A Simple and Effective Program to Increase Faculty Knowledge of and Referrals to Counseling Centers

The authors describe a simple, cost-effective, and empirically supported program to increase faculty referrals of students to counseling centers (CCs). Incoming faculty members at 3 universities received a mailing and personal telephone call from a CC staff member. Faculty assigned to the outreach program had greater knowledge of and rates of referral to CCs than did faculty who received only standard information at faculty orientation. Recommendations for the implementation of this program are discussed. ********** Because students often lack awareness of available counseling center (CC) services (e.g., Heppner & Neal, 1983), referrals from university personnel may be necessary to connect distressed students with such services. Ellingson, Kochenour, and Weitzman (1999) described a CC's outreach program to academic departments, which was designed in response to the observation that faculty members frequently are the only university personnel to hear of student problems, perhaps because students often confide to faculty in situations in which grades may be affected. Given this privileged faculty role, it is important that faculty have the information and skills to direct students to services offered by the university CC. Evidence, however, suggests that faculty are unlikely to refer students reporting distress (e.g., Bishop, 1986; Lott, Ness, Alcorn, & Greer, 1999), most likely because they lack information about available resources. Several researchers have documented faculty members' lack of awareness of CC services for students (e.g., Bishop, 1986; Sharkin, Scappaticci, & Birkey, 1995). Johnson, Nelson, and Wooden (1985) found that faculty members were only slightly better informed than were students. For example, faculty knew little about counselor credentials. Although the typical counselor degree was a doctorate, the modal guess was a master's. In fact, a number of faculty members guessed that the typical degree was an associate's degree, a dated, but telling, finding. Despite a clear need for increased faculty awareness of CCs, suggestions for and research on programs to educate faculty are limited. To our knowledge, Ellingson et al.'s (1999) laudable outreach program, in which CC staff liaisons are provided for each university department, is the only study to address this problem. However, they used neither control groups nor evaluation measures to assess effectiveness and reported only the number of departments and faculty members contacted rather than specific outcomes. CC Faculty Awareness Program Faculty and CC personnel at three universities developed an outreach program in response to a pilot study that indicated faculty's lack of awareness of CC services for students. It was postulated that direct contact from CC staff via both campus mail and telephone would lead to increased awareness of services and increased referrals of students. The program described in this article was targeted at new faculty members and was, by design, separate from orientation programs that typically include a CC brochure, often the only CC information these individuals received, within a large packet of materials. The outreach program was implemented at least 1 week postorientation to give faculty time to absorb the plethora of orientation information. New full-time faculty members were identified via academic deans. Targeted faculty members were sent, through campus mail, a packet that included a letter, brochure, and faculty guide. The letter, hand-signed by the CC director, described the importance of CCs, the documented tendency of faculty not to refer, and information about the university's own CC. The brochure for each institution provided information about the CC, including its mission, services, and contact information. Finally, the faculty guide provided information on student symptoms that might warrant referral, as well as specific information on how to refer students for counseling. …