Features
A Space for Healing
The new center will be a one-stop shop designed to meet students’ special needs.
By TOM WOOLF | USF News
On her own for the first time more than 9,000 miles from her home in Vietnam, Quyen Tran struggled with unfamiliar emotions during her first weeks at USF. A usually confident teenager, she grew lonely, uncertain and overwhelmed.
“I felt a little depressed,” she recalls.
She managed to power through, making friends by joining student organizations and learning stress relief techniques through the Department of Student Success. Now a thriving sophomore majoring in public relations and advertising, Tran knows not all students may be so fortunate. So she’s looking forward to the new Student Health and Wellness Center, slated to open on USF’s Tampa campus later this spring.
Nearly four times bigger than the existing health services building, the new center will be a one-stop-shop designed to meet college students’ special needs. It will have an urgent care area with more space for procedures and observation. Vaccinations and other routine and educational services, now sometimes scattered around campus, can be consolidated. Students can have blood drawn on-site for lab tests, see a dermatologist, fill prescriptions and receive immunizations.
There will also be spaces dedicated to two high-demand areas: sexual and mental health.
“An area devoted to psychiatric care will be wonderful,” says Tran. “College is different from high school. For the first time, you don’t have someone telling you what to do. You have to do that yourself. Students are relocating — they don’t have their family and friends close by for support. Students have a lot of stress.”
Dr. Joseph Puccio, student health’s executive and medical director, agrees. While COVID-19 exacerbated the need for student mental health services, both at USF and nationally, he and his team saw a growing need well before the pandemic.
“We’ve seen the utilization of our psychiatry services increase every year since we began offering them in 2014,” he says. “Students are very stressed, and they have been more comfortable seeking out mental health services, including seeking out medication for some of the symptoms they’ve experienced.
“The students who come for psychiatric services see an improvement. They are able to perform much better academically than before they came for help.”
Puccio has also noticed a significant increase in the number of students with chronic diseases.
“We’ve had students diagnosed with some significant chronic diseases, such as Type 1 diabetes and numerous other conditions,” he says. “And we’ve had an increase in the number of students who are being diagnosed with cancer. The level of services provided to students and the chronicity of their illnesses have definitely increased over the course of the past 10 years.”
The new center replaces a facility that opened in 1990 to serve a much smaller student population. Despite a dedicated staff and numerous renovations, it’s just too small.
“Our fabulous staff has been meeting the health needs of our students in a completely inadequate, antiquated space,” says Donna Petersen, USF’s chief health officer.
When exam rooms are filled with students suffering illnesses and injuries, there’s no place for a simple private conversation, which may help a stressed or anxious student. And patients can’t be seen in a timely fashion, Puccio says.
“All of our providers are limited to basically one exam room. In the new building, our general medical providers will have two exam rooms, and on some days three rooms will be available.”
The three-story, $27.4 million building is a source of pride and meaningful legacy for Student Government leaders dating back to 2015, says Joey Cipriano, USF Tampa campus governor.
“The building is 100 percent funded by student funds. I think that’s really impressive,” says Cipriano, a senior majoring in economics and international studies. That required a sustained commitment by successive student leaders, who allocated money in phases from the Capital Improvement Fee Trust Fund, he says. The fund is financed by student fees.
“I’m most excited about how many more services it will offer,” he says, adding that students provided input throughout the design process. “Students will have so much better access to health care and it will be even easier to get appointments. Students like the services they currently receive. They appreciate the good prices and they appreciate the actual workers. But the facility itself …”
As they do now, students will receive some services for free at the new center, Cipriano says. Others require minimal fees, which are listed, so there are no surprises.
With more space for observation, USF health-care practitioners will also be able to help students avoid more expensive hospital bills.
“It will allow us to keep patients as long as possible without sending them to an emergency room,” Puccio says. “Sometimes, it’s just watching and waiting, giving them fluids, seeing how they respond.”
There will be room for more holistic services as well, such as nutritionists, and education that promotes overall good health, which can save students time, money and missed opportunities now and in the future.
“We’re going to have clinicians from the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences so we can offer physical therapy for our students,” says Petersen. “We also will be working with our exercise science folks. We are trying to provide a more well-rounded set of services.”
That’s important to students like Tran, who says she’s learned a lot about wellness through outreach programs on campus.
“When they have a Mental Health Care Day or other programs to raise awareness, they have to host them at the Marshall Student Center,’’ which has limited availability due to high demand, she says.
“It would be good to be able to host those programs at the wellness center, so more students can benefit.”
As she’s realized, some of the most important learning at USF happens outside the classroom.