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A year after Virgina Tech shootings, impact felt on campus mental health treatment
Justin Pope- Associated Press
Issue date: 4/16/08 Section: News
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- IDENTIFYING TROUBLED STUDENTS. Faculty are speaking up more about students who worry them. That's accelerating a trend of more demand for mental health services that was already under way before the Virginia Tech shootings.
Professors "have a really heightened level of fear and concern from the behavior that goes on around them," said Ben Locke, assistant director of the counseling center at Penn State University.
David Wallace, director of counseling at the University of Central Florida, said teachers are paying closer attention to violent material in writing assignments - warning bells that had worried Cho's professors.
"Now people are wondering, 'Is this something that could be more ominous?'" he said. "'Are we talking about the Stephen Kings of the future or about somebody who's seriously thinking about doing something harmful?'"
Mississippi State and the University of Kentucky are among the schools creating teams involving people such as resident advisers, teachers, administrators and campus police to try to identify troubled students. Others, including Virginia Tech, that already used such "care" teams have added another layer to deal with those identified as potentially threatening.
"People who have been really depressed and are thinking about hurting themselves, these folks I think are coming to our attention a little bit earlier," said Keith Anderson, staff psychologist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. "Because it's been a kind of national awakening, we have a sense of hope people will refer folks before something gets out of control."
The downside is officials may be hypersensitive to any eccentricity. Says Susan Davis, an attorney who works in student affairs at the University of Virginia: "There's no question there's some hysteria and there's some things we don't need to see."
That's a problem because counseling centers already had their hands full. A survey last fall by the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors found colleges on average have just one counseling staffer for every 1,941 students. Those ratios could decline given that some colleges are adding staff - Virginia Tech has added four, with plans for three more - but in many states the ratios are still well above the nationally recommended guideline of one counselor per 1,500 students.
- IDENTIFYING TROUBLED STUDENTS. Faculty are speaking up more about students who worry them. That's accelerating a trend of more demand for mental health services that was already under way before the Virginia Tech shootings.
Professors "have a really heightened level of fear and concern from the behavior that goes on around them," said Ben Locke, assistant director of the counseling center at Penn State University.
David Wallace, director of counseling at the University of Central Florida, said teachers are paying closer attention to violent material in writing assignments - warning bells that had worried Cho's professors.
"Now people are wondering, 'Is this something that could be more ominous?'" he said. "'Are we talking about the Stephen Kings of the future or about somebody who's seriously thinking about doing something harmful?'"
Mississippi State and the University of Kentucky are among the schools creating teams involving people such as resident advisers, teachers, administrators and campus police to try to identify troubled students. Others, including Virginia Tech, that already used such "care" teams have added another layer to deal with those identified as potentially threatening.
"People who have been really depressed and are thinking about hurting themselves, these folks I think are coming to our attention a little bit earlier," said Keith Anderson, staff psychologist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. "Because it's been a kind of national awakening, we have a sense of hope people will refer folks before something gets out of control."
The downside is officials may be hypersensitive to any eccentricity. Says Susan Davis, an attorney who works in student affairs at the University of Virginia: "There's no question there's some hysteria and there's some things we don't need to see."
That's a problem because counseling centers already had their hands full. A survey last fall by the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors found colleges on average have just one counseling staffer for every 1,941 students. Those ratios could decline given that some colleges are adding staff - Virginia Tech has added four, with plans for three more - but in many states the ratios are still well above the nationally recommended guideline of one counselor per 1,500 students.
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starviego
posted 4/16/08 @ 1:26 PM MST
Random-rage school shootings are gub'mint-sponsored covert operations, designed to get the bureaucrats to run every aspect of our lives.
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