BY ARIEL MARTINO

In print | Published April 24, 2008

In order to give students more input into the health services offered at Swarthmore, Worth Health Center Director Beth Kotarski has recently formed a student advisory committee, the Student Health Advisory Council. Kotarski is optimistic that this committee, coupled with an increase in student input, will help make Worth Health Center more accessible to all students.

“Too often college health centers are viewed only in terms of the negative stories that come out of them,” Kotarski said, citing anecdotes about misdiagnoses and long wait times as deterrents that keep students away from Worth.

SHAC will act as a channel of communication between students and the health center. “It is meant to be an avenue for students concerns and can then discuss those concerns with me or other staff members, and we work together trying for a solution,” Kotarski said.

According to SHAC member Dina Kopansky ’11, one major concern that SHAC hopes to address in the coming year is the issue of privacy. “It’s awkward to discuss a host of different concerns at that open, public front area. Privacy should be one of Worth’s top priorities,” she said.

Kotarski discussed several measures that will be implemented as early as next fall to increase privacy in Worth. One such measure is the use of “private slips,” where students can write their conditions on a slip that will be read by Worth personnel and then be referred to the correct facility for treatment.

Another proposed precaution is a “one at a time” policy at the front desk, which would give students more privacy while signing in. Aside from the privacy issue, the members of SHAC have several other initiatives to help them gather student feedback on how to optimize campus health services.

Kopansky hopes to develop an anonymous survey that allows students to evaluate the quality of health services. She hopes that this input will encourage improvements.

“Students are our main priority, we take their needs very seriously,” Kotarski said. “That is the main reason for SHAC, so that students are aware and involved in what goes on,” Kotarski said.

On Tuesday, SHAC hosted its first health and wellness fair in Sharples from 5 -7 p.m. Many health-related groups were represented including CAPS, EMTs, Global Health Forum, the WRC and the Student Health and Wellness Committee.

The goal was to raise awareness about health services on campus. “Health services has a vast amount of resources that students may not even know exist, so I hope that this will get the word out,” Kopansky said.

Kate Goertzen ’09, a current member of SHAC, said that the event — just one of many health service-sponsored events on campus — was well received by students.

Kotarski said she is looking forward to developing future student-oriented initiatives. “It’s the beginning of a whole host of wellness initiatives for students that we hope to develop in the coming years,” she said. “As the years go by, I hope it evolves both in size and tradition.”

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