Veterans who once waited over a month to see a mental health counselor through Veterans Affairs now have the opportunity to see one at City College within a week. For free! 

Additional mental health services for veterans were made possible thanks to a new 2-year grant. The Student Veterans Mental Health Demonstration Project donated $150,000 to City College for the purpose of hiring a dedicated mental health counselor for student veterans.

Seth Harris, a veteran work study student at the Veterans Service Center, believes there is great benefit to having a mental health counselor available to the veteran community. 

“I just thought it was awesome,” Harris said. “Having her here and just setting an appointment for a week from now, instead of waiting six weeks or longer, just feels a whole lot better.”

Alex Felty, a part time Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor at San Diego Community College District, helped write this grant with Dora Mesa and the team in charge of the Veterans Resource Center. She is excited to have a dedicated mental health counselor for veterans on campus. 

“We recognize that the need, we realize that there is a service gap for our veterans here,” Felty said.

Carolina Guardado, the student services supervisor for the Veterans Service Center and VA, oversees the veterans office and center. She believes building community is important and is excited to have these services in the center. 

“Our idea is to remove the stigma with veterans and mental health, and just let our students know that they have this support here,” Guardado said. 

Diana Hernandez is the full time counselor at City College and is in charge of the outreach portion of the Mental Health Center. She’s excited that the Mental Health Center is working more closely with the Veteran Service Center.

“We want to become a space that veterans trust,” Hernandez said.

The grant benefits go beyond helping veterans. Families and friends of veterans can also receive mental health services, including family and couples counseling. 

Kimberly Lesnick, the dedicated veteran counselor, believes these services will be beneficial to veterans’ overall success as students. 

“They also are going to be more engaged in their academics and are likely to be more successful,” Lesnick said. 

Veteran mental health counseling is available on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Veteran Service Center.

Edited by David J. Bohnet, Nadia Lavin