A search committee led by Counseling and Human Development Director Mark Reed is searching for two new counselors and a psychiatrist, according to Turco. The positions' job descriptions have been submitted to the Dean of the College's Office, and the three new hires will address the increase in wait times for counseling appointments created by the Health Services Office's decision to lay off its staff psychiatrist and a psychologist amid College-wide budget cuts, Turco said.
"It wasn't surprising to us that the external review team clearly saw [the long wait times] and said pretty quickly we needed to increase number of counselors and psychiatrists," he said.
The review, which was conducted in April and submitted to the College in June, was overseen by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Medical Director William Kettyle '67, Harvard University Director of Athletics Sports Medicine Francis Wang '88 and Harvard Director of Behavioral Health and Academic Counseling Paul Barreira.
Before his departure from Dartmouth in August 2009, former Dean of the College Tom Crady encouraged an external review of Dick's House within two years, according to Turco. Soon after, Turco encouraged acting Dean of the College Sylvia Spears to initiate the review to address the need for more space and more staff members, he said. College President Jim Yong Kim quickly supported a health services assessment, according to Turco.
The external review will allow Dartmouth to compare its practices to those at other schools, according to Ted Grace, a part-time consultant at Hodgkins Beckley Consulting, a firm that specializes in college health care.
"An external review is an opportunity to tell you how it's done elsewhere and see how the health center is positioned on campus and interacts with other departments," Grace said.
Dick's House will rearrange its facilities on Rope Ferry Road in response to the external review's recommendation for more physical space, Turco said.
"We are lucky to have all of our medical services under the same roof," Turco said. "We'd like to keep them close, because that helps with making referrals from medicine to counseling."
Turco said he would eventually like to see the construction of a new building to accommodate the need for more examining rooms, but added that such construction is unlikely to happen in the immediate future given that Facilities, Operations and Management has received many similar requests, he said. The lack of primary care examining rooms impedes Dick's House's ability to serve students effectively, Turco said.
Students interviewed by The Dartmouth last May also voiced concerns about long wait times and a lack of physical space for health services.
To address shortcomings in sports medicine at the College, the external review called for two additional athletic trainers and for the centralization of the space in which trainers work with athletes, Turco said.
The Athletic Department currently maintains "satellite training rooms" training rooms that are scattered throughout the athletic facilities which is not the optimal arrangement, according to Drew Galbraith, senior associate athletic director for compliance.
"We're limited in space, but as we think about new facilities, we're always thinking about efficient ways to improve the student experience," Galbraith said.
Although a new sports medicine facility will not be constructed in the near future, the Athletic Department will work closely with health services to eventually realize that goal, Galbraith said.
"We ask of them to let us know of ways we can be supportive in making this happen," Galbraith said.
New trainers would ideally be hired in November following the end of the fall athletic season and in March after the winter season, Galbraith said. Such timeframes would allow teams to work with the new trainers at the outset of their seasons, he said.
Dartmouth's sports medicine staff works closely with Dartmouth health services, and both report directly to the health services director, Turco said. At most other Ivy League institutions, the sports medicine staff reports directly to the school's athletic director, according to Turco.
While the College's review was conducted by three college health professionals not employed by Dartmouth, other schools may structure their reviews differently, Grace said.
Turco said the Dick's House review's comprehensiveness would not be limited by having its external reviewers exclusively in health services-related positions.
"[The three external reviewers] all have jobs where they intimately interact with the Dean's Office," Turco said. "In my experience, the college medical area is a unique area, and even though deans can see that interface, they have more trouble evaluating the medical health part of it."
