The School of Community Health Sciences, Counseling and Counseling Psychology

Friday, December 1, 2017

With the renaming of the college to College of Education, Health and Aviation came new academic structures to better represent the growth of its programs.  The college shifted from three to four schools in order to provide focused organization to better serve students and faculty.

The School of Community Health Sciences, Counseling and Counseling Psychology (HCCP) was thoughtfully restructured to integrate programs that offer students training in Health Education and Promotion, Nursing, Counseling Psychology, Mental Health Counseling and School Counseling.

Each of these programs share similar values that are integrated in a way that makes this school unique. When restructuring HCCP, each program believed that its clients should be seen within their cultural context and that there should be a focus on human development and wellness across lifespans.

Each program concentrates on reducing health disparities by acknowledging and understanding that all clients do not have the same access to healthcare and resources. The programs also emphasize total wellness, or the integration of mental and physical health. This concept of integrated care is what sets HCCP apart from other schools across the country.

“This program is, to my knowledge, the first of its kind in the country. We are providing innovative, unique training opportunities to our students that are unavailable elsewhere nationally,” says Julie Koch, Head of the School of Community Health Sciences, Counseling and Counseling Psychology.

HCCP recently introduced a new Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN to BSN) program that is 100% online. This program is designed to enrich and expand the professional careers of nurses by using evidence-based practice and collaboration with individuals of diverse culture, communities and various health professions.

HCCP integrated the nursing program into the school by focusing on the concept of wellness and having its students take Health, Education and Promotion focused classes. This nursing program is one-of-a-kind as it uses a holistic health approach, concentrating on the connection between mind and body.

The value of integrating prevention and advocacy into the healthcare system resonates within each program and is integrated within the school to combine community health sciences, counseling and counseling psychology. Students are better prepared for the future of integrated healthcare by focusing on total wellness and multidisciplinary collaboration.