Student Health, Counseling Center to be placed in new dorm

When Pitt’s new, yet-to-be-named dorm is completed in the fall of 2013, students will no…When Pitt’s new, yet-to-be-named dorm is completed in the fall of 2013, students will no longer need to travel between two buildings to fulfill their mental and physical health needs.

The University’s Student Health Services, currently located on the fifth floor of the UPMC-owned Medical Arts Building on Fifth Avenue, and the Counseling Center, now situated on the third floor of the William Pitt Union, will unite to form the Wellness Center, to be located on the second floor of the newly constructed dorm at 121 University Place. The Student Health pharmacy will be moved to the first floor of the new building and will feature street-level access.

Pitt spokesman John Fedele said that the building’s estimated cost has remained at $59 million — as originally announced — and will house 559 freshmen on 10 floors when it opens its doors in fall 2013.

Marian Vanek, the director of Student Health Services, said that the center’s current location isn’t ideal for its patients.

For one, she said, the current center cannot overtly advertise outside of the building, and it also must pay a lease to use the facility. Vanek said she was unauthorized to give specific figures concerning the cost of the lease but said the new facility will be “cost-saving.”

The layout of the Wellness Center will feature 18 examination rooms around a centralized nursing station. Vanek, who contributed to the design of the new facility, said that this was an improvement over the layout of the center at the Medical Arts Building.

She said she was particularly excited about the connection between Student Health and the Counseling Center.

“Many patients we see in the Health Center have a mental-health component,” Vanek said, adding that the Counseling Center’s inclusion in the Wellness Center will allow for easier travel between the two service providers.

“We believe in the mind-body connection,” Vanek said.

Teyva Zukor, the director of the Counseling Center since last September, is also excited about the relocation. He said it will make for easier and quicker cross-referrals between the mental and physical departments of the Wellness Center.

“Certainly for us, we refer to the Health Center to rule out any physiological cause,” Zukor said, adding that after the relocation, he and his staff “can walk people to the Health Center.”

While his department frequently sends students over to the Health Center for a physical examination, he said students are also sent his way for various ailments.

Oftentimes when students have a panic attack or are dealing with depression, they head to their medical doctor, Zukor said. But these ailments often involve a mental component, and are therefore better handled by one of the Counseling Center’s two full-time psychiatrists.