Responding To Students in Distress – On-Demand Training

Identify Students in Crisis & Provide Early Intervention Practices 

Campus professionals are increasingly being asked to respond to student distress that is more complex, more visible and more urgent than ever before. Traditional approaches to crisis response are no longer enough. Students are signaling their struggles in new ways, often long before they walk into a counseling center, and staff need the tools to recognize and respond early.

Join us as our campus expert will offer a research informed, highly actionable session grounded in national data. She will explore the emerging patterns shaping student distress and what they mean for your daily work on campus. Gain a deeper understanding of why students may react in ways that seem confusing or disproportionate, and how you can intervene in ways that de escalate rather than intensify the situation. You will expand your clarity, confidence, and the practical strategies you need to meet today’s students.

If you work with students in any capacity, student affairs, academic advising, residence life, campus safety, faculty roles, or wellness services, this session will strengthen your ability to respond with skill, empathy and effectiveness. You’ll leave with a sharper lens for early identification and a toolkit of strategies you can use immediately.

Topics Covered

Gain crucial, actionable takeaways that will improve the way you: 

• Interpret the evolving profile of college student mental health, including national trends and the digital influences shaping how students’ express distress today.
• Recognize early behavioral, emotional, physiological, and digital warning signs across mild, moderate, and severe levels of distress before situations escalate.
• Identify emerging digital indicators of concern, including patterns in AI companion use, online communities, and meme culture, and integrate these insights into early intervention practices.
• Apply practical, research informed de escalation strategies to disruptive, concerning, or potentially dangerous behaviors in ways that reduce harm and increase student safety.
• Strengthen awareness of campus, community, and national resources, along with key literature and evidence based frameworks that support ongoing crisis response and student well being.
  

Presenter

Dr. Meggen Tucker Sixbey is the Assistant Director at the University of Florida’s Police Department, overseeing the Behavioral Services Division which includes a mental health support team of clinicians who respond with law enforcement officers to calls that are determined to present as mental health related.
Click here for full bio.