This petition to increase funding for CAPS is co-sponsored by the following organizations working to improve mental health on campus: 

Stanford + Mental Health 
Happiness Collective
Stanford Mental Health Outreach
Stanford Students for Body Positivity

In response to student demands, Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) has requested its largest budget increase ever to support 5 new staff members to bolster on-campus mental health services.

Three of these staff members will be full-time counselors at CAPS. Two will be administrative support personnel who will reduce administrative responsibilities for the current counselors. They will also aid CAPS' efforts to streamline the referral system to external mental healthcare providers, expand CAPS' outreach and respond more effectively to student feedback.

This budget increase will not fix all of CAPS' problems including the fact that CAPS is out of room at its main location at Vaden Health Center. However, this is an important step toward the mental healthcare we deserve on campus.

Furthermore, we urge CAPS to use this budget increase to hire counselors with more diverse racial, gender, and sexual identities that are better able to serve Stanford's population. Students with marginalized backgrounds have been underserved by counselors that do not share their identities. These additional counselors and administrative staff must be better equipped to serve these students and also improve CAPS outreach on campus to their communities. 

Last year, a new allocation of $438,000 to CAPS increased access to mental health professionals at the main CAPS location at Vaden Health Center and launched a pilot project to place counselors in the Wilbur and Stern dorms. However, this additional funding was from non-formula general funds and not part of the main yearly budget for CAPS.

We call upon Student Affairs (which CAPS is under) to continue expanding CAPS' budget as CAPS is critical for students seeking mental healthcare on campus.