CAPS update on mental health resources during remote instruction, holiday breaks

Purdue’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) will continue to offer services remotely as the West Lafayette campus transitions to remote instruction and heads toward the Thanksgiving holiday and winter break.

Through Dec. 18, CAPS will provide ongoing treatment services remotely to students who are in the state of Indiana and will provide crisis and referral services to any student, regardless of location. To connect to services, call CAPS at 765-494-6995. Brief screenings are available same day or next day to ensure that CAPS connect with students as quickly as possible.

CAPS will be closed Dec. 19 through Jan. 3. After-hours mental health crisis services will be available 24 hours a day during the entire winter break. To connect to this service, call 765-494-6995, then press 1. Starting Jan. 4, CAPS will resume offering services remotely.

Given the longer winter break for students this year, CAPS also reminds students of other resources that may be helpful when not meeting with a CAPS provider.

Welltrack
Welltrack is an interactive self-help therapy tool that is free and available to all Purdue students. This tool offers a mood tracker to help record information about mood, activities, places and relationships that can help individuals notice patterns between moods and other variables. It offers brief video courses to address concerns with anxiety, depression, resiliency and public speaking as well as a Zen Room for mindfulness opportunities and other tools to help understand more about mental health. This can be accessed directly on the CAPS homepage.

Thriving Campus
Students hoping to connect to a mental health provider closer to their hometown over the break are encouraged to use Thriving Campus. This provider search tool is free and available to all Purdue students. The service has a direct button on the CAPS homepage for easy access. This tool allows students to search for a mental health provider by location and offers opportunities to narrow that search by filtering other important variables such as insurance, presenting concerns, therapy approaches, and other demographic variables. It offers a help guide that can walk individuals through finding a provider, how to contact, and how insurance and paying for services tends to work.  It also indicates which providers are offering video sessions to ensure that physical health is protected.

Additional resources
More apps and digital resources are available on the CAPS website under the Services tab. On that page, students will find links for information on relaxation, mindfulness, mood trackers, issues with stress and anxiety, addressing negative thoughts, difficulties with OCD and brain/emotional fitness games. CAPS also has a self-help page with guided imagery and progressive muscle relaxation audio clips to help with stress and anxiety.

For more information, contact CAPS for further consultation.