Consequently, faculty and staff may find themselves confronted with a disturbed or disturbing student who needs assistance.
This information was compiled to help you when these difficult occasions occur. It offers straightforward advice, techniques and suggestions on how to cope with, intervene, and assist troubled and/or difficult students in or out of the classroom.
As a faculty or staff member interacting daily with students, you are in an excellent position to recognize behavior changes that characterize the emotionally troubled student. A student's behavior, especially if it is inconsistent with your previous observations, could well constitute an inarticulate "cry for help." Download Guidelines
Openly acknowledging to students that you are aware of their distress, sincerely concerned about their welfare, and willing to help them explore their alternatives, can have a profound positive effect. We encourage you, whenever possible, to speak directly and honestly to a student when you sense that he/she is in academic and/or personal distress.
Counseling Center Location: Haverhill A (Next to Campus Safety) Hours: Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. A counselor is on call evenings and weekends and reachable by first calling Campus Safety at 562.907.4211
If you are unsure of how to handle a specific student, we encourage you to consult with the director of counseling services by calling 562.907.4239. Identify yourself to the receptionist and state that you need a consultation. If the director is not immediately available, let the receptionist know if it is an emergency. If it is not, the director will return your call as soon as possible. A brief consultation may help you to sort out the relevant issues and explore alternative approaches. Conveying your concern and willingness to help in any way you can (including referral) is probably the most important thing you can do. Your support, encouragement, and reassurance will be particularly valuable.
When you do discuss a referral to the counseling center, it would be helpful for the student to hear in a clear and concise manner your concerns and why you think counseling would be helpful. Also, having the student call for an appointment increases her/his responsibility and commitment to come in for counseling. However, there may be times when it is more advantageous for you to make the phone call, with the student in your office, to facilitate this process. We will ask the student to get on the line to affirm the best day and time for an appointment. You may even want to accompany the student to the counseling center for an immediate appointment. If you do, please call to let us know you are on your way.
Urgent concerns that usually require immediate intervention are:
All discussions are held confidential, by law, except when the student presents a danger to him or herself or others, or when certain kinds of abuse are involved. All Services are FREE to currently enrolled Whittier College students. Our individual counseling services are designed for students who can benefit from short term, problem-focused counseling. If long term therapy is indicated, the student may be referred to an appropriate off campus resource. Referrals are also made if psychiatric services (e.g., medications) are required.
Please know that if you have referred a student to counseling services, we cannot, by law, consult with you about their attendance or the content of their conversations with us, unless the student (client) signs a written consent for us to do so. We will always suggest that you follow up with the student directly, to learn whether the student came to the counseling center and whether the student found it helpful to do so.
Depression, and the variety of ways it manifests itself is part of a natural emotional and physical response to life's ups and downs. With the busy and demanding life of a college student, it is safe to assume that most students will experience periods of reactive (or situational) depression in their college careers.
It is when the depressive symptoms become so extreme or are so enduring that they begin to interfere with the student's ability to function in school, work, or social environment, that the student will come to your attention and be in need of assistance.
Look for a pattern of these indicators:
Suicidal thinking is common. In a typical year, 80 percent of the students who come to the counseling center indicate "feeling depressed or unhappy;" 12 percent indicate "thinking of killing myself;" and 25 percent present some degree of suicide concern.
It is important to view all suicidal comments as serious. Watching for some of the following behaviors will also give you clues to what's going on with a student. If several of these are true, refer the student to the counseling center for assessment.
Violence is defined as "to use force so as to injure or damage; roughness in action; to outrage, to force, to injure..." Violence, because of emotional distress, is rare and typically occurs when the student's level of frustration has been so intense or of such an enduring nature as to erode all of the student's emotional controls. This behavior is often associated with the use of alcohol and other drugs.
Aggression is defined as "to attack, to go to, to commit the first act of hostility or offense...to assault first or to invade..." Students usually become verbally aggressive in frustrating situations they perceive as being beyond their control. Anger and upset become displaced from those situations onto the nearest target (YOU). Explosive outbursts or ongoing belligerent, hostile behavior become the student's way of gaining power and control. It is important to remember that, for the most part, the student is not angry at you.
These students have difficulty distinguishing "fantasy" from reality. Their thinking is typically illogical, confused or irrational (e.g., speech patterns that jump from one topic to another with no meaningful connection); their emotional responses may be incongruent or inappropriate; and their behavior may be bizarre and disturbing.
These students may experience hallucinations, often auditory, and may report hearing voices (e.g., someone is trying to harm/control them). While these students may elicit alarm of fear from other, they generally are not dangerous our violent. Consult with or refer to the counseling center as soon as possible.
Anxiety is a normal response to a perceived danger or threat to one's well being. For some students, the cause of their anxiety will be clear; but for others it is difficult to pinpoint the reason for distress. Regardless of the cause, one or more of the following symptoms may be experienced: rapid heart beat, chest pain or discomfort, dizziness, sweating, trembling or shaking, and cold, clammy hands. The student may also complain of difficulty concentrating, always being "on edge," having difficulty making decisions, sleeping problems or being too fearful to take action. In rarer cases, a student may experience a panic attack in which the physical symptoms occur spontaneously and intensely in such a way that the student may fear she/he is dying.
Alcohol is the most widely used psychoactive drug. In addition to being the preferred drug on college campuses, it is common to find students who abuse alcohol also abusing other drugs, both prescription and elicit. Nationally, 43 percent of college students engage in binge drinking, defined as five drinks in a row (four for women.) Consuming alcohol in large quantities quickly can be lethal. Other adverse effects include: hangovers, hospitalization for alcohol overdose, poor academic performance, missing classes, injury, and unprotected sexual activity.
Student alcohol abuse is most often identified by faculty when irresponsible, unpredictable behavior affects the learning environment (e.g., drunk and disorderly conduct in class) or when a combination of the health and social impairments associated with alcohol abuse sabotages student performance. Because of the denial that exists in most substance abusers, it is important to express your concern about the student in terms of specific changes in behavior or performance (not your suspicions about alcohol/drugs.)
Suspicious students usually complain about something other than their psychological difficulties. They are tense, cautious, mistrustful, and have few friends. These students tend to interpret a minor oversight as significant personal rejection and often overreact to insignificant occurrences. They see themselves as the focal point of everyone's behavior and everything that happens has special meaning.
Usually they are overly concerned with fairness and being treated equally. They project blame onto others and will express anger indirectly. Many times they will feel worthless and inadequate.
Eating disorders are very prevalent with more than 5 million Americans suffering from an eating disorder. College women ages 18-22 have a higher incidence than those younger, older, or not in college with 5 percent of women having an eating disorder and 15 percent of young women having substantially disordered eating attitudes and behaviors (at Whittier College, about 100 women students). Eating disorders are men's issues too with college men reporting restrictive eating behaviors.
Eating disorders can last from months to years. If left untreated, they disrupt social relationships, school, and work. They cause psychological and medical problems that can be permanent and can cause death. All eating problems are damaging to a person's self-esteem. If the problem lasts long enough, the person feels trapped and hopeless and is afraid he/she will never recover.
Some of the warning signs of an eating disorder include:
It is important to respond sensitively to students who disclose having experienced a sexual assault or an attempted assault. Most assaults go unreported in any formal way. One-third of women do not tell anyone of their experience, and two-thirds tell a friend or other trusted individual. Complicating the issue of reporting is the fact that most assailants are persons known to the victim; they are not strangers.
If you are the person trusted with this information, what can you do?
The student may need and want to seek medical attention, even some time after the assault, to check for physical damage and to test for sexually transmitted disease and pregnancy.
Note that if the person who reports an offense requests a change in academic, living or work arrangements as a result of the offense, the College must make reasonable efforts to accommodate such requests. The student should be advised of the right to make a formal complaint of the assault to the police department in the city where the assault occurred; if the assailant is a member of the campus community, a complaint can be filed with the Dean of Students (if the assailant is a student;) the Dean of Faculty (if the assailant is a faculty member); or the Director of Human Resources (if the assailant is a staff member). Details of the adjudication process are available in the Student Handbook and in the Faculty/Staff Handbook.
Federal law requires all campus personnel (except counselors in the Counseling Center) to make an anonymous report of an incident of sexual assault to Campus Safety. This report is used for statistical purposes and contains only the nature of the incident and the location and date of occurrence.
