MISSION:  OBHS

It has been Wesleyan’s primary mission to advance knowledge and to cultivate and nourish in the students the learning, the intellectual skills, and the habits of mind they must have if they are to succeed as active, self-aware, critical and responsible members of the society which they will help shape. The academic/intellectual environment at Wesleyan is intense. The University has an academically able and diverse student body.  The majority of the students come from American urban and suburban settings, but we have students from all corners of the globe. They are expected to be committed to scholarly and critical inquiry.They are very different from each other in religion, politics, family experiences, economic perspectives, personal goals and personal obligations (including financial, familial, and national) and yet developmentally they bear strong resemblances to each other.

It is accurate to say that all the efforts of OBHS are in support of the mission of the University because all efforts are directed toward allowing the student who is encumbered by emotional problems to regain the measure of self-confidence and autonomy necessary to benefit from being at Wesleyan. 

The mission of the Office of Behavioral Health for Students is to provide a full range of effective brief treatment interventions for Wesleyan students. It is the responsibility of the professionals at the Office of Behavioral Health for Students to work with this complex array of clients on an individual or group basis toward the achievement of the fully functioning individual who is able to freely participate in and benefit from both in-class and out-of-class learning opportunities. This may be achieved through time-limited psychotherapy or a brief contact with our consultation service, via membership in an on-going group, as a result of a crisis intervention or a family conference, or through one of many other possible avenues of contact with the service. The service is available seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day whenever the university is in session.  The network of OBHS’s availability extends through many less obvious channels such as ready consultation access for faculty, dorm advisors, deans, and other pivotal resource personnel who may want either to refer a student or to have their concerns professionally evaluated or confirmed. It is understood by the University community (students, faculty and administrators) that the students’ confidentiality is sacrosanct with us; this in turn has contributed to our high volume.