Counseling Office Online
A
Newsletter for the Faculty and Staff of Northeastern Illinois University
Spring / Summer 2008
Topics in this issue:
Online mental health screenings
Binge drinking by college students
Students evaluate their career counseling
Don't
cancel that class!
If you won't be on campus for one of your class sessions this coming term, "don't
cancel that class!" Instead of canceling, let the Counseling
Office make a presentation in your class during the time you will be
away. We can make presentations about a variety of topics, depending on
the nature of your class and the needs of your students. Some topics
include:
Stress
and relaxation ~how to identify the signs of stress and how to make healthy choices to
better manage your stress.
Winter
blahs ~recognize
the signs of depression and develop healthy habits and practices to enhance
your mood and maintain emotional balance.
HIV/AIDS
awareness ~the effects of HIV, who's at risk, how to protect yourself from getting
infected.
Career
Decision Making ~what students need to know to make sound career decisions.
Careers
in <your field> ~how to translate your major into a career.
To explore the possibility of a
Counseling Office presentation in your class, call us at ext 4650 or email us here.
Remember, when you can't be in class, we can
be -- don't cancel that class!
Online mental health screenings now available
The Counseling Office has just added online
screenings to its array of services for students. A link on our psychological counseling page
takes you to the website of Screening
for Mental Health, where students can take a number of online screening tests. Screening
for Mental Health is an organization which started large-scale mental health
screening with National Depression Screening Day back in 1991. Since that initial effort, they have
developed online screening tools that local agencies can employ with their
populations.
The Counseling Office, through
support from our federally-funded suicide prevention grant, has secured access
for Northeastern students and staff to screenings for:
- Depression
(Feeling sad or hopeless? lost interest in things you used to enjoy?) - Mood disorders(Mood swings from high to low? Acting in reckless or risky ways? Highly irritable?)
- Anxiety(Can't stop worrying? Restless and on-edge? Muscle pain, headaches or stomach problems?)
- Post-traumatic stress(Experienced or witnessed a traumatic event? Feeling numb? Having flashbacks?)
- Alcohol(Drink so much you forgot what happened? Can't cut back? Friends or family concerned?)
- Eating disorders(Starving yourself to lose weight? Vomiting or using laxatives? Eating out of control?)
Students can take a quick
screening in any of these areas and see whether it might be helpful for them to
talk to a professional counselor to explore things further.
Online screening has become an
increasingly popular tool that college counseling centers use to reach students
who may be struggling with a variety of issues, but who might be hesitant to
meet with a counselor in person. It's a safe
and private way to begin the process of talking about those things that concern
them, receive dependable information about their responses and be gently
advised to explore things further if called for. Because students can access our website 24
hours a day/7 days a week, these online screenings are available when students
need them.
For more information, or to
sample the screenings yourself, follow these links to: psychological
counseling or online
screening
Binge drinking... not
just on residential campuses
Many of us assume that because NEIU students are all commuters that alcohol
abuse issues are likely to be less of a problem here than at traditional
residential campuses. Unfortunately
that's not so. Recent research by the Harvard
School of Public Health indicates that drinking continues to be a serious
problem for college students. They
report 95% of all college students drink alcoholic beverages. Binge
drinking is identified as the "Number 1 health hazard" for
American college students. In surveys
here at Northeastern, students tell us they have similar patterns of drinking
as do students living in residence halls, with binge drinking common. Increasingly, Northeastern students who seek
mental health services in our Counseling Office report problems with drinking,
including an inability to limit the number of drinks over the course of an
evening and blacking out.
Blackouts do not involve passing
out--in fact students can act quite normally when drinking, but they will have
no recollection the next day of what they did.
Recent research suggests that blackouts are related the ability of
alcohol to interfere with memory formation.
That is, the memory of what one is doing is not effectively recorded
because of high levels of alcohol. Additionally,
blackouts appear to be related to sudden increases in blood alcohol levels,
something made more likely by drinking several shots in the midst of an evening
involving beer or mixed drinks. This
drinking pattern is common among students and young adults. Binge drinking is especially risky for women
as it is related to increased risks of rape or sexual aggression.
If you suspect one of your
students may be having a problem with alcohol, there are many services
available. Refer them to the Counseling
Office for a consultation. Or refer them
to the Alcohol Anonymous group that's held weekly on campus (coordinated by the
Dean of Student Office).
Check these links for more about
binge drinking (here
or here)
or about blackouts here.
Career counseling clients: Six month follow-up
Students who participated in career counseling were recently contacted six
months after their services in the Counseling Office. When career clients first visited the
Clients reported the following
referral sources: Career Counseling brochure posted around campus
(26%), Academic Advising (16%), University Website (10%), Students,
Friends or Family (9%), Placement Office (7%),
Of the students who sought
career counseling 11% were Freshman, 20% Sophomores, 24% Juniors, 23% Seniors,
and fully 23% of the students had accumulated over 120 credit hours. We can see
that over 2/3 represented upperclass students with
nearly a quarter having over 120 hours. This supports the observation
that many advanced students remain unclear about their career goals, and often
wait until late in their college careers before seriously working on refining
their career objectives.
We recognize a need for getting
students to consider career counseling earlier in their college
experience. Efforts in this area include a session at Freshman
Orientation for Undecided Majors, Speaking at Freshman Year Experience (FYE)
Classes about Career Decision Making, mailings to Freshman and Sophomores, and
articles directed toward faculty and staff describing the important role they
can play in this process.
Clients were asked how focused their career plans were,
after six months, using the following scale:
|
1 |
3 |
5 |
|
Less Focused |
About the same |
More focused |
* their average rating was 4.0.
They were also asked how valuable they felt the career
counseling was for them. Again, a
similar scale was used.
|
1 |
3 |
5 |
|
Not valuable |
Somewhat valuable |
Very valuable |
* their average rating was close to 4.0.
Currently, another six month
survey is underway. It is our hope that the information generated will
continue to help us improve our Career Counseling service. For more
information about career counseling services, contact David Helfand in the Counseling Office (ext.
4652) or call the main office line at ext. 4650.
How to contact us
- You can contact the Counseling Office by phone at ext 4650 or 773.442.4650, email or by stopping in to the office (D-024)
- And browse our previous newsletters... Fall 2006 ~ Spring 2007 ~ Fall 2007
Published Jan.2008