Hi Rod,
Thanks for sharing this worrisome case. I can see your dilemma but I also
see that this presents an opportunity in life.
You wrote "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."
I would counter that by asking "what do we do as human beings when it
appears that another human being in our proximity has emotional or mental
problems, but we are not sure?"
Along the lines of a recent post from Louis Schmier, I try to act so that I
have as few regrets as possible so that if the next moment is my last, I can
minimize the "if only I had..."-feeling. I feel dishonest when fail to act
or at least inquire about the need for assistance, when I perceive the
potential need for it.
Without even considering friends/relatives, over the course of my adult life
I have gone up to many strangers who appeared outwardly in distress. As you
can imagine, I have sometimes come away feeling foolish (the old woman who
fell turned out to emit a 5-foot radius of liquor fumes and had passed out;
the young man on the beach said he was fine!--despite the sobbing). But many
more times I have been "reinforced": the old man at the market turned out to
be lost and his daughter confirmed he had Alzheimer's after I drove him home
(using his ID for address); the student who in agitation tried to explain
why he HAD to get a passing grade despite a disintegrating family life until
I asked him if he really felt he deserved such a cruel punishment that he
should force himself to make the attempt rather than to say "not this
semester" (it had never occurred to him that he only had to please himself).
In short, though I have often apologized in advance for intruding into
someone's privacy by asking questions (and reminding them that I have no
"legitimate" reason for asking), I have never once regretted it. Conversely,
I inevitably regret giving in to my fear and not intruding. In the end, I
have only to answer my own conscience.
Now, having said that, if a student of *mine* appears to warrant a clinical
diagnosis (and is not in immediate danger), I make referrals. To me, "doing
the right thing" also means being mindful of "dual relationships." In that
case, doing the right thing means making sure a student knows that I care
enough not to ignore the obvious and then making an appropriate referral.
Best wishes and good luck,
Christian
P.S. Lest anyone think this is altruistic, it's not. It's just that I cannot
STAND that ache in my guts when I don't try to do the right thing but know
in my heart that I should. So you see, it's simply selfishness, really.
Christian Hart, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Department of Behavioral Studies
Santa Monica College
-----Original Message-----
From: Roderick D. Hetzel
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: 10/26/00 12:14 PM
Subject: how to handle a student situation
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)
