CAPS Policies
We are committed to supporting you on your mental health journey. Here you can find important information regarding our policies.
Obtaining Accommodations Related to Mental Health Needs
Academic accommodations related to mental health conditions may be appropriate when symptoms substantially affect a student’s academic functioning and access to education. The Office of Accessible Education (OAE) is the campus office responsible for reviewing accommodation requests, exploring reasonable accommodation options, and determining resources needed for equitable student access to education.
To understand the barriers to education, OAE typically requires clinical documentation from a mental health provider with whom the student has an ongoing treatment relationship. This documentation will include a student’s diagnosis and describe how symptoms affect academic functioning.
- If you are new to Stanford, documentation should generally come from your home mental health provider.
- If you receive treatment from a community provider outside of CAPS, that provider should complete the documentation.
- If you are seeking documentation from a CAPS provider, please be aware that, for accommodation requests, CAPS requires a thorough clinical evaluation and ongoing assessment of symptoms and functioning—usually over a sustained course of treatment. CAPS providers cannot consider requests for accommodation letters without completing this comprehensive process.
Emotional Support Animals and CAPS
Many staff at Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) are animal lovers, as well as professionals and advocates for student mental health. We occasionally receive requests from students for letters in support of obtaining Emotional Support Animals (ESAs) to help students manage and improve their mental health while living on campus.
While a service animal is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a person with a physical or mental health disability, an emotional support animal provides companionship and emotional support for a person diagnosed with a psychological disorder. ESAs are classified under the Federal Housing Act and do not qualify as service animals under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The American Counseling Association’s (ACA) position statement on Human-Animal Interventions in Counseling recommends that professional mental health counselors do not engage in the practice of writing letters recommending ESAs as an intervention for their clients, unless the counselor has had specialized training and experience in working with human-animal interventions in counseling. The codes of ethics for licensed mental health treatment providers across all disciplines specify that providers must only work within their boundaries of competence based on education, training, supervision, experience and credentials. At CAPS, while our clinicians are trained in the assessment of mental health diagnoses, the use of Human-Animal Interventions in counseling falls outside of our scope of practice.
The use of Emotional Support Animals as a treatment intervention has many potential risks to be considered: for clients, the public community, and the animal. Due to these potential risks as well as ethical codes regarding scope of practice, clinical professionals at CAPS abstain from writing letters of support for Emotional Support Animals.
ADHD Services
Please visit this page for information and resources about ADHD services.
