A student-run hotline for University of Colorado students who want to talk about depression, stress and other topics has been halted because of campus liability concerns.
CU HelpLine, which students say was founded 40 years ago, trained volunteer undergraduates to talk with other students in confidential phone or online chat conversations about homesickness, relationship troubles, the pressures of college and a range of other topics.
But last summer, the student group received a message from the campus office that oversaw it, Psychological Health and Psychiatry, a division of Wardenburg Health Center.
“It was basically that they didn’t have time for us anymore,” said Austin Rugh, a sophomore and a member of the group’s board of directors.
That initial e-mail also cited the contentious merger of Psychological Health and Psychiatry with Counseling and Psychological Services, two on-campus mental health units, as another reason for the split, Rugh said.
Without professional supervision, Rugh said CU HelpLine could no longer take calls or chats.
“We’re proud of the students’ ambition and dedication to the student-run HelpLine,” said Ryan Huff, a university spokesman,
“However, we asked that the program be paused last fall so we could re-evaluate it,” Huff said. “We did this since CU already offers a 24/7 professional counseling service and we also have some liability concerns with a student-run program.”
