somewhat hard to forget. Unfortunately, I had a test Thursday and couldn’t devote time to go into SHS without missing it. When I called, an SHS representative told me they would not give me a doctor’s note. Instead, I called a family doctor, took a lot of ibuprofen and then went to my test with a dull pain and the inability to hear.
Obviously, this series of unfortunate events is not the story of every interaction with SHS. However, these issues could have easily been fixed. Why can’t the doctors at SHS write doctor’s notes? Why does SHS operate only on weekdays, when students are busy and it’s usually booked anyway?
Swimmer’s ear is by no means as serious a condition as others, but my story of reasonable frustration with SHS here is just a sample of great woes.
Health services here should experience greater support from the administration. With such a large student body all visiting the same facility, it’s obvious that SHS’ resources should be well managed. This seems like another example of BU’s misaligned priorities, and it is evidence of the many ways in which the university supports the student body at surface level but does not respond when this support is criticized for being largely unhelpful.
I complained heavily about my SHS interaction this week, and everyone I talked to had similar stories of disappointment. Are these feelings of frustration present in many other areas of health care? Yes, but does that mean that we should accept the subpar services? No.
Student health should be a priority on college campuses, and BU should listen to the disapproving voices of its students. As many others have pointed out, the university’s mental health services — which are incredibly important on a college campus due to the high risk of developing mental health issues in stressful environments — are especially troublesome. With something as important as mental health, there needs to be immediate action to address these problems. In general, BU needs to prioritize the health of students far more than it currently does.
