Counseling and Psychological Services 

• Making an Appointment
  
  To make an appointment with a counselor please stop by Counseling & Psychological Services located in the H.. Rajender Reddy Health Center on the second floor of the Joseph Edward Gallo Recreation & Wellness Center. You can also contact Counseling & Psychological Services at 209-228-4266 to schedule an appointment. Counseling & Psychological Services is open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, excluding weekends and holidays. 
  
  
• 24/7 Access to Assistance
  
  Counseling & Psychological Services has partnered with ProtoCall, Inc to provide after hours emergency clinical services. ProtoCall, Inc. provides 24-hour Intake and Assessment, Crisis Response and Triage Services to the UC Merced Campus Community. ProtoCall’s services enable students to speak directly with a counselor in a timely fashion, who is able to provide immediate support regarding a variety of issues, from academic and environmental stressors, mental health issues, alcohol and drug related concerns and help students access services with the their campus counseling office. By calling (209)228-4266,  the Counseling & Psychological Services Center number, you may access this service. A UC Merced professional counselor will follow-up with you the following business day.
  
  
•  Eligibility for Services
  
  All currently registered undergraduate and graduate students at the University of California, Merced are eligible to utilize on-campus counseling services free of charge. The service you receive is based upon a determination of your therapeutic goals and Counseling Services resources. If Counseling & Psychological Services is unable to meet your therapeutic needs, referral resources will be identified for you.
  
  
• Confidentiality and Privacy
  
  Information that you communicate to a Counseling & Psychological Services therapist is confidential. The fact that you are seeing a Counseling & Psychological Services therapist does not appear on any academic records. Your identity is kept confidential from anyone outside our agency. Please note, however, that in a professional counseling agency, confidentiality means that psychologists consult with each other as well as Health Center providers as needed regarding any of their clients. We are also required to keep data on who we see, their year in college, their ethnicity, etc. This statistical information is necessary for our yearly funding.
  
  Your right to confidentiality is protected by law. However, there are certain circumstances regarding life threatening situations in which confidentiality may not be protected. These situations are child abuse, suicide, homicide, and cases involving individuals who are gravely disabled and unable to care for themselves. In such cases the Counseling & Psychological Services staff member may be legally required to report to other outside agencies (where appropriate) information obtained during any Counseling & Psychological Services counseling visit. Except in these situations, information communicated to Counseling & Psychological Services cannot be released without a student’s permission. If you would like further information on this subject, your Counseling & Psychological Services staff member will be glad to provide it for you. 
  
  
• HIPAA Notice
  
  The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a federal law that is designed to protect the privacy of patient information, provide for the electronic and physical security of health and patient medical information, and simplify billing and other electronic transactions by standardizing codes and procedures. A piece of this law recently took effect and is known as the HIPAA Privacy Rule. The HIPAA Privacy Rule creates a minimum federal standard for the use and disclosure of Protected Health Information (PHI) by health care organizations. One of the requirements of the Privacy Rule is that we give to you a Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP) which describes your rights and protections regarding your health care records (PHI). This document is included as part of the Intake Forms Packet that you will need to fill out prior to your initial appointment.
  
  
• E-Mail Policy
  
  With respect to e-mail communication with psychologists, students are cautioned against this form of communication because e-mail is NOT a confidential means of communication. Therefore, counseling staff at Counseling & Psychological Services will not respond to any e-mail communications from students with whom they work in a counseling capacity. E-mail is not the appropriate medium to communicate urgent or emergency information. The risks of e-mail are that it could fail to be received and that confidentiality could be breached. An e-mail could fail to be received if it is sent to the wrong e-mail address or if it just is not noticed by the recipient. Confidentiality could be breached in transit by hackers or Internet service providers and at either end by others who had access to the account or the computer. The alternatives to e-mail are, of course, writing a letter or a note, making a phone call, and meeting in person.

University of California, Merced • Counseling & Psychological Services
P.O. Box 2039,
H.. Rajender Reddy Health Center
Joseph Edward Gallo Recreation & Wellness Center, 2nd Floor
Merced, CA 95344
209.228.4266 • counseling@ucmerced.edu