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Barry's Corner


April 2008

Heya All! I have gotten lots of questions about the ways and whys of Counseling and Mental Health Services. A question I have had a few times and a chat I recently had with some concerned parents spurs this month’s Corner Comment. The question is: Why does CMHS hospitalize students?

It is a very good question and raises the general question as to why we would ever decide that someone needs to leave campus and go to the hospital for any number of days. Sometimes we have to send a student to the hospital even when the student doesn’t want to go. Connecticut State law allows us, under certain circumstances, to send someone to the hospital against their will, aka “involuntarily.” I suppose this all sounds very “One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest.” Though it may sound that way, it really is not like that at all.

Well, let’s get down to brass tacks then, as they say. Sometimes students come to us and after working them, we determine they are either an immediate danger to themselves or to others. This takes the form, most usually, of the student not only feeling suicidal, but having some good ideas about how and when they will kill themselves. If the student cannot plan with us to protect their safety, they are typically gonna soon be hospital bound. The same would be the case, though it thankfully occurs much less frequently, if the student threatens to hurt someone else. We also sometimes determine that a student is what the State of Connecticut defines as “gravely disabled.” If this sounds bad, it’s because it is. Gravely disabled is when we believe a student is not caring for their own basic needs, such as eating, sleeping, bathing and their judgment and ability to make decisions is so impaired that we do not think they can maintain themselves at healthy levels. We do not often have to do this, but on occasion we do.

Now, on the flip side of this is that it is not at all uncommon that students feel so worried about themselves that when we bring up the idea of the hospital, the student wants to go. This is because they know they will be cared for, they can get away from the pressures of school for a little bit, and treatment will be quite intensive to bring them back to a better emotional stability. We ask students to view their time at the hospital as a time to really release and allow themselves to be cared for. It is a time to reflect on the serious concerns they are having so they can seek the most assistance to better themselves for their return to school or a return home.

So, what the heck happens when students go to the hospital? Well, folks will typically go to Manchester Hospital in Manchester or to Natchaug Hospital in Mansfield where the very good folks at both places will do a full physical and mental assessment. The student then is admitted to the inpatient ward where the stay can be up to week, but usually it is for less, like 3-5 days. The stay involves day long therapy sessions individually and in groups, medication assessment and monitoring, other activities to keep busy, and a very structured and guided environment all day long. After the hospital determines the student is ready to leave, we work with the hospital to make decisions about will happen next. We usually schedule the student to come back to CMHS for ongoing therapy, but sometimes the best decision is to go home or seek much greater level of care than what we can provide. Usually, it all goes rather smoothly. And the transition back to campus or elsewhere is mostly seamless. We work with the Office of Student Services and Advocacy to make sure the student’s academics are attended to while the student is away. We can also contact the Residence Halls so that the student is not seen as missing.

In this day and age that we live in on college campuses, be rest assured that when we have concerns about someone’s safety and well being and we have to make a decision, we are going to more typically over-react to recommend the highest level of care we can. If it proves to be too much, then we will step up and own our part of it. But we would rather over-react on your behalf then under react, as the aftermath of under reacting can be much more dire. So, that’s the scoop on hospitals. How many times a year do we do this? I’d say about a couple dozen times a year. Still, far and above, most folks on our campus care for themselves quite well, even in more difficult circumstances. But on those occasions, when they do not, we will be there and will make our best decisions to provide the best level of care we can.

I’m hoping the rest of the semester will go by with everyone doing well and finishing their year successfully. If you get thinking about it in these final week and you have questions about this Corner Comment of others, please do not hesitate to contact me at barry@uconn.edu.

 
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