The Graham Health Center

Submitted By gabbyarambula
Words: 897
Pages: 4

Gabriella
Professor
WRT October 2013

Graham Health Center Oakland University has many on campus facilities. There is the student recreation center for health and fitness, along with Kresge Library that offers tutoring, and everything in between. A major bonus on campus is the Graham Health Center. The Graham Health Center provides clinic and injury services to Oakland University students. Faculty are allowed to use these services if they obtain a work related injury or have an illness. With the services offered one could wonder if the Graham Health Center is being effectively used by students. The Graham Health Center is difficult to evaluate because it directly deals with students confidentiality.
What I planned to do with my on campus research paper was to investigate on if the health center is being put to use and how many people use the services daily. While doing my research on the Graham Health Center I visited both the counseling and clinical offices. As I walked in, I noticed a few students seated. I took a seat myself . While sitting there I observed that there were more students or young adults seated for a counseling appointment than for a health service appointment. Trying to set up an interview with an employee or an adult that could answer my questions was difficult because of how busy they were. Interviewing students on campus I noticed that not many people use their Graham Health Center services period but the psychological counseling is used more often. Observing, and interviewing students lead me to seek on what the Graham Health Center had to offer and how it benefits students here on campus. The hours the health center is available are 8am-5pm Monday through Friday and closed on the weekends. It is located right across from the human health building and is facing north toward the Meadow Brook Theatre. With construction going on this year, parking seems to be issue for some patients but they still make it on time. If you cancel your appointment or arrive late to your appointment you will be issued a late fee of 45$ just as if you were at your own doctor’s office. To plan an appointment for the health services they offer over the counter medication and supplies available for purchase. For the counseling services for individuals they help with depression, anxiety, relationship problems, identity issues, career indecision, eating disorders, substance abuse and family conflict. There is all sorts of hotline numbers, and numbers you can get call if you need urgent help. Seeing what they have to offer had me collect my data. The data I gathered when surveyed 18 out of 20 people have never used the Graham Health Center. Despite their advertisement in the cafeteria and handouts during orientation part two not many first year students knew about the services provided by the Graham Health Center. The majority of the students surveyed only knew about the reduced prices of contraceptives but not much about other services even with getting six free sessions. From the American College Health Association they designed the National Health Assessment Web Survey to collect data on college students’ health habits, behaviors and perceptions. They conducted this survey in the spring of 2012. The top seven impediments to learning were stress, anxiety, work, sleep difficulties, internet use/computer games/, illnesses, and depression. From a list of 30 variables students said stress, anxiety and work had the greatest impact, greater than the national average. It appeared that students who drank within the last 30 days their perception was 93.6% and their reality was 52.1% higher than actual use among peers