Each year we have some students who seek out letters in support of obtaining emotional support animals (or ESAs) while enrolled at Cornish. There are many reasons we do not provide this service, but a main reason is that there are "best practices" for completing such human-animal interaction assessments that mitigate counselor liability inherent in writing such recommendation letters. Also, such support letters are loosely considered "prescriptions;" prescriptions require diagnoses. Philosophically, this office has chosen not to assign diagnoses to clients since we are a free service to students and not required to bill insurance companies. Similarly, we do not provide letters of support for students seeking single accommodations.
We do not provide testing for learning disabilities, ADHD/ADD and Autism Spectrum Disorders. We simply do not have the human resources required to do so. Each completed assessment takes approximately 15-20 hours, and demand for personal counseling services makes this impractical. Similarly, we do not provide letters for disability accommodations. We encourage students to contact their providers from home for these letters. If you need a diagnosis, we can help you find local providers that can provide such assessments.
Some conditions are best treated by specialists, such as eating disorders, substance use disorders, other addictions, the manifestation of major mental health disorders (e.g. schizophrenia, bipolar I disorder) which often develop in the late teens and early twenties. Some personality disorders are beyond our scope of practice as well (e.g. Borderline PD, Antisocial PD if moderate to severe). We often uncover these needs in our screening process and will use any follow-up appointments to help you get connected with local specialists.