Speaker 1: Once you have determined that making a referral to Counseling and Career Services is your next step, there are a few things to keep in mind to guide you. While most of these will happen naturally without you having to give much thought to it, it's still helpful to identify some key steps in making a referral. While we will go over these in a bit more detail in a moment, it may be helpful to simply name these steps. First, acknowledge the struggling. Second, assess their familiarity with our services. Briefly describe Counseling and Career Services. Assess their interest in exploring our services. Provide encouragement to utilize this campus resource, and to connect them with our services. This first step, acknowledge that they are struggling, helps contain your referral in a context that justifies the referral. It is not necessary to specify the struggle, and it's especially important to refrain from using any diagnostic language or suggesting a diagnostic term such as depression or OCD or an eating disorder. In fact, it is enough and it is helpful to simply acknowledge you're going through a difficult time. Sometimes noting the impact of the struggle can be helpful and motivating, such as observing you've started missing class, or you've not been able to complete your assignments, or some other work or co-curricular obligation the student may have, and that the struggle may be jeopardizing their academic or life goals. Sometimes, students will reveal that they have been struggling for a while or even for several years, often as a way to minimize their need for help. It can be helpful to acknowledge or inquire if they are struggling a bit more than usual lately. Often, a good segue to actually making the referral is to simply ask if the student is familiar with our resources. It also does not presume that the student isn't already seeking services, allowing them an opportunity to share that with you. Simply ask, are you familiar with Counseling and Career Services? If they are not, simply refer to it as the Counseling Center at Oxford College, noting that most colleges have a center like this for their students. It can sometimes be helpful, especially for students who may be reluctant to seek therapy, to let them know that we provide both counseling and consultation, allowing them to consider a more tentative use of our services. It's also important to ensure they know that there are no costs beyond what they've already paid through their tuition and fees. There are a number of different ways to narrate our services. A broad description of our services that simply refers to a student having a difficult time might be most effective. If they ask, it's okay to list the various specific services, Individual Counseling, Group Counseling for students with certain interests, Psychiatric Assessment for students taking or wanting to consider medication, and Consultation for students who want to learn more about something they are struggling with but not interested in ongoing counseling, at least not at this time. An effective and simple way to assess the student's interest or comfort in accessing Counseling Services is to simply ask them, is taking advantage of using our Counseling Services something they would consider? If the answer is yes, then simply ask the practical question, do you know where they are and how to make an appointment? Let them know we are in Murdy Hall, a separate office but in the same location as Student Health Services. If the answer is no, or they indicate they would not likely use our services, it's okay if not helpful to inquire, respectfully, what keeps you from using that resource, to help them think about how prudent their decision making is. It is important though to maintain a tone of curiosity rather than disagreement. This can lead to some important information about the student's preconceptions about counseling, depending on how they respond, but it can also prompt the student to engage in some critical thinking about their decision making. If the answer remains no, or they hint at being unlikely to use our services, do not engage in trying to persuade them or pressure them to use our services. Rather, invite them or request to at least learn a little bit more about Counseling and Career Services. You might even say, do me a favor, at least see if you can find out a little bit more about their services in case you have some misconceptions. And be sure to remind them that they don't necessarily have to engage in counseling, they can simply request a consultation to talk more about our services, if that might help them make a more informed decision. Regardless of how they respond, provide the student with some encouragement to take advantage of this and other campus resources. For counseling, remind them of any positive interactions you've had with Counseling and Career Services staff members or anything positive you may have heard about our services. And finally, make the referral, whether they have a tentative plan to explore our services or an agreement to take advantage of our services. Emphasize that phoning or stopping by is needed in order to make an appointment. In other words, clarify that email tends to lead to delays in getting scheduled. You can offer them the half-sheet card describing our services that was handed out at the training or the small business card that was handed out that actually conveys the spirit of what we have to offer as well as briefly describing our services, including our location, phone number and business hours. Also, encourage them to visit the Inside Oxford pages of our website here at Oxford and to click on the Mental Health Services section of our website. And finally, be prepared to answer some common questions that students may have. Visit our website at the Inside Oxford pages and click on our FAQ page to be better prepared to answer the questions that students may ask. Referrals can come from any campus partners, including faculty and instructors, administrators, campus life or other professionals. Keep in mind that making a referral reflects a caring professional and prudent decision making to get the students the help they may need. Thank you for helping make this a more supportive campus.