Spring Break
The Daily OrangeThe task at hand
University accelerates efforts of task force focusing on campus mental health services
By Dara Kahn
Posted: 10/23/07, 12:42 AM EST Section: News
The breakdown of Virginia Tech's mental health system - including Seung-Hui Cho's treatment, communication among staff and problems with confidentiality issue - has led colleges nationwide to re-examine the effectiveness and reach of their mental health programs.
Syracuse University will launch a Task Force on Student Mental Health Concerns by the end of the semester, advancing efforts to conduct a campus-wide review by a year. While specifics have not yet been decided, the task force will be led by Anastasia Urtz, dean of students, and will include a half-dozen SU offices as well as student representatives.
"Anything they can do to help students who are struggling, who are having any kind of difficulties, would be great," said Valerie Kotyra, a Solvay resident. Kotyra's daughter, Rebecca Caraway, committed suicide in 1999 by jumping off a bridge. She was an SU junior at the time.
Urtz said she plans to have the task force organized by the end of the semester, most likely a small steering committee with numerous subcommittees, and to have a final report written "by the time students leave in May."
"We're looking to focus our energy on looking very broadly at our mental health support systems for students," Urtz said in reference to the new task force. "We've reviewed the Virginia Tech panel report and have started looking at our own programs internally."
Such a task force had been in the works well before the Virginia Tech shootings.
In the Division of Student Affairs' Strategic Plan for 2007 to 2012, a Task Force on Student Mental Health Concerns was to be established by fall 2008. Immediately after Virginia Tech, however, with the encouragement of Chancellor Nancy Cantor, the deadline to establish the task force was pushed up to fall 2007.
"With the task force, we will examine whether those systems are providing the best reinforcement for one another without encroaching too much on one another's authority or areas of responsibility," Urtz said in regards to the various departments involved in providing mental health services at SU.
According to the Strategic Plan, the task force will address issues concerning alcohol, drug abuse and related violence; suicidal and other self-injurious behaviors as well as student psychiatric, mental health and disability issues.
Student Affairs, the Dean of Students Office, the Counseling Center, Health Services, Judicial Affairs, the Office of Prevention Services (OPS) and the Office of Residence Life will participate.
The first focus should be "educating the task force members about the current state of mental health on our campus and nationally," said Rebecca Dayton, director of the Counseling Center. "I don't believe you can bring all these people together and they may not even know what's going on with mental health these days."
Urtz also wants students to participate.
"Students are able to ripen up the issues - they make us relevant, and they can evaluate solutions," Urtz said. "A strategy that might be just perfect for another institution might be a disaster on our campus. Our students are the ones who really craft that for us ultimately."
This recent renewed focus on mental health programs, though it arose from a tragedy, has produced a "call for college mental health centers to be more comprehensive," Dayton said. "It's not solely the responsibility of just the Counseling Center to be attending to the mental health concerns anymore. It has to be a collaborative approach."
When mental health programs fail
In Kotyra's living room in Solvay, a life-size colored pencil portrait of Caraway, done by a local artist, stands on an easel in the corner. It is a colorful, constant reminder of her daughter.
"She totally captured my daughter," Kotyra said.
Her daughter, Caraway, struggled with managing her depression when she got to college. Kotyra said her daughter had acted differently in the months leading up to her death. She was not acting like herself. While Kotyra does not blame the university for her daughter's death, she sometimes wonders what would have happened had Caraway's treatment been different.
One day in 1999, Kotyra called Caraway's therapist at the Counseling Center to find out what was going on with her daughter. At the time, Caraway was 23 years old.
"There was a verbal agreement that (the therapist) could talk with me," Kotyra said. "She stood beside me and gave her verbal consent, and he still would not talk to me. It was almost like she was standing there pleading with me for help. I was asking her therapist for help, but he was refusing it because of the whole confidentiality thing."
On Sept. 18, 1999, Caraway's 24th birthday, she was still not acting like herself. By this time, Caraway had moved back to her home in Solvay.
Kotyra said she tried calling all of the hospitals in Syracuse to find someone willing to come talk to her daughter, but she was continuously told that no such service was offered.
After finally getting in touch with the crisis outreach mobile unit at St. Joseph's Hospital, she found it was closed for the weekend. She left a message. On Monday morning, they called back.
"I told them it was too late, she was already dead," Kotyra said. "My daughter could have been saved."
Caraway had jumped off a bridge.
"When I went to see her therapist after her death, he told me he never got any idea whatsoever that she was going to take her own life," Kotyra said. "He thought things were going fine in their sessions."
SU takes confidentiality laws very seriously, though safety always comes first, Dayton, director of the Counseling Center, said.
"The counseling relationship is confidential to everyone. … Parents, teachers, everyone," Dayton said. "Having said that, if a student is a direct threat to someone else or a direct threat to themselves, there are ways that we can 'break confidentiality' in order to protect the safety of the student. We can talk to anyone as long as a student gives us permission."
Dayton said, however, that the release has to be written and signed - it can't be a verbal release.
The Independent Virginia Tech Incident Review Panel, established by Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine three days after the shootings, conducted a thorough review of all the factors that led up to the shootings, revealing enlightening information about college mental health programs.
In terms of mental health, the panel discovered that Cho had exhibited signs of mental health problems throughout childhood and had received private psychiatric and counseling services for them. At Virginia Tech, "numerous incidents occurred that were clear warnings of mental instability," according to the panel's summary of key findings.
One of the main discoveries was that "although various individuals and departments within the university knew about each of these incidents, no one connected all the dots."
The lack of communication among departments throughout campus was probably one of the largest failures in the school's response to the incident, according to the panel's review.
"We learned from Virginia Tech that many times faculty members in different departments may have an understanding of the situation, but they don't necessarily know one another," Urtz said. "They may or may not have a clear understanding of the broader systems in place."
The panel also found that when Cho had utilized services at the Cook Counseling Center, "the system failed for lack of resources, incorrect interpretation of privacy laws and passivity."
Staff members at the Cook Counseling Center at Virginia Tech declined to comment.
Mental health at SU
At SU, departments and groups throughout campus work together in an attempt to provide comprehensive mental health services, administrators said.
But with the task force, Urtz said these services will be further analyzed.
"We think we have very strong programs right now," Urtz said. But with the task force, she plans to discuss whether there are "things we might bring into the system we haven't implemented previously. Are there other relationships we need to build, are there better systems we can put in place, how are we working with our entire campus population?"
For students who live in residence halls, the Office of Residence Life is the first line of defense.
"We are the first line in many cases. We're the voice of the student," said Robin Berkowitz-Smith, ORL associate director. More than 6,000 SU students live in residence halls.
Residence directors, assistant residence directors and residence advisers are trained during the summer concerning how to deal with a distressed student.
"For example, a student may have some suicidal thoughts, typically a friend or roommate gets wind of that and they can go to an RA," Berkowitz-Smith said.
There are specific protocols, initially established through the Dean of Students office that outline how to deal with these types of situation in a residence hall setting, "designed to give students the resources and help they need at the time," Berkowitz-Smith said.
While staff from the Counseling Center and the Department of Public Safety trains the residence hall staff, she said the students themselves are encouraged to alert their residence advisers if such a situation arises, advising the student not to deal with it alone.
"We don't want them to have to deal with that themselves," Berkowitz-Smith said.
At Cornell University, the residence hall staff is also trained by counseling staff. Last year, about 3,000 students utilized their counseling services, with more than 20,000 visits, said Greg Eells, director of counseling and psychological services at Cornell. It has about 30 staff members working at that office.
Whether a student is brought to Counseling Services at SU because of a situation at his or her residence hall, self-referral or recommendation, Counseling Services staff members said they are well-equipped to handle students' needs.
Originally, the Counseling Center had four full-time staff, before hiring three more employees. But in 2002, when it moved to its current location at 200 Waverly Ave., the center received four new therapists, more operating money and the new building. The Counseling Center currently has 11 therapists and a part-time psychiatric independent consultant, Dayton said.
At SU, with 11 therapists, Dayton said 1,488 students utilized the Counseling Center last year.
Kotyra, the mother of SU student who committed suicide, said the most important thing for a student is finding a good fit personality-wise between the therapist and student.
"Becky said that she couldn't open up to (her therapist) and she couldn't be honest with him," Kotyra said.
At OPS, students who have experienced sexual violence or who have drug or alcohol abuse problems can also come for help. Often, students who go to OPS may get referred to the Counseling Center or Health Services, and vice versa.
"The opportunity that arises out of Virginia Tech and other crises is to be able to say, 'Not only do these two subjects have something to do with mental health, but we need to be taking a look at mental health overall,'" said Sarah Mart, OPS director.
Kotyra said it is better to start the task force now more than never.
Syracuse University will launch a Task Force on Student Mental Health Concerns by the end of the semester, advancing efforts to conduct a campus-wide review by a year. While specifics have not yet been decided, the task force will be led by Anastasia Urtz, dean of students, and will include a half-dozen SU offices as well as student representatives.
"Anything they can do to help students who are struggling, who are having any kind of difficulties, would be great," said Valerie Kotyra, a Solvay resident. Kotyra's daughter, Rebecca Caraway, committed suicide in 1999 by jumping off a bridge. She was an SU junior at the time.
Urtz said she plans to have the task force organized by the end of the semester, most likely a small steering committee with numerous subcommittees, and to have a final report written "by the time students leave in May."
"We're looking to focus our energy on looking very broadly at our mental health support systems for students," Urtz said in reference to the new task force. "We've reviewed the Virginia Tech panel report and have started looking at our own programs internally."
Such a task force had been in the works well before the Virginia Tech shootings.
In the Division of Student Affairs' Strategic Plan for 2007 to 2012, a Task Force on Student Mental Health Concerns was to be established by fall 2008. Immediately after Virginia Tech, however, with the encouragement of Chancellor Nancy Cantor, the deadline to establish the task force was pushed up to fall 2007.
"With the task force, we will examine whether those systems are providing the best reinforcement for one another without encroaching too much on one another's authority or areas of responsibility," Urtz said in regards to the various departments involved in providing mental health services at SU.
According to the Strategic Plan, the task force will address issues concerning alcohol, drug abuse and related violence; suicidal and other self-injurious behaviors as well as student psychiatric, mental health and disability issues.
Student Affairs, the Dean of Students Office, the Counseling Center, Health Services, Judicial Affairs, the Office of Prevention Services (OPS) and the Office of Residence Life will participate.
The first focus should be "educating the task force members about the current state of mental health on our campus and nationally," said Rebecca Dayton, director of the Counseling Center. "I don't believe you can bring all these people together and they may not even know what's going on with mental health these days."
Urtz also wants students to participate.
"Students are able to ripen up the issues - they make us relevant, and they can evaluate solutions," Urtz said. "A strategy that might be just perfect for another institution might be a disaster on our campus. Our students are the ones who really craft that for us ultimately."
This recent renewed focus on mental health programs, though it arose from a tragedy, has produced a "call for college mental health centers to be more comprehensive," Dayton said. "It's not solely the responsibility of just the Counseling Center to be attending to the mental health concerns anymore. It has to be a collaborative approach."
When mental health programs fail
In Kotyra's living room in Solvay, a life-size colored pencil portrait of Caraway, done by a local artist, stands on an easel in the corner. It is a colorful, constant reminder of her daughter.
"She totally captured my daughter," Kotyra said.
Her daughter, Caraway, struggled with managing her depression when she got to college. Kotyra said her daughter had acted differently in the months leading up to her death. She was not acting like herself. While Kotyra does not blame the university for her daughter's death, she sometimes wonders what would have happened had Caraway's treatment been different.
One day in 1999, Kotyra called Caraway's therapist at the Counseling Center to find out what was going on with her daughter. At the time, Caraway was 23 years old.
"There was a verbal agreement that (the therapist) could talk with me," Kotyra said. "She stood beside me and gave her verbal consent, and he still would not talk to me. It was almost like she was standing there pleading with me for help. I was asking her therapist for help, but he was refusing it because of the whole confidentiality thing."
On Sept. 18, 1999, Caraway's 24th birthday, she was still not acting like herself. By this time, Caraway had moved back to her home in Solvay.
Kotyra said she tried calling all of the hospitals in Syracuse to find someone willing to come talk to her daughter, but she was continuously told that no such service was offered.
After finally getting in touch with the crisis outreach mobile unit at St. Joseph's Hospital, she found it was closed for the weekend. She left a message. On Monday morning, they called back.
"I told them it was too late, she was already dead," Kotyra said. "My daughter could have been saved."
Caraway had jumped off a bridge.
"When I went to see her therapist after her death, he told me he never got any idea whatsoever that she was going to take her own life," Kotyra said. "He thought things were going fine in their sessions."
SU takes confidentiality laws very seriously, though safety always comes first, Dayton, director of the Counseling Center, said.
"The counseling relationship is confidential to everyone. … Parents, teachers, everyone," Dayton said. "Having said that, if a student is a direct threat to someone else or a direct threat to themselves, there are ways that we can 'break confidentiality' in order to protect the safety of the student. We can talk to anyone as long as a student gives us permission."
Dayton said, however, that the release has to be written and signed - it can't be a verbal release.
The Independent Virginia Tech Incident Review Panel, established by Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine three days after the shootings, conducted a thorough review of all the factors that led up to the shootings, revealing enlightening information about college mental health programs.
In terms of mental health, the panel discovered that Cho had exhibited signs of mental health problems throughout childhood and had received private psychiatric and counseling services for them. At Virginia Tech, "numerous incidents occurred that were clear warnings of mental instability," according to the panel's summary of key findings.
One of the main discoveries was that "although various individuals and departments within the university knew about each of these incidents, no one connected all the dots."
The lack of communication among departments throughout campus was probably one of the largest failures in the school's response to the incident, according to the panel's review.
"We learned from Virginia Tech that many times faculty members in different departments may have an understanding of the situation, but they don't necessarily know one another," Urtz said. "They may or may not have a clear understanding of the broader systems in place."
The panel also found that when Cho had utilized services at the Cook Counseling Center, "the system failed for lack of resources, incorrect interpretation of privacy laws and passivity."
Staff members at the Cook Counseling Center at Virginia Tech declined to comment.
Mental health at SU
At SU, departments and groups throughout campus work together in an attempt to provide comprehensive mental health services, administrators said.
But with the task force, Urtz said these services will be further analyzed.
"We think we have very strong programs right now," Urtz said. But with the task force, she plans to discuss whether there are "things we might bring into the system we haven't implemented previously. Are there other relationships we need to build, are there better systems we can put in place, how are we working with our entire campus population?"
For students who live in residence halls, the Office of Residence Life is the first line of defense.
"We are the first line in many cases. We're the voice of the student," said Robin Berkowitz-Smith, ORL associate director. More than 6,000 SU students live in residence halls.
Residence directors, assistant residence directors and residence advisers are trained during the summer concerning how to deal with a distressed student.
"For example, a student may have some suicidal thoughts, typically a friend or roommate gets wind of that and they can go to an RA," Berkowitz-Smith said.
There are specific protocols, initially established through the Dean of Students office that outline how to deal with these types of situation in a residence hall setting, "designed to give students the resources and help they need at the time," Berkowitz-Smith said.
While staff from the Counseling Center and the Department of Public Safety trains the residence hall staff, she said the students themselves are encouraged to alert their residence advisers if such a situation arises, advising the student not to deal with it alone.
"We don't want them to have to deal with that themselves," Berkowitz-Smith said.
At Cornell University, the residence hall staff is also trained by counseling staff. Last year, about 3,000 students utilized their counseling services, with more than 20,000 visits, said Greg Eells, director of counseling and psychological services at Cornell. It has about 30 staff members working at that office.
Whether a student is brought to Counseling Services at SU because of a situation at his or her residence hall, self-referral or recommendation, Counseling Services staff members said they are well-equipped to handle students' needs.
Originally, the Counseling Center had four full-time staff, before hiring three more employees. But in 2002, when it moved to its current location at 200 Waverly Ave., the center received four new therapists, more operating money and the new building. The Counseling Center currently has 11 therapists and a part-time psychiatric independent consultant, Dayton said.
At SU, with 11 therapists, Dayton said 1,488 students utilized the Counseling Center last year.
Kotyra, the mother of SU student who committed suicide, said the most important thing for a student is finding a good fit personality-wise between the therapist and student.
"Becky said that she couldn't open up to (her therapist) and she couldn't be honest with him," Kotyra said.
At OPS, students who have experienced sexual violence or who have drug or alcohol abuse problems can also come for help. Often, students who go to OPS may get referred to the Counseling Center or Health Services, and vice versa.
"The opportunity that arises out of Virginia Tech and other crises is to be able to say, 'Not only do these two subjects have something to do with mental health, but we need to be taking a look at mental health overall,'" said Sarah Mart, OPS director.
Kotyra said it is better to start the task force now more than never.
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