Actually, truth be told, after I finished typing my email I had already decided
that I needed to talk to the student. I still sent the email to the list,
though, just to hear other advice or comments.
I have no problem or hesitation asking my clients about suicidal ideation or
self-mutilating behavior, but was a bit hesitant given that I was not in the
role of therapist. This is my first year of full-time teaching and I haven't
had to deal with this issue with students before. I think that the
process of writing the email helped me to put my thoughts into perspective.
Thanks for your feedback!
Rod
Quoting Annette Taylor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> I will read responses with great interest but also was surprised that
> you are a clinician and are asking us. For some reason I have always
> taken these types of questions to the clinicians in our department
> thinking they have the magical training to answer them :-)
>
> Case in point: I had a student write about suicidal thoughts in a
> journal--the intent of the exercise he was doing was to evaluate
> a website! But he picked a website that resonated with some pain
> he had had recently in his life and went off on the tangent for me.
>
> I find those very hard to deal with appropriately and quickly sought
> advice from (1) our clinical folks, (2) our chair, and (3) our
> counseling department--maybe some of those folks, if available to
> you, might be helpful.
>
> annette
>
> On Thu, 26 Oct 2000, Roderick D. Hetzel wrote:
>
> > Hi everyone:
> >
> > I have a question about how to handle a situation. I noticed that one
> > of my teaching assistants (a female undergraduate student) had what
> > appeared to be numerous small cut marks (maybe about one to two inches
> > long) on top of four of her fingers (typically the part of the finger
> > that the wedding ring goes on), as well as small cut marks on the base
> > and side of her palm and the sides of her wrist. These marks only
> > appeared on her right fingers, hand, and wrists. She is right-hand
> > dominant.
> >
> > At first I thought these might have been marks made by a red pen, but on
> > closer inspection they seemed to be cuts. Looks like they might be cuts
> > from a razor blade or other sharp object. The cuts on the wrist are in
> > a lateral direction--they run perpendicular to the direction in which
> > the blood vessels run.
> >
> > I noticed them yesterday and they were still there today, although they
> > were not as noticeable and seemed to have healed some. When I saw them
> > yesterday I asked the student what happened to her hand and wrist. She
> > responded, "Oh, I don't know" and changed the subject. She seems to try
> > to hide these marks a little bit, but I haven't had problems noticing
> > them. This student is very bright, has a lot of responsibility in the
> > program, and has a lot of plans for the future with her career and her
> > boyfriend.
> >
> > My concern is that this student might be involved in self-mutilating
> > behavior. If this were a client of mine, I would not hesitate to ask
> > about it. And I would certainly ask a client if I were to see it.
> > However, because this is a teaching assistant--someone who essentially
> > works for me--I'm not sure how to handle this. It's possible that it is
> > not self-mutiliating behavior, but it raised my clinical antennae and
> > I'm not sure how to proceed. I'm also wondering if I'm reading too much
> > into this. Maybe they were just pen marks, maybe she got the marks for
> > someplace else.
> >
> > I suppose the bigger question here is what do we as faculty do when it
> > appears that our students have emotional or mental problems, but we are
> > not certain.
> >
> > All advice welcome!
> >
> > Rod
> >
> >
> > ___________________________________
> > Roderick D. Hetzel, Ph.D.
> > Rochester Institute of Technology
> > Department of Psychology
> > George Eastman Building
> > 18 Lomb Memorial Drive
> > Rochester, New York 14623
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED] (email)
> >
>
> Annette Taylor, Ph. D.
> Department of Psychology E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> University of San Diego Voice: (619) 260-4006
> 5998 Alcala Park
> San Diego, CA 92110
>
> "Education is one of the few things a person
> is willing to pay for and not get."
> -- W. L. Bryan
>
>
>
___________________________________
Roderick D. Hetzel, Ph.D.
Rochester Institute of Technology
Department of Psychology
George Eastman Building
18 Lomb Memorial Drive
Rochester, New York 14623
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (email)
