Southwest La. Lacks Mental Health Professionals—A New Program Hopes to Change That

The Current [5/07] - When Wasilat Adeoluwa, a 30-year-old international student in the graduate counseling program at McNeese State University, arrived in Lake Charles, the city was still in shambles after five federally declared disasters damaged or destroyed tens of thousands of homes, businesses and large parts of the university’s campus. [...] Now, two years later and roughly a semester away from graduation, Adeoluwa is actively seeing clients at the Imperial Calcasieu Human Services Authority (ImCal) for several hours a week. Those visits and assessments are part of the required clinical hours students have to complete in order to graduate and start the process of becoming a licensed professional counselor.

Completing this placement can be difficult for students. Few providers who take interns offer payment for their hours and finding anyone to host them can be a challenge of its own, especially in southwest Louisiana. With the help of a grant, McNeese and ImCal are hoping to change that. Cont.