In early September, Wellness Counsellor Tina Wadhwa had to delay starting to work as a counsellor with the Health and Wellness Center at NYU Abu Dhabi due to a delay in her UAE licensing process. Shortness of counsellors has sparked concern within the NYUAD student body who feel the university is unable to provide adequate mental health support.

A student who wished to remain anonymous said that although the university widely publicized wellness initiatives, their availability is very limited.

“[The university advertises] all around campus that we should go see counselors, but you can't get an appointment for at least two weeks. This is not only discouraging for students who are already getting out of their comfort zone to try to see a counselor, but could be very dangerous for students with mental health problems,” the student wrote to The Gazelle.

When consulted, Dean of Students David Tinagero indicated that they are currently looking to fill out two vacancies for counselors in the HWC but stated that the outcomes of the UAE licensing process are uncertain.

“The licensing process in Abu Dhabi is conducted by the [Abu Dhabi Health Authority], not NYU and we await their decisions. What I would say is that we are looking for people that are licensable. That’s a priority”, Tinagero said.

The Dean of Students also stressed that although there is only one counselor at the HWC at the moment, there is a support structure in place designed to help students in any situation. These include but are not limited to: Residential Assistants, the Office of Intercultural Affairs and professional staff within every residential hall. Additional resources for freshmen include First Year Dean Mary Barnes and First Year Dialogue facilitators

Tinagero also indicated that students could be connected to local mental health practitioners if needed and that the administration is working to provide students with more resources to enhance their wellbeing.

“We [will] be launching shortly, in the next week or two, a number of outreach efforts for students, [such as] workshops on stress and anxiety, workshops on homesickness, [which] will be facilitated by a social worker as well”, said Tinagero.

HWC Director Tehmina Kazmi specified that counsellors at NYU New York are also available to students:

“To support the students while we recruit [counselors], we have augmented our clinician resources with support from the NYUNY team; students can avail themselves of specialists for phone conversations with the Wellness exchange at any hour. Moreover, we still provide after hours counseling services in emergency situations.” Kazmi said.

Members of the Student Health Advisory Board said the committee had emphasized the importance of the issue to the administration:

"The committee has stressed to the HWC the importance of maintaining sufficient mental health services and we have been assured that they are working as [fast] as possible to accommodate students and to hire additional staff. The administration has been extremely willing to hear our concerns, but they can't change the market we are operating in,” Meyer commented.

He also said that the market is really complicated due to the shortage of mental health workers.

Despite the attempts of various university stakeholders to enhance wellness services, to some, the shortness of counsellors is indicative of the institution’s poor foresight.

"I think the lack of counselor support shows recklessness [on behalf] of the university. They should have worked on getting her UAE license before the semester started”, said the student.