IUPUC to open mental health center to train counselors

IUPUC will be opening a Mental Health Counseling Clinic next spring. The clinic will serve IUPUC, Ivy Tech Community College Columbus, and Purdue Polytechnic Columbus campuses, as well as Bartholomew County residents.

The clinic will primarily operate as a training center for graduate students in IUPUC’s master’s degree program in Mental Health Counseling. The school will renovate a space on the campus that will allow for four simultaneous individual, group, or family counseling sessions.

Dr. Darrin Carr, director of the graduate program, says there should be both short-term and long-term benefits to the community from the clinic.

“Once open, the clinic will provide an immediate value through the counselling services it delivers to the residents of Bartholomew County,” Carr said. “In the long term, the additional training provided to our graduate students will better prepare them to take on the challenges they will face as mental health counselors in South Central Indiana after graduation.”

The major funders for the project are Columbus philanthropists Tom and Barbara Schoellkopf and the center will be named in their honor. Funding also includes donations received during the 2018 IU Day crowdfunding campaign which were matched by David and Ella Elwood.

Other local funding is coming Heritage Fund – The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County, the Clarence & Inez Custer Foundation, and the Elizabeth Ruddick Nugent and Walter C Nugent Foundations.