The Butler University Health Center is offering more services to students by adding both a psychiatrist and a full-time doctor to the staff.
DeLynn Williams will provide psychiatric services to Butler students and faculty.
Williams attended medical school at Morehouse School of Medicine and completed her residency at Indiana University.
Right now, there are 11 therapists on staff, including three full-time staff members. Eight additional people come in and train for the year from other schools. All staff members have either a masters’s degree or a doctorate.
Williams will be able to provide prescriptions, complete evaluations and manage medication.
“No one else here is able to do that so we are thrilled to be able to add that to the service,” Keith Magnus, director of counseling services, said.
This is not the first time Butler has offered these kinds of services.
Budget cuts in 2003 resulted in the loss of a psychiatrist on-campus.
“We still cannot afford to have someone, so what we did was say ‘let’s at least bring one here under our roof’ and we’ll figure something out,” Magnus said.
Students will be charged for psychiatric services at the health center, but will not be charged for anything else, Magnus said.
Even though Magnus said he is disappointed that they cannot offer the services for free, he said he is still hopeful that students will benefit from the convenience of the services offered on-campus.
“Rather than sending students to Methodist or down the road to her private practice or someone else’s private practice, we have got her,” Magnus said. “It is more of a convenience issue, and it is going to be less expensive than those other options.”
Initial evaluations by Williams will cost $120. Each follow-up visit will cost $60.
Magnus said the counseling center staff members look forward to this addition to the staff.
Before Williams had joined the staff, Magnus would have to communicate with other doctors and pharmacists to make sure everyone was on the same page as far as care goes, Magnus said.
With Williams on staff, it takes a lot of the middle men out of the picture.
“Ordinarily, if we are seeing a student and suggest to them to take something like an anti-depressant, we have to do a fair amount of leg work to make that happen,” Magnus said. “This is so much easier in terms of quality of care.”
In addition to the psychiatrist, health services also welcomed Dr. Maria Fletcher to the staff as a full-time doctor.
Students like sophomore Tracy Wiesbrook said they are grateful and relieved for the new staff member, saying the addition will make health services more convenient.
Wiesbrook said she struggled last year in trying to see the doctor to get allergy shots. She said she hopes that this will make it easier.
“Luckily, I do not have to get allergy shots anymore, but I was still relieved I would not have to jump through hoops to see a doctor on campus,” Wiesbrook said.
Wiesbrook received care from Fletcher after suffering from a serious earache.
“I went in during a walk-in period and I saw the doctor within 20 minutes,” Wiesbrook said. “Compared to last year, I could not believe I was in the same health center because it was really organized and quick.”
The center is open on weekdays with special hours set for allergy shots and walk-ins.