Thesis Defence: Integrating psychological services into a Canadian university student health clinic

Alex Fountaine, supervised by Dr. Lesley Lutes, will defend their thesis titled “Integrating psychological services into a Canadian university student health clinic: a mixed-methods program evaluation” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology.

An abstract for Alex Fountaine’s thesis is included below.

Defences are open to all members of the campus community as well as the general public. Registration is not required for in-person defences.

Abstract

The prevalence of mental and behavioural health (MBH) concerns amongst post-secondary students is steadily increasing, as is the demand for access to evidence-based MBH services on campus. For many students, the campus student health clinic is a critical first point of contact for seeking and initiating MBH care. Evidence suggests that integrating psychologists (also known as primary care psychologists [PCPsychs]) into primary care clinics yields several key advantages including improved wait times, patient and provider satisfaction, and MBH outcomes. Despite this evidence, widespread integration of psychological service in primary care clinic has been minimal in Canada, especially within campus healthcare. Considered altogether, integrating psychological services within university student health clinics presents a propitious opportunity to afford students with the evidence-based MBH care they increasingly require while filling a critical gap in the literature. The UBCO PCPsych Service consisted of the integration of a single PCPsych into the UBCO Student Health Clinic for one day per week over the course of two academic calendar years. A mixed-methods program evaluation was conducted to assess service reach and penetration, feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy as well as, explore patient and clinic team perspectives of the service. Descriptive analyses of service operations data, pre-post clinical outcomes, and reflexive thematic analysis of patient and clinic team qualitative survey responses demonstrated feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of the UBCO PCPsych Service. Qualitative themes generated offered additional insight into the largely positive patient and clinic team perspectives and experiences with the service while also offering thoughtful recommendations to improve the service. Taken together, the findings offer preliminary support for the integration of psychological services within student health clinic settings and demonstrates the overwhelming demand from students and campus stakeholders for more comprehensive and sustainable system of integrated student MBH care.