My SSP Faculty and Staff Consultation
It is not uncommon for students to disclose concerns they have to faculty and staff, but sometimes those topics pose more of a challenge to respond to. We want to provide support and guidance on handling students who are in distress or disclose a mental health concern. My SSP offers the availability for faculty and staff to receive a consultation with a Student Support Counselors, who can answer questions, provide guidance, or steps on supporting a student concern. The consultation is typically used when a student discloses information through email or another digital form of communication. We will address how to support a student you are meeting with below in the My SSP Assisted Referral section. A consultation can be sought on a variety of student matters, including, but not limited to:
- Supporting distressed or distressing students
- Approaching the topic of support with a student in need
- Delivering difficult news to a student
- Discussing sensitive health topics, e.g. sexual health
- Supporting withdrawn or isolated students
- Developing cultural competencies
If you need a consultation with a Student Support Counselor contact My SSP via the app or by calling them directly at 1-877-376-7896.
My SSP Assisted Referral
As it was mentioned above, faculty and staff are often times the first to notice or know when a student is in distress, so we want to equip you to navigate those situations. Although this may not happen often, we want you to feel prepared and confident if a situation does arise. It is important to note that our goal is to provide some basic skills to help you support students and not an expectation of providing counseling to students in distress. We have created a formula on how to help a student if they come to you with a concern or in distress, see visual below.
If a student needs additional mental health support while you are talking to them you have the option to utilize the assisted referral option through My SSP. The assisted referral option allows professionals the opportunity to facilitate the process of connecting a student in need to a counselor. If you are talking to a student and they agree that talking to a counselor would be helpful, you will obtain a verbal consent to contact My SSP (consent is required to initiate this process). Once permission is obtained you can help them download the My SSP app on their smartphone if they don't have it already. If a student doesn't have a smartphone or is unable to download the app you can provide them with the telephone number to call. Contact with My SSP should always be made through the student's phone. You will be the one to initiate the call with My SSP and share with the representative that you are assisting a student in connecting with a counselor. After you share details with the representative hand the phone back to the student to connect with support. Please make sure you are in a private space to maintain confidentiality and know that the space that is being used for this contact may be occupied for some time, 45 minutes or so, while the student is talking to a counselor.
If a student is not comfortable talking on the phone you can help them download the app and talk to them about the chat feature through the My SSP app or website.
