UA Cossatot and Dr. Randy Walker Family Practice and Allergy Clinic recently partnered to provide mental health services to UA Cossatot students with no out-of-pocket expense to students.

The plan is for the clinic to bill the student’s insurance if available and then bill the college for any remainder. UA Cossatot has received HEERF funds to cover this cost, which are projected to consist mainly of copays.

Tonya Chambers, PMHNP, with Dr. Randy Walker Family Practice and Allergy Clinic, provides health coaching to patients struggling with depression, anxiety, substance abuse, alcohol abuse, tobacco cessation, grief, anger management, OCD, PTSD, Trauma, and Caregiver support.

Angie Walker, with Dr. Randy Walker Family Practice and Allery Clinic, said, “Our goal is to improve health outcomes, reduce costs and create a happy, healthy community. This Partnership is the first step!”

Mental health services will be available to all UA Cossatot students beginning July 1. “This will be super convenient for our De Queen students, but telehealth will also be available so students on our other 3 locations can also utilize these services face-to-face!” said Suzanne Ward, Director of Student Services. According to the Mayo Clinic Health System, “Up to 44% of college students reported having symptoms of depression and anxiety.” Additionally, “Up to 75% of struggling students are reluctant to seek help. This increases the risk of harmful outcomes, such as dropping out of college, poor academic performance, suicide and substance abuse.”

UA Cossatot Chancellor Dr. Steve Cole said, “UA Cossatot students are the reason we exist and we want to make sure we are doing all we can to make them successful. Today's world has brought more stress than we have ever seen, and partnering with Dr. Walker's office to offer mental health counseling for our students will hopefully give our students a private and helpful way for them to deal with this stress or any other mental health matter they are facing. We also wanted to make sure there was no cost to our students for this service. We want to have healthy students...body and mind, and we feel this is a helpful way to accomplish this.”

For more information, contact Suzanne Ward at 870-584-1143 or sward@cccua.edu