Responding to Students in Personal Crisis

- Responding to Students in Personal Crisis -

Staff & Faculty Guidelines

 

Students in personal crisis may seek assistance in any department or service across campus.  Successfully assessing and managing these crises may require interdepartmental cooperation.  While privacy and confidentiality guidelines may be different for each area and must be respected, they generally permit the sharing of critical information not only with the student in distress, but also among the key responders.

When dealing with a student in crisis, a staff or faculty member should:

• Inform the student of the relevant services both on and off-campus, e.g. Counselling, Health, Accessible Learning.
• Encourage the student to use these services on an ongoing basis, as needed.
• In the case of on-campus referrals, share background or follow-up information with the service providers.
• Even when the student does not appear ready to access on-campus resources, inform relevant services of the crisis circumstances in order to facilitate university response planning.
• Call 911 or Security in situations that appear to be critical, e.g. when the student is not able or willing to provide some assurance or plan for short-term safety.

Professional service units may in turn share critical information or advice to select crisis responders:

• When written consent has been given to that service by the student.
• Or without consent, when the student or others are in immediate physical danger.
• Or when advice or expertise may be shared with other service providers or concerned parties on campus, without attribution to confidential information.

Professional service providers may share information or advice about a student in crisis with a parent or significant other:

• When consent has been given by the student to share confidential information.
• Or when nonconfidential information, advice or expertise may be helpful to the off-campus parties concerned.

Other administrative staff on campus may have different guidelines that permit or require notification of a parent, next of kin or designated contact person regarding some crisis circumstances.