How do campuses respond to students with mental issues?

[Roger Steven]

Perhaps no educational campus is free of students with some or another kind of mental or emotional issues. Considering the wide diversity of students that enroll into American colleges and the varied backgrounds they come from; it is no surprise that American colleges will have to deal with such students.

There is a need for institutions that come across students with emotional or mental issues to learn to deal with the issue. While on the one hand, administrators of educational institutions need to lend a patient ear to address the needs of such students; on the other, they need to ensure that the campus is secure and safe for other students.

The institution faces serious challenges when students with emotional issues start causing disruptions for others. When these students are prone to bouts of violence and disorder; they are sources of discomfort to other students. This behavior could affect the peace in the institution and is a cause for anxiety in them. One of the ill desired consequences of such behavior could be student dropouts, which affects the reputation of the institution badly.

Get to learn the ways of dealing with the issue

This crucial topic will be explained in depth at a highly educative webinar from MentorHealth, a leading provider of professional trainings for the healthcare industry. At this session, Aaron Hughey, who is a Professor in the Department of Counseling and Student Affairs at Western Kentucky University and has developed and implemented numerous workforce development initiatives over the last thirty years with local and regional companies, agencies and organizations; will be the speaker at this webinar.

Anyone in higher education who is involved in meeting the needs of students with mental health diagnoses and/or responding to unfortunate events precipitated by these individuals can get insights into how to manage these situations better by registering for this event.

A description of how to deal with a traumatic event

Aaron will explain what administrators, faculty and staff can do to meet the needs of students with mental health diagnoses better. He will also describe what can be done to assuage the apprehensions of those affected when an unseemly event occurs on campus. The more the college administration understands the characteristics of these students, the trauma they can potentially cause, and the impact it can have on all constituencies present on campus; the better, because this helps them to maintain a safe, secure, and educationally-focused campus environment.

The speaker will also show how to put in place a set of decision-making protocols that enables the efficient identification of risk factors, as well as a coordinated and ultimately successful intervention and recovery. An applications-oriented, hands-on approach to dealing with students with mental health disorders and the traumatic events they can potentially trigger will be offered at this session. With the many years of experience he brings into the topic; Aaron will show how to act in the best interests of both the student(s) involved, as well the campus as a whole.

Resources need to be used properly and optimally

This webinar will elaborate on the many resources that are available at educational institutions for dealing with students with mental and emotional issues. However, these systems are rarely used by the student community, mainly because of the understandable stigma of being branded mentally unstable. They could also be short of using these resources because of lack of sufficient information about them, or not being thoroughly told about their uses.

Aaron will emphasize the ways by which to respond to undesirable and disturbing events at the campus and suggest ways by which to respond effectively by being amiable to both the person with the issue and the ones affected by his/her behavior. He will explain what steps can be taken to deal with them effectively before they go on to disturb peace in the campus.