West Liberty University released to the press on Jan. 13, 2020 the plans to expand the vacant fourth floor. A year previous to the announcement, West Liberty opened a Speech and Hearing Clinic that provides healthcare services to the public at reasonable costs. Over a year later, on Feb. 4, 2021, West Liberty cut the ribbon to the new home of two health clinics: A Behavioral Health Clinic and a larger Speech and Hearing Clinic, both of which are open to the public.

The university worked with the same Pittsburgh architectural firm (PWWG) that built Campbell Hall (opened in 2014), and now with the completion of the clinics, students in the Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology are able to treat behavioral health clients that visit the clinic under the supervision of licensed faculty.

In the “WLU OPENS NEW HEALTH CLINIC” release, President Dr. W. Franklin Evans said, “We are so pleased to announce the opening of these much-needed clinics. It is our hope that the students, under the direction of our highly qualified instructors, will prove to be a benefit to our community.”

Dean of the College of Sciences, Dr. Karen Kettler, also said within the same release linked above that COVID-19 halted the completion of the project, so finally getting to cut the ribbon was nice. “The clinics will provide diagnostic and treatment rooms for patients, allowing students and faculty to be directly involved in patient care. This type of learning experience is invaluable for students, as it promotes critical thinking and problem-solving skills,” said Kettler.

The clinic offers psychological assessment services including testing for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and teletherapy by virtual appointment.

The release also included another quote said by Carol Zombotti, assistant professor of Speech Language Pathology, ““We began to offer hearing clinical services nearly two years ago to meet a community need and provide our students with more patient experience, right here on campus. Now we’ve added speech and language services to our clinic so that we have a complete communication disorders clinic.”

Offering comprehensive hearing, speech, and language treatments for patients of all ages, the new space offers a more comfortable space to serve more clients.

The students of the Hilltop have shown their excitement for the two health clinics being completed.

Creed Kidney, freshman Visual Communications and Design and Creative Arts Therapy major, said, “Not only is the universities strive to offer affordable health care to our surrounding community and student population an amazing thing to institute, but also the opportunities provided to the students of those majors, particularly those in the Master of Arts in Psychology, in relation to the new Behavioral Health Center, will be invaluable.”

Adding onto Kidney’s statement, Rae Williams, junior English and Rhetoric, commented on the opportunities the clinics are going to produce for the students here on the Hilltop.

“I think these clinics provide a great opportunity for students to get real world experience with treating patients before they graduate,” said Williams.

The Speech and Hearing Clinic is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. with evening hours by request. Low-cost fees vary depending on provided services.

The Behavioral Health Clinic is also open Monday through Thursday; however, their hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The fees for behavioral health visits are offered on a sliding fee basis and capped at $25.

For more information regarding the clinics or to make an appointment, please call 304.336.8199 or visit westliberty.edu/college-of-sciences.

This article was cultivated by Annalise Murphy using the press release listed in the article above. For more information, please email [email protected].