When you feel good, you'll do better: A guide to accessing Columbia Health services this Fall

What you need to know about accessing Columbia Health’s programs and services available to you, regardless of what insurance you carry.

September 20, 2023

Welcome to Columbia! Columbia Health is here to partner with you to help you feel your best so you can accomplish what you came here to do while being happy, healthy, and well.

Most services with our providers come at no extra cost for most students*. This means, regardless of what insurance you have, you can access Columbia Health’s 70+ programs and services designed to support your health and well-being. This includes medical or mental health visits, health promotion and violence prevention programs, and accessibility accommodations.

Below is an overview of services and programs available to support you and a guide to accessing them, wherever you may be.

Who do you see for what at Columbia Health?

For a medical care visit

Medical Services provides routine and urgent medical care, nutrition, travel medicine, immunizations, sexual health services, reproductive and gynecological services, LGBTQ+ health care, confidential HIV testing, acupuncture, and sports medicine.

For a mental health visit

Counseling & Psychological Services provides short-term individual counseling, referrals for longer-term therapy, support spaces, medication consultation, and emergency consultation. Apart from counseling, CPS offers urgent mental health concerns drop-ins, problem-solving drop-ins, and support spaces.

For a health education visit, BASICS, sexual health counseling, tobacco cessation, or wellness coaching

Alice! Health Promotion provides one-on-one conversations on stress, sleep, time management, alcohol and drug education, wellness coaching, resource navigationworkshops and trainings, Go Ask Alice! (anonymous health Q&A web resource), and BASICS (short-term alcohol and substance use intervention).

GHAP (Gay Health Advocacy Project) is part of Alice! Health Promotion and provides HIV testing and treatment counseling, birth control education and counseling, PrEP and PEP consultation, sexual health peer counseling, and gender-affirming care coordination.

For a disability accommodations consultation

Disability Services provides academic, classroom, campus, housing, and event accommodations for students with disabilities (including chronic conditions and temporary injuries), and non-clinical consultations around academic difficulties related to attention issues or learning difficulties.

To speak with a survivor advocate

Sexual Violence Response provides crisis counseling, intervention, advocacy, connection to resources, online orders of protection, accompaniment for survivors and co-survivors of violence, as well as violence prevention trainings and workshops.

How do you make an appointment?

In keeping with our ‘redefined normal’ this Fall, many services can be accessed either in-person or virtually. Whether you’d prefer to access Columbia Health through virtual drop-ins, in-person appointments, over the phone, or connect with us at events, we’re here to support you in whatever way works for you.

When are we open?

Check the “What’s Open Now?” slice on our homepage to see if that department is open.

To see specific hours for each department, view up-to-date hours for Fall term:

For Urgent Support After Business Hours


**Access Columbia Health’s programs and services are covered by the Health & Related Services fee. Part-time students who are not on the Columbia Student Health Insurance Plan are charged when they see providers at Medical Services and Counseling and Psychological Services.