Glade Run Lutheran Services is going to college.

Butler County Community College, to be exact, where its clinicians will provide counseling services to students and staff alike in the first college partnership Glade Run has in Butler County.

The BC3 board of trustees approved an agreement with Glade Run at its October meeting, and the college is now preparing to host counselors on campus for a pilot program starting next semester.

Joshua Novak, BC3’s vice president for student affairs and enrollment management, said the college’s Phi Theta Kappa group conducted a survey several years ago that showed students want some type of mental health support on campus. This partnership with Glade Run will allow students and faculty to have easy access to support in the same place as classes.

“It became a real challenge especially post-pandemic to find available supports for students who needed it, so we were exploring getting those closer to campus,” Novak said. “College counseling centers, we know those are highly utilized spaces like at Slippery Rock University, so college support for mental health was an area we wanted to look at.”

According to Novak, college administrators identified spaces on campus that could house a clinician for services on a part-time basis, and they are being audited by the Pennsylvania Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. If the program gains demand after it opens up, Glade Run can provide more counselors to the campus.

Steven Green, president and CEO of Glade Run, said the stigma of seeking mental health aid has slowly lessened over the past several years, and more people than ever are seeking out counseling services. That includes college students, who often have heavy workloads that wax and wane over the course of even one semester.

“I think we’re seeing that a lot in our higher education environments,” Green said. “They’re trying to pay for college, a lot of times they are leaving their house for the first time. They are trying to manage coursework on top of a job. There’s a lot hitting these kids in the face for the first time when they go to college.”

Novak said the college will work with staff and students to identify ways to get counseling, even if they cannot afford the on-campus services through Glade Run. He said the college also will begin promoting the availability of counseling services to the campus community.

“We are working through our care team and opportunities through the college to promote this to students in all the ways we report resources to students,” Novak said. “Incoming students, making them aware that this is a resource, and understanding how they can get access.”

Green said the agreement with BC3 is a step toward not only providing a new resource to college students on campus, but also introducing mental health counseling to college-age students, some of whom have likely never sought it out before.

“This is innovative of BC3 reaching out to the community and leveraging the options,” Green said. “They should be commended for bringing these services into BC3.”