The Gift of a Student’s Trust
Monica Osburn is executive director of the Counseling Center, where thousands of students turn each year to find help with anxiety, depression and other problems.
莫妮卡·奥斯本（Monica Osburn）与大流行一样困难，但有一些优势。
The executive director of theCounseling Center说，切换到远程医疗被证明受到学生的欢迎，吸引了那些原本不会使用其服务的人。学生可以在自己舒适，熟悉的环境中向辅导员开放辅导员，当您不必戴口罩时，会更容易说话。
There have been some challenges as well. More students means a bigger workload. The Counseling Center offers on-call and crisis support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even when the university itself is closed. Burnout is real, and staff have to balance taking care of students with taking care of themselves. But knowing they are helping students keeps them going.
奥斯本说：“当您与学生见面，他们信任您足以分享他们最低的低点，最恐怖的困扰，最痛苦的经历，这是有些珍贵的。”“事情并不能在一夜之间变得完美，但是与他们的关系知道他们将您作为支持成为他们继续前进并尝试新事物的动力。当他们开始建立成功时？没有更好的感觉。”
找到合适的护理
Amid all the changes the pandemic wrought over the past couple of years, there was one constant: the reasons why students come to the Counseling Center.
“抑郁，焦虑和关系问题，”奥斯本说。“抑郁和焦虑触摸几年是第一个，第二，但它们通常是年复一年的。我们每年运行这些数据，每年都会告诉我们同样的事情。”
来到咨询中心的学生填写了文书工作，其中包括描述自己的感受。压力是一个普遍的主题，但这并不能说明完整的故事。丧失动力，放松，赛车思想和难以呼吸的问题表明问题更深。
一旦学生完成文书工作，该中心将进行虚拟分类，优先考虑最需要帮助的人。虽然有些学生可以安排约会，但另一些学生需要立即护理。
奥斯本说：“遇险和风险之间有很大的差异，我们两者都看着两者。”“如果他们处于高度困扰状态，我们可能仍然很快就会看到他们。但是，如果它们的风险很高，我们肯定会这样做。积极有自杀想法的学生是高风险。如果分诊辅导员认为他们需要安全计划或立即评估以减轻风险，他们会立即将他们交给另一位临床医生，如果需要的话，他们将整个下午都坐在他们身边。”
咨询中心因其计划而紧急任命，并且总会有人有职责。但是那些老虎机用完了。
“我们有30天,40岁,50岁nique students — brand new, never come to the Counseling Center — initiate services,” says Osburn, who jumps in to provide counseling when needed. “If you’ve got 50 new people coming in a day, you’re going to get really full really fast.”
Over 5,000 unique students came to the center in the 2021-22 academic year, on par with the year before. With only 50 or so people available to provide clinical services, it’s impossible for every student to receive individual counseling. The center uses a “stepped care model” to guide students toward resources that can help them faster, such as online self-help guides; workshops on handling anxiety, building positive relationships and other issues; and group therapy on specific topics such as binge eating and perfectionism.
Ideally, Osburn says, students would come to college already armed with skills to help them cope with challenges they’ll face on campus.
她说：“我认为需要发生的事情是，我们研究可能在上游发生的干预措施。”“在学者方面，我们可以教什么与应对焦虑或压力的学生有关的学生？How can we promote wellness, self-care and environments that are supportive and collaborative for the student as opposed to, by the time they get to us, them feeling isolated and not having the tools to even know where to start to tackle what they’re feeling?”
伙伴in Wellness
NC State并不是唯一一所对精神卫生服务需求的大学。大学心理健康中心（CCMH）在其2021年的年度报告中指出，对大学咨询服务的需求在过去二十年中一直飙升。抑郁症和普遍的焦虑在2020 - 21年升级，但学术困扰增加了。个人治疗的平均长度从2019 - 20年的4.35个任命增加到2020 - 21年的5.22个任命。
The Counseling Center would benefit from more clinicians, Osburn says, but “upstream interventions” that help students before they need the center make a difference — even if that’s just talking to students who seem troubled or stressed. Encouragement from a faculty member can give a student a much-needed confidence boost. Students experiencing food or housing insecurity can find help through喂包食品储藏室或大学住房。
“How can we all be stronger partners in supporting student wellness?” Osburn asks. “I would love for us as a community — and not just NC State as a community but the greater world — to open up those conversations and not be afraid to check in on another person and say, ‘Hey, I noticed you’re not yourself. What’s going on? What do you need? How can I help? You’re worth it.’ It goes a long way.”
