Rutgers Counseling, ADAP & Psychiatric Services (CAPS) website
Undergraduate and graduate students experience a great many stresses in their lives - sorting out one's identity, establishing and maintaining important relationships, coping with anxiety and depression, working on changing relationships with parents and other family members, dealing with losses, handling new academic demands, and dealing with reactions to one's differentness. To help with these tasks, Counseling, ADAP & Psychiatric Services provides a variety of psychological counseling services for all students of Rutgers University in New Brunswick/Piscataway, undergraduate and graduate. Services are free, and confidentiality is guaranteed within legal and ethical guidelines.
Counseling, ADAP & Psychiatric Services was created in September, 2006, by joining the major mental health services on campus into one organization, as part of the Rutgers Health Service. CAPS now includes Counseling Services, Alcohol and Other Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) and Psychiatric Services. The CAPS main office is located on College Avenue at 17 Senior Street. We also maintain a counseling office on the Cook/Douglass Campus at 61 Nichol Avenue.
CAPS provides a broad spectrum of services which includes providing time limited individual therapy, assessment and treatment of students with substance use problems and psychiatric medication management. Longer term care is provided based on clinical need. The appropriate level of immediate care is determined via an initial telephone triage appointment through the main CaPS location on Senior Street. Following triage, assignments for treatment within CaPS are based on the presenting or major problem(s) and are primarily made when short term and/or group work are the therapeutic modalities of choice (with or without adjunctive psychiatric or ADAPS services) or when students need immediate assistance in order to stabilize. Referral to outside providers is more often considered if the patient is stable and longer term individual work is needed or, conversely, when a higher level of care than CaPS staff can provide is necessary in order for a student to stabilize (e.g. psychiatric hospitalization or intensive outpatient program).
- Alcohol & Other Drug Assistance Program (ADAP): Alcohol & Other Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) is a counseling and information program for students who are concerned about their drinking or use of other drugs, about a friend's use/abuse, or about drug or alcohol use in their family. ADAP is a special focus service of Counseling, ADAP & Psychiatric Services (CAPS), which is a division of Rutgers Health Services.
- Counseling: CAPS strives to be a comprehensive mental health resource center for the campus community. We offer a variety of high quality counseling services to Rutgers students in order to enhance both academic and personal achievement and progress.
The counseling services offered by CAPS include: - Graduate Student Assistance: Roughly 27% of CAPS contacts per year are with graduate students. Grad students develop a unique plan for their care in partnership with a mental health professional. This plan is dependent upon each student’s clinical need, personal requirements, resources and history of care. Individualized Care Plans for Grad Students include one or more of the following:
- Initial telephone interview with a CAPS professional
- Daytime on call/Crisis Intervention
- After Hours contact with Acute Psychiatric Services for psychiatric emergencies
- Supportive Follow up with CAPS clinical social work team
- Help to locate and make use of other University services, options for stress management
- Assistance to find care providers in the surrounding community (for diffuse, ongoing, or exploratory problems in living)
- Group psychotherapy to address a wide range of concerns
- Individual psychotherapy sessions targeting particular problems in living
There are several specialty group offerings at CAPS geared specifically towards graduate students including:
- Graduate Student Interpersonal Process Group
- Dissertation Support Group
If a graduate student or concerned other has concerns that care is not meeting a students needs:
- Please contact CAPS again to speak with the counselor who originally helped create the plan.
- If the student is not comfortable re-contacting the original clinician, the student may be encouraged to speak with the CAPS Director, Dr. Jill Richards at 848.932.7884
Students who would like to offer feedback about the quality of care at CAPS should be encouraged to contact:
Rutgers Health Services Director of Quality
Ms. Bonnie Abedini at 848.932.7402.
