Wednesday, January 8, 2025
2:00 – 3:30 pm ET

Understanding Diagnoses & Referrals

Counseling centers remain overwhelmed with student demand, waitlists and increased acuity. Rates of utilization have increased 30-40% over the past 10 years, even as enrollment has decreased 5%. Faculty and staff can help reduce the load on counseling centers and provide added support for students who are struggling. However, they sometimes struggle to recognize and address mental health issues and fear they do not know how to help or might say something wrong.

Our expert presenter will focus on prominent mental health issues seen on college campuses and what the diagnoses look like, including how faculty and staff can identify them; know when to refer them; recognize emotions, behaviors and actions that require more immediate action; and talk to students with an empathic approach, without crossing boundaries or making either party feel uncomfortable.

Examine strategies to develop campus-wide partnerships that will assist in providing intervention, programming, and support for all constituents. Highlight the emotions, behaviors and actions requiring more immediate concern and provide reassurance that no one is going to say anything wrong as long as they provide empathy and support.

Help alleviate the strain on counseling centers, provide tools and resources to faculty and staff, and increase the confidence of your entire campus community that everyone is working together to keep students healthy, safe, and successful.

Topics Covered

Gain crucial, actionable takeaways that will allow you to:

• Help faculty and staff identify students in distress and talk openly with them using an empathic approach, without crossing boundaries or making either party feel uncomfortable. 
• Reduce the fear and hesitancy that faculty and staff have in talking to students about mental health concerns by instilling confidence and reducing anxiety about making a mistake or saying the wrong thing.
• Address mental health issues on campus without using significant financial resources – focus on relationship, rather than cost, efforts as a model of success.
• Focus on the resources available to faculty and staff for student referrals.
  Be comfortable in asking difficult questions of students and provide guidance for when to offer extensions.
• Create successful partnerships with faculty and staff to augment support structures. 
• Develop partnerships with campus offices and departments so you can maintain open lines of communication in addressing mental health issues on campus. 
  

Presenter

Dr. Marcus Hotaling currently serves as the Director for the Eppler-Wolff Counseling Center at Union College.
Click here for full bio.